In this post I'm putting together a more formal help strategy. In a previous post, I started to explain my approach to help authoring. I'm trying to flesh this out into a more developed and detailed -- but not too long -- statement about how I do help. This information would be useful both to project managers as well as other writers I work with. I would appreciate any feedback. Help Strategies Because users have different skill levels a...
Internet users have grown accustomed to free content. But this is not without its problems. Jeff Chandler used to produce a Weekly WordPress podcast. His last podcast, "I tried," is dated back in December. It's a long, tired explanation about the difficulties of pouring so much energy into an endeavor that has no substantial financial return. As he moves toward marriage and maintains a full-time job, the amount of free time he can devote ...
With my recent reflections on long versus short text, a comment by Michael O'neil made me wonder whether the “reading to do” mode equated with DITA's task type, and whether the “reading to learn” mode equated to DITA's concept type. In researching this, I stumbled across a goldmine of an article on the History of DITA. The article (mostly by Bob Doyle) traces the evolution of structured authoring from its earliest attempts in the 1960s th...
In my previous post ("Less Text, Please"), I argued that users want shorter texts. I also explained how social media and Internet sites have possibly rewired our brains to incline us toward shorter content -- according to some, our gnat-like attention spans can only consume a few short paragraphs before tapping out. The Onion has a great parody of how a single block of uninterrupted text causes mayhem for readers ("Nation Shudders at Larg...
Scott Abel has given me a free ticket for the 2011 Intelligent Content conference to give away on my blog. The Intelligent Content conference is held February 16-18 in Palm Springs, California. To win the ticket, leave a comment on this post explaining what intelligent content is in your own words. Tomorrow morning I'll randomly select one of the comments to win, so be sure to leave your comment sometime today.
Yesterday I had a meeting with some managers about a series of quick reference guides that I had been preparing. If you remember, much of my callout post referred to a strategy about callout design. It was the same project. (The team actually went with bubble callouts rather than my minimalist callouts, but that's another story.) During the meeting, as the team looked at the callouts on the quick reference guides, they felt there was too ...
Lately I've been working on quick reference guides that contain a lot of callouts around screenshots. (By callouts, I mean explanatory text that points to some part of the image.) In trying to come up with the right design for callouts, I surveyed how other authors approached callouts. Below is a sampling of about 14 different approaches to callouts, with my analysis below each example. Some Examples of Callouts Callout example 1 The auth...
You can easily add a calendar to your WordPress site through the ICS Calendar plugin. This plugin pulls in a calendar from google calendar and displays it on a wordpress page using some shortcode. Here's an example of the integration I did for a client. You can also embed a Google calendar directly (example). For more wordpress tips, see my WordPress archive. Hat tip to Glenn Lea for the plugin tip.
Last year I started a series on organizing content that spanned nearly 30 posts. I want to return to this thread with a summary of why findability becomes an issue for technical writers, and what the information paradox is that we encounter. Then, in an usual ethical twist, I'll explain why findability might not actually be an issue. The Documentation Scenario The help scenario starts out innocently enough. As a technical writer, I docume...
In my post on technical writing resolutions, Marcia Johnston commented, "Inspiring. Bravo, Tom, and good luck. Don't know how you do it all." I get that last remark a lot, actually. I don't feel it's deserved. I don't do it all ... not at all. I let so many important activities slip through the cracks. But let me indulge in a fantasy where that remark is actually true. How do I "do it all" -- even just a little? First, a little background...
Sarah O'Keefe at Scriptorium is running a survey on structured authoring. You can take the survey here. Sarah defines authoring as "a publishing workflow that lets you define and automatically enforce consistent organization of information." Typical structured authoring models include DITA, DocBook, S1000D, ATA, and SPL. Flare, Robohelp, wikis, and other help authoring tools and platforms that do not enforce a structure aren't typically c...
I get this kind of question regularly from people who find my blog. I never quite know what to say. Dear Tom, I stumbled upon your blog in search of information about becoming a technical writing. I decided to shoot you a quick email in search of a bit of advice. I have a M.A. degree in English and have been working in education (secondary through college level) for the last 10 years. I've also create...
The Old Testament is not something one typically reviews in a blog post, but I've been reading it for the past year, and I want to write down some of my thoughts about the text. This is, after all, a blog about writing. Where does one even begin? Let's start with purposes, in other words, why I was even reading the Old Testament. In our house we have regular family scripture study and chose to focus on the Old Testament this year. But jus...
I watched an interesting biography about Martin Luther on Netflix while ironing some laundry the other evening. Luther initiated the Reformation of the Catholic Church in the 1500s largely as a reaction against the practice of indulgences (buying forgiveness of sin) that priests carried out. Luther starts his criticism by posting, on a Church door, 95 theses arguing that forgiveness and salvation are free gifts not requiring financial pay...
As 2011 approaches, Lynda at WritingAssist.com encourages technical writers to make technical writing resolutions for the new year: A new year means you get the chance to do things over, to do things better. Whether you've been happy with your technical writing team or you think things should improve, it's time to look back on the past year to see what needs to improve and what needs to be removed from your company for the year ahead...
