I'd Rather Be Writing » dr. explain

Messages from My Tech Comm Sponsors — November 2011

Tom Johnson — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:46:00 +0000

Each technical communication conference I attend, one of the activities that attendees look forward to is strolling through the exhibit hall, perusing the various tech comm booths, picking up freebies and fliers, listening to vendor pitches, and generally taking in the tech comm world of products.

With that in mind, and as an opportunity to give more visibility to my sponsors, I offer a regular “Message from the Sponsors” post. I give each sponsor the opportunity to let my readers know about their products and services. I hope you can think of this post as similar to strolling down a virtual conference exhibit hall (at least a little bit).

Clarify: Image capture, Image editing and Document Authoring – Together at Last

So many of us have suffered through the tedious process of capturing screenshots and posting them into Word or some other text editor. When you’re trying to communicate quickly, this can be like flying down the highway only to get stuck in the worst Los Angeles traffic imaginable.

Clarify removes the traffic jam. With fast and flexible screen capture tools, you can quickly grab multiple images. As you capture the images, Clarify creates a document for you. Everything you need to author your document is right there, including text entry and image annotation tools, such as arrows, boxes, blur, highlight, borders, image resizing, and cropping.

Clarify is great for banging out a quick how-to, providing fast revision notes to a colleague, or for providing application feedback for developers. And at just $29.99, it’s extremely affordable. Clarify is available for both Windows and Mac.

Download a free 14-day trial and see how much more productive you can be when working with an integrated screen capture, image-editing, and document-authoring tool.

Learn about content strategy in technical communication with Scriptorium at LavaCon

Ryan Fulcher, Alan Pringle, and Sarah O’Keefe will be attending LavaCon next week with free chocolate (of course!). Stop by our booth and don’t miss Sarah’s session on content strategy in technical communication. We look forward to seeing you there, or on our next round of webcasts! (Note: After our move, our direct phone numbers changed. Please contact us via 919-481-2701 or 866-605-9677.) For more information about Scriptorium, see http://www.scriptorium.com.

Controlled English with Congree – the New Standard in Technical Writing

Congree is the world’s premier controlled-English authoring assistance software. Working as a plugin to a variety of editing tools, including JustSystems XMetaL, Congree helps you leverage on sentences you and your team have already written, unify your abbreviations, terminology, and acronym usage, and ensure that everything you write conforms to your corporate style guide. Congree functions as a simple plugin, and is both customizable and extremely easy to use. Get the most out of your XML authoring with Congree. Please join our joint webinar with JustSystems on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 by following this link.

Dr.Explain 4.5 released

A new version of likely the most eccentric help file authoring tool, Dr.Explain, has been recently released. A free demo copy of Dr.Explain 4.5 is available at http://www.drexplain.com/download.

Unique to Dr.Explain is its innovative approach to creating help documentation much quicker than with other tools. The program parses a live application and automatically produces screenshots of its windows along with a sequence of explanatory callouts for each control.

Dr.Explain 4.5 update includes about 200 improvements, features, and optimizations in total.

Annotation Template Editor is one of the coolest new features of the new release. It allows to create callouts of any design, complexity & style. Now you can prepare amazing annotated screenshots and graphics and insert it into your help documentation in a single tool.

For more info about the Dr.Explain help file and on-line manual authoring tool, see http://www.drexplain.com.

Tedopres International – www.tedopres.com

Also known as Simplified English, the main objective of a controlled language is to make technical text easy to understand. Tedopres HyperSTE standardizes vocabulary and style according to linguistic style guides and standards like Simplified Technical English, aiming to improve consistency, eliminate ambiguity and reduce complexity. It also provides objective criteria for quality control. Controlled Language includes a general dictionary and a set of writing rules. In addition to the general vocabulary, companies can define their own Technical Names (terminology).

A few benefits of controlled authoring include:

Quality assurance and improvement
Standardized way of writing
Improved safety
Efficient authoring
Reduced time to market
Improved customer experience
Facilitates XML, content management, structured authoring (Information Mapping,DITA, S1000D)
Considerable cost savings
Cheaper, faster and better translations

For more information, see www.simplifiedenglish.net.

You can also learn about controlled authoring with Tedopres’ HyperSTE at LavaCon. Join Tedopres at LavaCon, November 13–16, 2011, Austin, TX, where Berry Braster (Sales & Marketing Director and implementation expert) will be speaking in a panel discussion titled, “Controlled Language – Making it work for you!” The panel discussion will include Kit Brown-Hoekstra of Comgenesis (she will moderate the panel), Sherri Sotnick of Elekta (who implemented Elekta Approved Simplified English), Berry Braster of Tedopres (implementation expert) and Poppy Quintal (standard expert). For more information on Lavacon, please visit http://lavacon.org. Please contact us to be eligible for discount coupons. For more information, please contact us at ste@tedopres.com.

To learn more about TedoPres, see www.tedopres.com

Adobe Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of RoboHelp with a Limited Period 40% Off “Switcher” Promotion

Struggling with your current help authoring tool? Looking to “switch” to a tried-and-tested tool, one that has been the professional standard in the user assistance space for the last 20 years? Adobe has the answer … and the perfect reasons too!

Adobe celebrates the 20th anniversary of RoboHelp with a limited period 40% off “switcher” promotion. Switch from MadCap Flare, Author-it, or Doc-To-Help Enterprise or Doc-To-Help for Word and save 40% off Adobe RoboHelp 9!

Time frame: October 17th 2011 through February 16th 2012
Scope: US only

For more details (top reasons to switch, testimonials, switching resources) about the RoboHelp 40% off “switcher” promotion, please visit http://www.adobe.com/products/robohelp/switch.html

To learn more, please sign up for the upcoming Adobe RoboHelp “Switcher” webinar at 10.00 am PST on 30th November (Wednesday).

Information Design online grad programs at Southern Polytechnic

Life is full of choices. So why choose Southern Polytechnic’s online graduate programs in technical communication and information design and communication?

Because we’ve been in the “business” of teaching online for years, so we have the hard stuff down, and our MS degree has been around since 1988–yikes! Almost before the Internet (well, not quite). Nowadays, we have an online graduate certificate in tech communication, four advanced certificates, and the full MS in Information Design and Communication, all online.

We’ve got great grad faculty who practice what we teach, who engage with you in a combination of weekly discussions (asynchronous so you can communicate even in your bunny slippers, if that’s what works best for you), and weekly projects that grow to bigger projects, both individual and team-based. The result: you learn by doing, by sharing, and by producing and you build a great portfolio of your products to take to market.

For more about our programs, visit us at idc.spsu.edu.

New Release: MadCap Mimic 6

MadCap Software is pleased to announce the release of Mimic 6, for software simulations and tutorials.

New features in Mimic 6 include:

Audio Narration
Audio Objects
Improved Recording Workflow
Flash Embedded Skin Enhancements
Flare 7 Integration
And Much More

Watch the What’s New video here:
http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/mimic/overview.aspx#whatsnew

To learn more about Mimic, visit:
http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/mimic/

Upcoming Webinar: Strategies for Building and Managing Large Online Libraries – Nov. 30, 10am (Pacific)

In this webinar, learn some key methodologies for starting a large project, gaining client/employer consensus, and making your way from ground zero to useable, accessible procedures. These solid practices will help you regardless of the help authoring tool you have selected.

Presenter: Beth Gerber, Lightext, Inc.

For more information on upcoming webinars, and past webinar recordings, visit:
http://www.madcapsoftware.com/demos/webinars.aspx

Competitive Upgrade Pricing on MadCap Flare, MadPak

The reasons to switch to MadCap Flare from other tools such as RoboHelp® and FrameMaker® are growing.

As the original creators of RoboHelp®, the team at MadCap Software developed Flare from the ground up, using the latest technologies, with the vision to create the most advanced single-source, multi-channel publishing application on the market. Now in its 7th release, Flare boasts an impressive list of features and functionality.

Flare was the first to introduce features such as native mobile output, and to launch a complete suite of fully integrated tools to support the entire authoring, contribution, review and localization process.

Users switching from other legacy tools can save up to 50%.

For more information about switching to Flare, including case studies, white papers and transition guides, visit:
http://madcap.us/uKEjBT

—————————–

If you’re interested in getting your message out to technical communicators, let me know.

Blog Sponsors

Dr.Explain is a Gold Sponsor of the European User Assistance Conference 2010

Tom Johnson — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:00:47 +0000

The following is a sponsored message from Dennis Crane of Indigo Byte Systems.

Indigo Byte Systems, the producer of Dr.Explain help authoring tool (http://www.drexplain.com) is proud to become a Gold Sponsor of 2010 UA Europe Conference that will take place on 16th – 17th September 2010 in Stockholm, Sweden.

UA Europe Conference is an annual even focused specifically on software user assistance and on-line help systems. It provides a unique update on all the latest industry trends, technical developments, and best practice in software user assistance. You’ll learn the critical factors that contribute to effective user assistance, which in turn results in more successful software.

Register today at http://www.uaconference.eu/ and meet Dr.Explain team to know more about the new and upcoming version releases.

Blog Sponsors

Message from the Sponsors — March 30

Tom Johnson — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:07:27 +0000

Last month I started a regular message from the sponsors post as a way to give my advertisers more visibility. Here’s the second sponsor post. Lots of good information in here.

Dr.Explain 4.0 Enables Rapid Creation of Software Help Systems to Speed up Software Rollouts

Indigo Byte Systems, LLC today introduces Dr.Explain 4.0, the most significant release of its innovative help authoring software, with over 10 new features and enhancements, including improved interface usability, customizable page layout, visual styles, on-demand screenshot annotating mode, search and index functionality in HTML manuals, PDF output and more. New Dr.Explain makes it even easier and faster to document software, ensuring faster software rollouts. The new version is available as a free trial from http://www.drexplain.com.

Unique to Dr.Explain is its innovative approach to making help documentation much quicker than it is with other tools. The program parses a live application and automatically produces screenshots of its windows along with a sequence of explanatory callouts for each control. The process is accurate and fully automated, so the user only has to enter a description for each callout. The project can be exported to HTML, CHM Help, RTF or PDF format.

Dr.Explain 4.0 includes but is not limited to the following key new features:

Improved usability: The newest version introduces a wide work area, sleek icons and slim toolbars, contributing to increased user satisfaction.

Customizable look: In the new version, the user can rearrange objects and change layout page content remarkably easily in the editor.

On-demand screenshot annotating mode: The workspace area is grabbed only when required. The floating panels will help the user to organize the workspace layout as needed.

Search and Index in HTML manuals: This feature doesn’t require scripting capabilities on a server and may be used even on websites with free hosting.

PDF output: Now the user can export help documentation to Adobe PDF with support for national characters, images, hyperlinks, bookmarks and table of contents.

A downloadable trial version is available at http://www.drexplain.com/download/

The program comes with “Compatible with Windows 7″ logo.

More information is available at http://www.drexplain.com

P.S.: A free serial number for Dr.Explain 4.0 is provided to magazine editors, internet columnists, bloggers and webmasters who intend to write a review of the program on their website, blog or column. Email info@drexplain.com for details.

SnagIt | Capture your digital lifestyle

Capture anything you see on the screen. Edit and combine those captures. Share them via your favorite applications. Organize and find them again later. The more you use SnagIt, the more ways you’ll find to use it!

Want to get a laugh? Add a speech balloon to that photo of your cat and fire it off in an instant message.

Need to make an impression at work? Capture that sales chart and point out important details with a sleek-looking arrow. SnagIt can turn a simple screenshot into a powerful information graphic.

SnagIt is versatile, yet surprisingly simple! As one SnagIt user said, “It’s as basic or as powerful as you need it to be.”

Maybe that’s why millions of people worldwide love using SnagIt, in a million different ways.

Learn more and download a free 30-day trial of Snagit at: www.techsmith.com/snagit.asp.

Scriptorium.com

Still interested in DITA? Next up in Scriptorium’s ongoing series of free webcasts on DITA-related tools and technologies is an XMetaL 6 overview on April 21, 2010. Presented by Simon Bate, this webcast demonstrates the DITA features in the XMetaL 6 editor. For more information and to register, visit our website: http://www.scriptorium.com/events.

Meet us at the Summit. Scriptorium’s Sarah O’Keefe and Matthew Arnold will be presenting/exhibiting at the STC Summit in Dallas on May 2–5. Sarah will be presenting on “Managing in an XML Environment.” Stop by our booth, #113, on Sunday between 6:45 PM and 8:00 PM, Monday between 10:30 AM and 6:15 PM, or Tuesday between 9:00 AM and 5:30 PM. If you’d like to schedule some time with Sarah or Matt, email info@scriptorium.com and we’ll set something up.

Scriptorium Publishing provides expert advice on how to develop, deploy, and manage content. If you are facing a difficult publishing challenge, we want to hear from you. Contact us at info@scriptorium.com or 919-481-2701 x105.

MadCap Flare the Authoring Tool of Choice for Carnegie Mellon University

MadCap Software was pleased to announce its latest case study highlighting how Carnegie Mellon University uses MadCap Flare to teach students documentation best practices. “In the past, students mocked up their online Help in HTML. It was extremely labor-intensive, and it didnʼt give them the practical experience of using an authoring tool,” said Tracey DePellegrin Connelly. “With Flare, the difference is night and day between what they were doing before and what they are now able to learn. Itʼs been an extremely valuable tool for giving our students real-world experience.”

“It can be hard to grasp the separation of content and formatting within a structured authoring environment if you are used to working with word processing and authoring packages where the formatting is applied directly to the content,” said Ms. Ciroli. “Flare did a nice job of bridging that gap. Our students liked that they didnʼt have to worry about formatting, as well as how easy it was to set up the online Help navigation using the indexing and glossary features in Flare. Whether they were technically savvy or not, all the students could get the output they needed.”

Read more about Flare and Carnegie Mellon University.

Flare 6 Allows Users to Work Smarter, More Efﬁciently When Reusing Content, Publishing to Multiple Outputs

File tagging and the WebHelp mobile output are among top of the list of favorite new features in Flare 6. “Flare’s new features and user interface improvements have been helping me work smarter, faster, and with better results. I’m especially pleased to see File Tags and the new WebHelp Mobile target,” says Nita Beck.

Flareʼs single-sourcing allows users to save time when creating the mobile output. They simply create a new output target in an existing Flare project and content can be immediately available to users on the go. Neil Perlin of Hyper/Word Services says, “This feature takes what was a separate process requiring different tools and skills and starts to make it just one more Flare output. I expect that more developers will try outputting to mobile devices now that it’s easier and more convenient to do so with Flare.”

Learn more about Flare’s new features. For an independent review of MadCap Flare 6, read Paul Pehrsonʼs blog.

Blog Sponsors

12 Days of Christmas in June Giveaway

Tom Johnson — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:26:17 +0000

For the next 12 days, I’m coordinating with various companies to give away a product a day, as part of a 12 Days of Christmas in June theme. This is an opportunity to try out new software that may be new to you, for companies to receive a bit of promotion, and to kick off the blog fun that will last all summer long.

Here’s how the contest works: Each morning at 6 a.m. MST I’ll post a new cartoon, hand-drawn by my colleague Ben Minson of Gryphon Mountain, who is also a cartoonist. The cartoon will need a caption. To win the contest, you must supply the best caption in the comments below the post. The caption winner receives the product for that day.

Here are the products available and their corresponding dates:

Day 1 — Thursday, June 4: Snagit
Day 2 — Friday, June 5: Camtasia Studio
Day 3 — Saturday, June 6: Screensteps
Day 4 — Sunday, June 7: Screensteps
Day 5 — Monday, June 8: 100 Pack of Moo Mini Cards
Day 6 — Tuesday, June 9: Camtasia Studio
Day 7 — Wednesday, June 10: Madap Flare 5
Day 8 — Thursday, June 11: Dr. Explain
Day 9 — Saturday, June 13: Camtasia Studio
Day 10 — Sunday, June 14: Snagit
Day 11 — Monday, June 15: Snagit
Day 12 — Tuesday, June 16: Author-it

The best caption will be a completely subjective decision chosen by either me or someone I designate. This is not a random selection drawing. Winners will be announced each morning at 6 a.m. EST, right before the next cartoon appears.

Note that you can submit as many captions as you want on any given day. If you win one day, you can also win the next as well, so don’t save all your best captions for one day. Also, when you submit your caption, you give us rights to use the caption in future material as we see fit (though nothing is planned). Winners will receive a serial number and download link to the product.