In my last post, I argued that making content findable in search engines requires you to understand how your search engine algorithm ranks and sorts the content it indexes. Not all search engines work the same. Some rank content through links, others by date, others include index keywords, and so on. You have to be familiar with the search algorithm so that you can maximize … more »

The other week, by invitation, I was at a Missouri State University Workshop for Teachers of Technical Writing. I presented about trends in technical communication and highlighted multimedia, particularly video, as an important trend. Near the end of my presentation, I asked the academic audience why so many teachers don’t require students to create video (e.g., screencasts, e-learning, video tutorials) as part of their help … more »

LugIron recently praised a video response that a vendor made to a customer, calling it “an outstanding example of Social Documentation at work.” The customer loved the video, especially given that it was personally created by the company founder. Ten years ago, such a quick response wouldn’t have been possible except at a large time cost from the company. But with the software tools today, … more »

If you’ve ever uploaded a screencast into a video sharing site, such as Youtube, you’ll notice that the screen quality is poor. Screencasts require a high degree of clarity to be watchable. For example, here’s a screencast I uploaded to Youtube. It’s hard to see what’s going on.

Embedding Jing Pro Videos In WordPress

The other day a developer approached me at work to ask how he could quickly capture and upload video to explain database processes he was documenting. He said he downloaded a trial version of Camtasia Studio, but wasn’t sure if it was the best solution. Of course I had an answer: Jing, I told him. I showed him how he could use Jing to quickly … more »

Use FTP? Here’s the Jing Wrapper and Embed Code – Jing Blog.

Understanding SWF versus MPEG-4 Formats in Jing Pro I was confused by the difference between SWF and MPEG-4 before I read this explanation (which includes video examples).

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 (to download, right-click and select Save Target As) Length: 12 min. In this podcast, I cover the top 10 technical communication news items during the past month. This is a different type of podcast than I’ve normally done. The show notes below are excerpts of what I cover, but without any commentary.

Help in a Movable Type Blog Format — Jing Help Center

Like Jing? You’ll Love Jing Pro – Jing Blog

If you asked me 6 months ago how much I used my Zoom H4 digital recorder, it wasn’t much. I initially got it to record live interviews at conferences, and donations from my podcast listeners paid for the device. (Thanks, once again, guys.) But this past month, I’ve carried the Zoom with me everywhere I go. I use it almost every day at work. I … more »

For those of you who missed my blogging and podcasting presentation to the STC-Intermountain chapter, here is the mp3 file of the audio recording. Download MP3 (right-click and select Save Target As) [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Duration: 1 hr 13 min. H4 File size: 65 MB Additionally, if you’re sitting at your computer, you can’t watch the PowerPoint slides with the audio … more »

In this Jing video tutorial, I explain how to get up and running with Jing. What’s Jing? Check out my previous post that includes several sample Jing videos showing how technical writers can benefit from Jing. You can also see the [kml_flashembed movie="http://idratherbewriting.com/screencasts/jingEXPRESS/jingEXPRESS.swf" height="335" width="420" /] Note: If you’re seeing some bracketed text and a link rather than a video player, it’s because the flash-embed … more »

Jing, a new project by TechSmith, is a tool that allows you to quickly capture video or an image from your computer and share it with others, such as project team members or customers. After you capture images or video with Jing, you click a Share button to quickly upload the capture to a web host, file directory (e.g., SharePoint), or Flickr. Within seconds Jing … more »