The singularity refers to a point in time at which technology will transform society in such far-reaching ways that it will be impossible to conceive of what life was like before the transformation. Or something like that. I actually think reflect about the directions technology is taking us now and then. When you live in Continue Reading »
I recently received the following question from a reader: I just found out that our next-gen cloud-based Help needs to filter content — when our user logs in, she must see only info for the products her company bought AND the role she holds. In your exploration of dynamic help, have you found any out-of-the-box Continue Reading »
One of the pains in tech comm is figuring out a good collaborative authoring to publishing workflow. When you’re authoring content, you’re usually in the figure-it-out mode. You add pieces here and there as you learn how a system works. You gather feedback from subject matter experts, who also add comments, delete or add content, Continue Reading »
Anne Gentle, one of my favorite bloggers, recently wrote about the diverse backgrounds of the technical writers around her — see Developers, Writers, and First Jobs. In her post, she included a job description for a “Microsoft Programming Writer.” It’s kind of a mind-blowing description. Here’s what Microsoft is apparently looking for: You are comfortable Continue Reading »
MindTouch recently released their report about the most influential people in techcomm, and I was happy to rank so high. I’ve had varying reactions to this report for the past several years. The first year MindTouch released the report (2010), I thought it was an ingenious marketing tactic. Within days after the initial release, the company Continue Reading »
If you’re integrating code examples into your technical documentation, a couple of tools can help with this. If you have an online output, you can use Code Prettify (see its Drupal version or WordPress version or regular HTML page version). This module/plugin applies syntax highlighting to your code so that it’s more readable. I usually replace the angle Continue Reading »
I have a few bad habits I’d like to break. One of those habits is crashing on Friday nights. After working all week, I tend to crash around 8pm and let my brain cells go dormant for a few hours watching mindless television. When the morning comes, I open my sleepy eyes and wonder why Continue Reading »
During our move from Utah to California, we had a lot of things to do – preparing our house to rent, packing, loading, driving, finding a place to rent, unpacking, and the million tasks in between, such as researching areas, renting a truck, and navigating directions. As I have four children under the age of Continue Reading »
The most common questions I get on my blog are questions about finding jobs in technical writing. While looking for jobs the other month, I realized a few things that I haven’t actually recommended before. Here are a few notes from my recent job search: Large companies often select candidates to interview based on employee Continue Reading »
Big changes are in store for our family. We’re moving from Utah to California, and I’m starting a new job in Redwood City (which is in the San Francisco Bay area) at a company called Badgeville. Badgeville is one of the leading companies in gamification, which is the practice of incorporating game dynamics and techniques Continue Reading »