I have toyed off and on with the idea of publishing help to WordPress for years. I’ve had two main reasons for not moving forward sooner. First, if you want an online platform for documentation, Mediawiki works pretty well. Second, my organization’s security department has frowned on WordPress due to security concerns. That said, when Continue Reading »
Tag Archives: Favorites
Single Sourcing Screen Captures to Print, Online, and Mobile Using Flare and Capture
The other week my colleague asked me to write down a few notes about how I handle images with Flare. I realized there’s a lot to know about images, especially when trying to single source them both to print and online outputs. In this post, I’ll jot down a few of the more tricky points Continue Reading »
Top 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions about Technical Writing
Through my blog, I receive a lot of questions from users. I’ve seen the same questions numerous times, so I’ve decided to compile a list of answers to those questions and add a link to them on my contact page. These are the 10 most frequently asked questions about technical writing: 1. What technical writing Continue Reading »
Moving Between the Agora and the Desert
I had a conversation with a developer the other day about help material. He said that when he sees static pages, he assumes the content is out of date. He prefers forum threads because he can see the dates, and because forums contain real information from people using the product. He likes wikis because he Continue Reading »
7 Ways to Increase Flare’s Search Engine Optimization in Google’s Results
I’ve noticed a trend in search results lately. Users are searching for my help products and landing on our technology blog that has articles about the topic rather than landing on the help material for the product. For example, a user might have an issue with “newsletter,” so he or she searches for newsletter and Continue Reading »
Knowledge Has a New Shape, and It’s Not the Book
One of the most interesting chapters in Too Big To Know is David Weinberger’s discussion of long and short form content. I found the chapter particularly relevant because just the other day, I published a 3,700 word post and had a reader comment that the length — for a blog post — was heinous. I’m Continue Reading »
Podcast: Include It All, Filter It Afterwards — Interview with Mark Baker
Download MP3 Length: 45 min. In this podcast, I talk with Mark Baker from Every Page Is Page One about the ideas he discussed in his Lavacon presentation: Include It All, Filter It Afterwards. This is a line from David Weinberger’s book Too Big To Know, which explores the way that knowledge is taking the Continue Reading »
What Does “Every Page Is Page One” and “Include It All, Filter It Afterward” Mean?
One of the more memorable presentations I attended at Lavacon in Portland was Mark Baker‘s “Include It All, Filter It Afterward” presentation. You can view the slides from his presentation here. I also embedded them from Slideshare below. Include it all. Filter it afterward. from mbakeranalecta Because I liked the presentation so much, I want to Continue Reading »
Staying Out of Maintenance Mode
The past few weeks, I have to admit, I’ve been kind of bored as a technical writer. I even considered switching more into content marketing because it seemed more interesting. (Hence my recent posts on content marketing — The Double-Edged Sword of Hiding Controversial Information, Company Strategies That Avoid Controversy, and Writing in the Trenches.) Last Continue Reading »
Specializing in the Next Big Thing: A Few Lingering Thoughts from Lavacon
One outcome of any good conference is to make you think critically about your professional role and identity. I just returned from three days in Portland at Lavacon. It was the first time I’ve attended Lavacon, even though I have been helping out with the website for several years. I’m from Tacoma, just 120 miles Continue Reading »