<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	xmlns:series="http://unfoldingneurons.com/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>I&#039;d Rather Be Writing &#187; Jing</title>
	<atom:link href="http://idratherbewriting.com/tag/jing/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://idratherbewriting.com</link>
	<description>The Latest Trends in Technical Communication</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:59:59 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1</generator>
		<item>
		<title>Search Engine Optimizing Your Help Content for Google [Organizing Content 11]</title>
		<link>http://idratherbewriting.com/2010/05/28/search-engine-optimizing-your-help-content-for-google-organizing-content-10/</link>
		<comments>http://idratherbewriting.com/2010/05/28/search-engine-optimizing-your-help-content-for-google-organizing-content-10/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 May 2010 19:20:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Johnson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog platforms]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[help content]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[movable type]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pagerank]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search engine optimization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search engine results]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[serps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technical Writing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[visibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.idratherbewriting.com/?p=6486</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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 ... <a href="http://idratherbewriting.com/2010/05/28/search-engine-optimizing-your-help-content-for-google-organizing-content-10/">more &#187;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In <a href="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2010/05/27/figuring-out-search-algorithms-organizing-content-10/">my last post</a>, 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 your content&#8217;s visibility in the search.</p>
<p>I touched briefly on Google&#8217;s search engine algorithm. Since Google is such an important search engine for content, including help content, I want to dive deeper into strategies for maximizing the visibility of help content on Google. </p>
<h3>Putting Help Content on Google</h3>
<p>Since many users turn directly to Google to find answers to questions, rather than turning to the help file, it makes sense to put your help content on Google.</p>
<p>Additionally, help files are rich in keyword density. An online help file with more than 200 topics adds hundreds of keywords to your company&#8217;s site, making your product more findable.</p>
<p>If you have optimized your help content with synonyms and other terms that people actually use, the help file can be a wealth of highly search-engine-optimized content that increases visibility of your product and company in Google&#8217;s search engine results, right?</p>
<h3>Let&#8217;s Try a Test</h3>
<p>Let&#8217;s try a test. Let&#8217;s say that I&#8217;m using a software application, Madcap Flare, and I want to know how to insert concept keywords. Using Google, I search for &#8220;<a href="http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&amp;hl=en&amp;rlz=&amp;q=insert+concept+keywords+flare&amp;aq=f&amp;aqi=&amp;aql=&amp;oq=&amp;gs_rfai=C3e9QqvL_S9jaG436M5nfrLYHAAAAqgQFT9ADhxQ">insert concept keywords flare</a>.&#8221;</p>
<div id="attachment_6487" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 610px"><a href="http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&amp;hl=en&amp;rlz=&amp;q=insert+concept+keywords+flare&amp;aq=f&amp;aqi=&amp;aql=&amp;oq=&amp;gs_rfai=C3e9QqvL_S9jaG436M5nfrLYHAAAAqgQFT9ADhxQ"><img class="size-medium wp-image-6487 " title="Google search results for insert concepts keywords in Flare" src="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/vanarsdall-600x574.png" alt="Google search results for insert concepts in Flare" width="600" height="574" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Google search results for insert concept keywords in Flare</p></div>
<p>Why is it that the search results didn&#8217;t find the topic in <a href="http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare6/">Flare&#8217;s online help file</a>, which is on the web? It did find a Madcap KB article, but not the topic in the webhelp file.</p>
<p>The exact topic in Flare&#8217;s help is titled <a href="http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare6/Content/Concepts/Inserting_Concept_Keywords_into_Topics.htm">Inserting Concepts into Topics</a>. Even if I search for this phrase, the Flare help topic <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=Inserting+Concepts+Into+Topics&amp;aq=f&amp;aqi=&amp;aql=&amp;oq=&amp;gs_rfai=">doesn&#8217;t appear in Google&#8217;s results</a>. In fact, the results for this search aren&#8217;t even related to help authoring or Flare.</p>
<p>When I search for <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=Inserting+Concepts+Into+Topics+flare&amp;aq=f&amp;aqi=g-p1&amp;aql=&amp;oq=&amp;gs_rfai=">inserting concepts into topics flare</a>, one of the results points to a topic in Flare&#8217;s online help: Creating Printed Output. But still not the webhelp topic I&#8217;m looking for.</p>
<p>Why didn&#8217;t <em>Inserting Concepts into Topics</em>, the topic from Flare&#8217;s help file, appear in any of my Google searches, even when the topic is online and apparently indexed by Google? Why is it that Eddie Van Arsdall&#8217;s post, <a href="http://www.vanarsdall-infodesign.com/2010/04/11/madcap-flare-tip-helping-users-find-related-information/">Madcap Flare Tip: Helping Users Find Related Information</a>, appears at the top of the list for both of my Google searches?</p>
<h3>What Is PageRank?</h3>
<p>Eddie&#8217;s post itself has just a couple of inlinks, that is, links pointing to it from other sites. But to Eddie Van Arsdall&#8217;s domain, <a href="http://www.vanarsdall-infodesign.com/">Simplifying Complexity</a>, there are <a href="http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=vanarsdall-infodesign.com&amp;bwm=i&amp;bwmo=d&amp;bwmf=s">a lot of links pointing to it</a>. These incoming links give Eddie something called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank">PageRank</a>, which helps his topic dominate the search engine results.</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank">PageRank</a> is a trademarked term created by Larry Page, one of the founders of Google, that describes a ranking of a website&#8217;s credibility and authority. Every time you link to a site, Google interprets that link as a vote of confidence for the site. You&#8217;re vouching for the site&#8217;s credibility when you link to it.</p>
<p>For Google, PageRank is a major variable that determines what sites appear in the search engine results (SERPs). Sites with a high PageRank get more visibility in SERPs. If a site has 1,000 links pointing to it, Google knows that it must be a credible and worthwhile site. Therefore the site appears higher in the results.</p>
<p>Each site on the web is assigned a PageRank between 0 and 10. You can <a href="http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php">check PageRank here</a> or more powerfully with the <a href="http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/">SearchStatus Firefox extension</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://nytimes.com">New York Times</a> and <a href="http://wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a> have a PageRank of 9. <a href="http://tc.eserver.org">TC.Eserver.org</a> and <a href="http://idratherbewriting.com">my site</a> have a PageRank of 6. <a href="http://www.vanarsdall-infodesign.com/">Simplifying Complexity</a> has a PageRank of 4.</p>
<p>In contrast, the <a href="http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare6/">webhelp for Flare</a> has no page rank at all. Ouch.</p>
<h3>Help Content and PageRank</h3>
<p>Help content on the web will always be at a disadvantage with PageRank, because people are less inclined to link to webhelp topics than to blogs or other user-created sites. Why is that?</p>
<p>One reason is that it&#8217;s hard to link to a webhelp topic. Webhelp files use frames, so even if you&#8217;re looking at the <em>Inserting Concepts into Topics </em>topic, you can&#8217;t grab the link to it unless you click the TOC accordion tab at the bottom, find the topic in the TOC, right-click the topic, and copy the link address. It&#8217;s non-intuitive to see the link.</p>
<p>Additionally, it&#8217;s just not common to link to help files. We tend to link to content created by people like us, especially when the content includes unique insight and perspective from a person&#8217;s point of view. Plain procedural topics are boring. We don&#8217;t have cause to link to them.</p>
<h3>Frames and SEO</h3>
<p>Another reason the Flare webhelp topic doesn&#8217;t appear in the SERPs is because Flare&#8217;s webhelp uses frames. Using frames in general is a poor practice for SEO on web. <a href="http://blog.wsioms.co.za/index.php/seo/do-not-hurt-your-seo-rankings/">Many people</a> <a href="http://www.jm-seo.org/seo-tips/20100206d.html">point out</a> that <a href="http://www.seologic.com/faq/frames-html-links.php">frames aren&#8217;t good</a> for search engine optimization. For example, <a href="http://www.webconfs.com/15-minute-seo.php">Webconfs.com: SEO Tools and Webmaster Utilities</a> says &#8221;Frames are very, very bad for SEO. Avoid using them unless really necessary.&#8221; Almost every HAT&#8217;s webhelp output I&#8217;ve seen uses frames, unfortunately.</p>
<h3>Index Keywords and 2% Keyword Density</h3>
<p>Not only do webhelp files lack PageRank and use frames, they also run into problems with index keywords. Google dislikes repetition of the same keyword over and over in the topic because Google thinks the site is trying to trick it.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-forum/threads/5137-Google-Keyword-Density-Analysis">optimal keyword density is about 2%</a>, meaning that if you have 300 words in your article, about 6 of them should be the keyword phrase you&#8217;re trying to rank for. If you have a keyword density of 20%, Google sees this as trying to game the system. The excessive keyword density works against you.</p>
<p>If I were to include my string of sample keywords that I <a href="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2010/05/27/figuring-out-search-algorithms-organizing-content-10">referenced in my last post</a>, would Google interpret this list of keywords as an attempt to game keyword density? Here&#8217;s that list:</p>
<ul>
<li>burn notice</li>
<li>deliver burn notice</li>
<li>drop off burn notices</li>
<li>burn notices sending</li>
<li>how to present a burn notice</li>
<li>cutting off undercover agents</li>
<li>severing ties with field agents</li>
<li>burn notice protocol</li>
<li>best way to handle burn notice</li>
<li>give burn notice to operatives</li>
</ul>
<p>Assuming Google even sees this content (questionable since the index keywords are tagged using Madcap&#8217;s unique markup in the code), would Google penalize me for overusing the keyword &#8220;burn notice&#8221;? I&#8217;m not sure.</p>
<h3>Moving Towards a Dangerous Conclusion</h3>
<p>As the importance of visibility on Google grows, and as companies recognize and treat their help content as an SEO asset for the online visibility and ranking (not to mention marketing) of their products, shouldn&#8217;t we put our help content on web-friendly platforms that will maximize their visibility in Google&#8217;s search engine results? Are traditional help authoring tools holding us back from realizing the SEO power of our help content?</p>
<p><a href="http://jingproject.com">Jing</a>, TechSmith&#8217;s quick image and video capture tool, has their <a href="http://help.jingproject.com/">help on a blog platform</a> (Movable Type). When I search for <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=capture+video+with+jing&amp;btnG=Search&amp;aq=f&amp;aqi=&amp;aql=&amp;oq=&amp;gs_rfai=">capture video with Jing</a>, the help appears in the top five results.</p>
<p><div id="attachment_6488" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 610px"><a href="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/jingme.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-6488" title="Are blog platforms the future of help authoring?" src="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/jingme.png" alt="Are blog platforms the future of help authoring?" width="600" height="559" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Are blog platforms the future of help authoring?</p></div><br />
<h2>Blog Sponsors</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://webworks.com">Webworks ePublisher</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scriptorium.com">Scriptorium</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.helpgenerator.com">Help Generator help authoring software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://idc.spsu.edu">Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication</a></li>
<li><a href="http://simplifiedenglish.net">Simplified English</a></li>
<li><a href="http://info.mindtouch.com/irbw/tcs-custom-tour?persona=content">MindTouch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/madpak/overview.aspx?utm_source=IdRatherBeWriting&#038;utm_medium=Banner&#038;utm_campaign=MadPak"</a>Madcap Software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.drexplain.com/">Dr.Explain</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/try.html?sdid=ITRSO">Adobe Technical Communication Suite</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.congree.com/en/download-congree-personal-edition.aspx">Congree</a></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://idratherbewriting.com/2010/05/28/search-engine-optimizing-your-help-content-for-google-organizing-content-10/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[Findability]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why Tech Comm Professors Don&#8217;t Teach Video</title>
		<link>http://idratherbewriting.com/2010/04/27/why-tech-comm-professors-dont-teach-video/</link>
		<comments>http://idratherbewriting.com/2010/04/27/why-tech-comm-professors-dont-teach-video/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:18:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Johnson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[audiovisual]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[boundaries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[e-learning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[limitations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[multimedia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Screencasting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Screencasts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[skillsets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video tutorials]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.idratherbewriting.com/?p=6141</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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&#8217;t require students to create video (e.g., screencasts, e-learning, video tutorials) as part of their help ... <a href="http://idratherbewriting.com/2010/04/27/why-tech-comm-professors-dont-teach-video/">more &#187;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The other week, by invitation, I was at a Missouri State University Workshop for Teachers of Technical Writing. I presented about <a href="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2010/04/25/podcast-trends-in-technical-communication/">trends in technical communication</a> and highlighted multimedia, particularly video, as an important trend. </p>
<p>Near the end of my presentation, I asked the academic audience why so many teachers don&#8217;t require students to create video (e.g., screencasts, e-learning, video tutorials) as part of their help materials. Many professors focus on documentation and design more than video, yet many end-users, as visual learners, prefer multimedia formats when they&#8217;re learning software.</p>
<p>My question sparked about a dozen comments, which people communicated both collectively and privately to me. It turns out one of the biggest reasons professors don&#8217;t teach video to tech writing majors is due to academic turf wars over who has rights to teach video. <span id="more-6141"></span></p>
<p>One professor explained that as soon as you include the word &#8220;video&#8221; in your syllabus, the other departments, such as Film, start to object. Video is the film department&#8217;s realm. You&#8217;re pretty much confined to documentation topics for a technical writing curriculum.</p>
<p>Other professors ran into the same problem with the word &#8220;design.&#8221; Throw in the word design and you suddenly start a turf war with the Design department.</p>
<p>Professors mentioned some other reasons for not teaching video as well. Many professors aren&#8217;t familiar with video tools, so they don&#8217;t teach it. Others may be familiar with the tools, but the tools are beyond the scope of the student&#8217;s budget. Others explained that the tools change so frequently, by the time they get a curriculum approved (which may take a year or more), the tools have already changed.</p>
<p>Of course the same turf war sometimes happens in companies. If technical writers start producing e-learning, the instructional design or training departments may cry foul. If you start producing screencasts, the audiovisual department and voiceover talents may feel shorted.</p>
<p>These responses explain why audiovisual skills continue to be underdeveloped in our industry. Incoming tech comm graduates often don&#8217;t have these skills, many existing tech comm professionals don&#8217;t develop these skills, and there doesn&#8217;t seem to be a transition point at which the tech comm professional acquires the skills for video. </p>
<p>As such, video will continue to remain a gap among technical communicator skillsets. It&#8217;s a ridiculous trend that starts in the university and perpetuates into the professional field. It&#8217;s part of the reason why so many technical communicators continue to be &#8220;just writers.&#8221; </p>
<p>In response to some of the comments after my presentation, I encouraged teachers to use <a href="http://jingproject.com">Jing Project</a> (free) to record video and to focus on the oral delivery, the voiceover (the hardest part), more than the tools. But I could sense that even this route would be met with the same resistance.<br />
<h2>Blog Sponsors</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://webworks.com">Webworks ePublisher</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scriptorium.com">Scriptorium</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.helpgenerator.com">Help Generator help authoring software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://idc.spsu.edu">Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication</a></li>
<li><a href="http://simplifiedenglish.net">Simplified English</a></li>
<li><a href="http://info.mindtouch.com/irbw/tcs-custom-tour?persona=content">MindTouch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/madpak/overview.aspx?utm_source=IdRatherBeWriting&#038;utm_medium=Banner&#038;utm_campaign=MadPak"</a>Madcap Software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.drexplain.com/">Dr.Explain</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/try.html?sdid=ITRSO">Adobe Technical Communication Suite</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.congree.com/en/download-congree-personal-edition.aspx">Congree</a></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://idratherbewriting.com/2010/04/27/why-tech-comm-professors-dont-teach-video/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Few Software Tips to Make Technical Writing Easier</title>
		<link>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/08/18/a-few-software-tips-to-make-technical-writing-easier/</link>
		<comments>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/08/18/a-few-software-tips-to-make-technical-writing-easier/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:48:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Johnson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[communicator]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[efficiency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Flare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jira]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lugiron]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RSS feeds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Screencasting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[task review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technical Writing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.idratherbewriting.com/?p=4599</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[LugIron recently praised a video response that a vendor made to a customer, calling it &#8220;an outstanding example of Social Documentation at work.&#8221; The customer loved the video, especially given that it was personally created by the company founder. Ten years ago, such a quick response wouldn&#8217;t have been possible except at a large time cost from the company. But with the software tools today, ... <a href="http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/08/18/a-few-software-tips-to-make-technical-writing-easier/">more &#187;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://blog.lugiron.com/2009/07/an-unexpected-example-of-social-documentation/" target="_blank">LugIron recently praised</a> a video response that a vendor made to a customer, calling it &#8220;an outstanding example of Social Documentation at work.&#8221; The customer loved the video, especially given that it was personally created by the company founder.</p>
<p>Ten years ago, such a quick response wouldn&#8217;t have been possible except at a large time cost from the company. But with the software tools today, even sharing multimedia documentation is somewhat easy. It&#8217;s no longer an ordeal to make and publish a video, or a website, or deliver help content in almost any form to the consumer.</p>
<p>Reading LugIron&#8217;s post prompted me to reflect on the myriad ways software is making our lives easier as technical writers. Here are ten ways I&#8217;m using software to lift the documentation burden and deliver help faster and more efficiently to customers: <span id="more-4599"></span></p>
<p><strong>Jing.</strong> I use <a href="http://jingproject.com" target="_blank">Jing</a> to log bugs when the bug is a you&#8217;ve-got-to-see-it-to-believe-it kind of bug, or when it&#8217;s just faster to capture video than describe the quirk. I also use it, on occasion, to provide quick support responses to customers. You can <a href="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/31/a-five-click-solution-to-publishing-and-uploading-screen-videos-to-sharepoint/"></a>configure Jing to auto-publish to a specific location, such as a SharePoint drive, so that the sharing of your videos is literally a five-click process.<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<p><strong>SnagIt&#8217;s quick styles.</strong> The quick styles feature available in <a href="http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp" target="_blank">SnagIt 9</a> allows you to define an object type and save that style so you can quickly access it again. If you&#8217;re drawing little diagrams or creating screenshots with the same circles and arrows, the quick styles feature can save you from having to customize the shapes each time.</p>
<p><strong>SharePoint hosting for my webhelp.</strong> I no longer package the help with the applications, but instead host it on SharePoint, where I can update it on the fly whenever necessary. This saves me from the hassle of nagging developers to push out another version release to update the documentation, and it gives me complete control to update, modify, add, remove, or otherwise tweak the documentation as needed.</p>
<p><strong>Flare&#8217;s Publish feature (includes built-in FTP).</strong> When I update my webhelp, publishing the update to replace the existing webhelp file on SharePoint is a one-click process with Flare&#8217;s built-in Publish feature. I don&#8217;t have to copy and paste the files into Windows Explorer session that I open up over an intranet page. It&#8217;s just a one-click-and-done kind of task.</p>
<p><strong>Flare&#8217;s relationship tables.</strong> I just <a href="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2009/08/03/discovering-relationship-tables/">discovered relationship tables</a> a few weeks ago, and it greatly simplifies related links by allowing me to manage all my links in one convenient table.</p>
<p><strong>Native file formats in InDesign files.</strong> Rather than exporting or saving images as PNG or GIF or JPG, I keep them in their native PSD or AI formats and insert them as linked images in InDesign. This way, when I need to update the file, I just right-click the image and choose to edit the original. It saves time and looks crisper.</p>
<p><strong>Flare&#8217;s task review feature.</strong> When I need to have a colleague review one of my help topics, I use Flare&#8217;s built-in topic review feature to send it to my colleague, and he sends it quickly back. I don&#8217;t have to manually copy and paste or print out or attach the file to get it to him, and I can import my peer&#8217;s annotations directly into the original file in a side pane for easy viewing.</p>
<p><strong>RSS feeds from JIRA.</strong> The project team I&#8217;m on uses JIRA to log and track bugs, and there are hundreds of bugs in the system in various states at any given time. Rather than manually sort through the list, waiting for each item to load to see the details, I installed the <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/77" target="_blank">Sage plugin for Firefox</a> and added the RSS feeds of all the bugs I&#8217;ve logged as well as other relevant JIRA feeds to this Sage reader. With one click, I can see a quick overview of all the bugs and scroll quickly down to read the latest comments and statuses.</p>
<p><strong>Microsoft Communicator. </strong><a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/communicator/FX101729051033.aspx" target="_blank">Communicator</a> is Microsoft&#8217;s instant messaging client, and it ties in with Active Directory to show you presence indicators of who is online and offline based on their computer activity. Customers, developers, project managers, and team members contact me all the time using Communicator. The IM conversations are quick, efficient, and save time from lengthier interruptions. I can also carry on multiple tasks at once while having a conversation on Communicator.</p>
<p><strong>SharePoint Team Blog.</strong> Our team regularly communicates using a SharePoint team blog. We&#8217;re a team of eight people, many of whom sit in different buildings and floors. Apart from our once weekly team meeting, we don&#8217;t interact much in person. But our SharePoint team blog can be a hot bed of interaction, with several posts a day and sometimes up to a dozen comment exchanges. The posts are often short, with requests for feedback, or new ideas or problems to solve. The blog helps us meet virtually to find answers and in turn be more productive in our work.</p>
<p>These are just a few of the ways that software is lifting the documentation burden and helping me be more efficient. I doubt I&#8217;ll ever have a streaming video channel on ustream, but that&#8217;s not really how I see my role as a technical writer anyway.<br />
<h2>Blog Sponsors</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://webworks.com">Webworks ePublisher</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scriptorium.com">Scriptorium</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.helpgenerator.com">Help Generator help authoring software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://idc.spsu.edu">Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication</a></li>
<li><a href="http://simplifiedenglish.net">Simplified English</a></li>
<li><a href="http://info.mindtouch.com/irbw/tcs-custom-tour?persona=content">MindTouch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/madpak/overview.aspx?utm_source=IdRatherBeWriting&#038;utm_medium=Banner&#038;utm_campaign=MadPak"</a>Madcap Software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.drexplain.com/">Dr.Explain</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/try.html?sdid=ITRSO">Adobe Technical Communication Suite</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.congree.com/en/download-congree-personal-edition.aspx">Congree</a></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/08/18/a-few-software-tips-to-make-technical-writing-easier/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Embedding HD Quality Screencasts in Your Blog</title>
		<link>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/02/09/hd-quality-screencasts-embedded-in-your-blog/</link>
		<comments>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/02/09/hd-quality-screencasts-embedded-in-your-blog/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:10:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Johnson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brooks andrus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Camtasia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[embedding video]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jing pro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[screencasting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Screencasts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[viddler]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vimeo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[youtube]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.idratherbewriting.com/?p=2897</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;ve ever uploaded a screencast into a video sharing site, such as Youtube, you&#8217;ll notice that the screen quality is poor. Screencasts require a high degree of clarity to be watchable. For example, here&#8217;s a screencast I uploaded to Youtube. It&#8217;s hard to see what&#8217;s going on. Other video sharing sites have the same problem. Here&#8217;s the same video on Viddler. And here&#8217;s the ... <a href="http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/02/09/hd-quality-screencasts-embedded-in-your-blog/">more &#187;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If you&#8217;ve ever uploaded a screencast into a video sharing site, such as Youtube, you&#8217;ll notice that the screen quality is poor. Screencasts require a high degree of clarity to be watchable. For example, here&#8217;s a screencast I uploaded to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENUpHGinJLI&amp;fmt=18" target="_blank">Youtube</a>. It&#8217;s hard to see what&#8217;s going on. <span id="more-2897"></span></p>
<p><iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ENUpHGinJLI" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen="true"> </iframe></p>
<p>Other video sharing sites have the same problem. Here&#8217;s the same video on <a href="http://www.viddler.com/explore/tomjohnson1492/videos/2/" target="_blank">Viddler</a>.</p>
<p><object width="567" height="418" data="http://www.viddler.com/player/c9576733/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="id" value="viddler_c9576733" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="src" value="http://www.viddler.com/player/c9576733/" /><param name="name" value="viddler_c9576733" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /></object></p>
<p>And here&#8217;s the same video on <a href="http://vimeo.com/3140858" target="_blank">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/3140858" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Unlike the other video sharing sites, Vimeo also provides an HD version. At first I was excited about <a href="http://vimeo.com" target="_blank">Vimeo</a>, because the HD version is pretty clear in the compressed form. To see what I&#8217;m talking about, <a href="http://vimeo.com/3140858" target="_blank">watch this same video on Vimeo&#8217;s site</a>.</p>
<p>Pretty clear, right?</p>
<p>Now, here&#8217;s the catch. To embed the HD version of the video on your own site, you have to upgrade to <a href="http://vimeo.com/plus" target="_blank">Vimeo Plus</a> for $59.95 a year. Then you only get 5,000 embedded plays, which means only 5,000 people can watch the HD video embedded onto your site, or one user can watch it 5,000 times. You can buy more embedded plays for more money. For example, you can buy 100,000 embedded plays for $199, which isn&#8217;t that much. But still, the costs start to add up. This is already about $260 &#8212; each year.</p>
<p>And of course if you&#8217;re embedding HD video, you&#8217;ll need an HD camcorder, which is another $600 (for a low-end version).</p>
<p>Even if you go to all this trouble, the HD embedded screencasts you post on your blog might not be so viewable at a width of 550 pixels, which is about my blog&#8217;s post width. The text will be miniature, and users will want to expand it anyway. To make it viewable at this width, you&#8217;ll probably end up relying on the pan and zoom features in Camtasia Studio. As soon as you start adding in the pan and zooms and other post-production processing, creating that simple screencast jumped from about a 5 minute operation to an hour. After a few screencasts, you&#8217;ll tell yourself you don&#8217;t have time for screencasting.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s a much better way to create screencasts: <a href="http://www.jingproject.com/" target="_blank">Jing</a> and <a href="http://screencast.com" target="_blank">Screencast.com</a>.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a sample screencast embedded with Jing.</p>
<p><object width="600" height="320" data="http://content.screencast.com/users/tomjohnson1492/folders/Jing/media/cd070d35-fa56-4f19-b27e-a5a938aecb2a/jingh264player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="flashVars" value="thumb=http://content.screencast.com/users/tomjohnson1492/folders/Jing/media/cd070d35-fa56-4f19-b27e-a5a938aecb2a/FirstFrame.jpg&amp;containerwidth=600&amp;containerheight=320&amp;showbranding=false&amp;content=http://content.screencast.com/users/tomjohnson1492/folders/Jing/media/cd070d35-fa56-4f19-b27e-a5a938aecb2a/wptestnoftp.mp4" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="scale" value="showall" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="base" value="http://content.screencast.com/users/tomjohnson1492/folders/Jing/media/cd070d35-fa56-4f19-b27e-a5a938aecb2a/" /><param name="src" value="http://content.screencast.com/users/tomjohnson1492/folders/Jing/media/cd070d35-fa56-4f19-b27e-a5a938aecb2a/jingh264player.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value="thumb=http://content.screencast.com/users/tomjohnson1492/folders/Jing/media/cd070d35-fa56-4f19-b27e-a5a938aecb2a/FirstFrame.jpg&amp;containerwidth=600&amp;containerheight=320&amp;showbranding=false&amp;content=http://content.screencast.com/users/tomjohnson1492/folders/Jing/media/cd070d35-fa56-4f19-b27e-a5a938aecb2a/wptestnoftp.mp4" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /></object></p>
<p>In the compressed form, the text is hard to see, similar to the other video players. However, if you click the expand button (see image below), the player expands to show perfect pixel clarity, unlike the other video services. It also darkens the background, giving you more of a movie-viewing experience.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/thebutton.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2939 alignnone" title="This button expands the player" src="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/thebutton.jpg" alt="This button expands the player" width="278" height="206" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://brooksandrus.com/blog" target="_blank">Brooks Andrus</a>, one of the Jing developers, created a tutorial on how to <a href="http://www.brooksandrus.com/blog/2009/02/09/embedding-jing-pro-videos-in-wordpress/" target="_blank">embed Jing videos into WordPress blogs</a>. You have to change a few parameters in the default screencast.com embed code to make it play in WordPress, but it only takes 10 seconds to change this. (It&#8217;s a bug they&#8217;re fixing.)</p>
<p>With both Jing Pro and Camtasia Studio, you can also capture HD quality screencasts. Just record a dimension of at least 1280 x 720 pixels. If you increase that size, maintain the same 4:3 aspect ratio. Choose the MPEG4 output (only available in Jing Pro). In both Jing Pro and Camtasia, the video output will be encoded with the H.264 codec. If you were to upload such a video to Vimeo, or embed it with the Jing wrapper as I explained above, the video would appear in HD quality.</p>
<p>You don&#8217;t have to use Screencast.com with Jing. Brooks <a href="http://www.brooksandrus.com/blog/2009/02/09/embedding-jing-pro-videos-in-wordpress/" target="_blank">also shows you how to FTP the video</a> to your own site and embed the screencast with the <a href="http://kimili.com/plugins/kml_flashembed" target="_blank">Kimili flash embed plugin.</a> This solution is useful if you want to maintain tighter control over your content.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been experimenting with Vimeo and other video-sharing services for the past couple of days. Overall, I&#8217;m pretty sold on the Jing/Screencast.com solution (or the Jing wrapper solution), for the reasons I explained in this post (cost, clarity, screen real estate). Jing and Screencast.com are also in their development infancy, so who knows, they may be working on more HD features similar to Vimeo right now anyway.</p>
<p>Do you agree with my analysis of screencasting solutions ? Are you embedding screencasts a different way? I&#8217;d like to hear your thoughts.<br />
<h2>Blog Sponsors</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://webworks.com">Webworks ePublisher</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scriptorium.com">Scriptorium</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.helpgenerator.com">Help Generator help authoring software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://idc.spsu.edu">Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication</a></li>
<li><a href="http://simplifiedenglish.net">Simplified English</a></li>
<li><a href="http://info.mindtouch.com/irbw/tcs-custom-tour?persona=content">MindTouch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/madpak/overview.aspx?utm_source=IdRatherBeWriting&#038;utm_medium=Banner&#038;utm_campaign=MadPak"</a>Madcap Software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.drexplain.com/">Dr.Explain</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/try.html?sdid=ITRSO">Adobe Technical Communication Suite</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.congree.com/en/download-congree-personal-edition.aspx">Congree</a></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/02/09/hd-quality-screencasts-embedded-in-your-blog/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
<enclosure url="http://content.screencast.com/users/tomjohnson1492/folders/Jing/media/cd070d35-fa56-4f19-b27e-a5a938aecb2a/wptestnoftp.mp4" length="5654469" type="video/mp4" />
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Embedding Jing Pro Videos In WordPress</title>
		<link>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/02/09/embedding-jing-pro-videos-in-wordpress/</link>
		<comments>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/02/09/embedding-jing-pro-videos-in-wordpress/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:20:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Johnson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[embedding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Notes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://writerriver.com/?p=781</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Embedding Jing Pro Videos In WordPress Blog Sponsors Webworks ePublisher Scriptorium Help Generator help authoring software Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication Simplified English MindTouch]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.brooksandrus.com/blog/2009/02/09/embedding-jing-pro-videos-in-wordpress/comment-page-1/">Embedding Jing Pro Videos In WordPress</a><br />
<h2>Blog Sponsors</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://webworks.com">Webworks ePublisher</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scriptorium.com">Scriptorium</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.helpgenerator.com">Help Generator help authoring software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://idc.spsu.edu">Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication</a></li>
<li><a href="http://simplifiedenglish.net">Simplified English</a></li>
<li><a href="http://info.mindtouch.com/irbw/tcs-custom-tour?persona=content">MindTouch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/madpak/overview.aspx?utm_source=IdRatherBeWriting&#038;utm_medium=Banner&#038;utm_campaign=MadPak"</a>Madcap Software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.drexplain.com/">Dr.Explain</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/try.html?sdid=ITRSO">Adobe Technical Communication Suite</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.congree.com/en/download-congree-personal-edition.aspx">Congree</a></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/02/09/embedding-jing-pro-videos-in-wordpress/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Five-Click Solution to Publishing and Uploading Screen Videos to SharePoint</title>
		<link>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/31/a-five-click-solution-to-publishing-and-uploading-screen-videos-to-sharepoint/</link>
		<comments>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/31/a-five-click-solution-to-publishing-and-uploading-screen-videos-to-sharepoint/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2009 07:25:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Johnson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[convenience]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jing pro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Screencasting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SharePoint]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[speed]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.idratherbewriting.com/?p=2816</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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&#8217;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 ... <a href="http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/31/a-five-click-solution-to-publishing-and-uploading-screen-videos-to-sharepoint/">more &#187;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_2820" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 160px"><a href="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/jingsun.png"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2820" title="Customizing Jing" src="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/jingsun-150x150.png" alt="Customizing Jing" width="150" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Customizing Jing to auto-publish to SharePoint</p></div>
<p>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&#8217;t sure if it was the best solution.</p>
<p>Of course I had an answer: <a href="http://jingproject.com" target="_blank">Jing</a>, I told him. I showed him how he could use Jing to quickly capture and save video, and he seemed impressed. I thought that was the end of the story, but no. Two days later he approached my desk again and said he needed an even faster way to upload the video. He was using a SharePoint wiki to document techniques. The process of saving the video and then uploading it using SharePoint was too tedious. I need it faster, he said. A couple of clicks and that&#8217;s it. The longer it takes, the less likely I am to create video at all.</p>
<p>He reinforced a belief I wrote about earlier: <a href="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2008/09/17/whats-convenient-gets-used-a-general-principle-that-applies-to-nearly-everything/">What&#8217;s convenient gets used</a>. With that principle in mind, the following is the quickest video solution for uploading Jing videos to a SharePoint directory. This process requires a few minutes of setup, but once you set it up, it literally takes just five clicks to initiate, capture, and publish a video to SharePoint. <span id="more-2816"></span></p>
<h3>1. Find the SharePoint Document Library Path</h3>
<p>Find the path of a SharePoint document library that you want to upload videos into. To do this:</p>
<ol>
<li>Go to the Document Library where you want to store the uploaded videos.</li>
<li>Click the <strong>Actions </strong>button and select <strong>Open with Windows Explorer</strong>. (If you&#8217;re in Firefox, you won&#8217;t see this option.) A window opens into which you can drag and drop files.</li>
<li>Copy the path that appears in the Address field at the top of the window.</li>
</ol>
<h3>2. Map a Network Drive to the SharePoint Library Path</h3>
<ol>
<li>*In Windows XP, double-click the <strong>My Computer </strong>icon on your desktop.</li>
<li>Go to <strong>Tools &gt; Map Network Drive</strong>.</li>
<li>Pick an unused drive letter.</li>
<li>In the Folder field, insert the path you copied in step 3 of the previous section.</li>
<li>Before clicking Finish, change the path a little. Remove the http: and switch the forward slashes to backslashes. For example, if you had https://abccompany.org/sites/jing/Documents, change it to <strong>\\abccompany.org\sites\jing\Documents</strong>.</li>
<li>Click <strong>Finish </strong>to close the dialog. If you typed the path correctly, the network drive should map and then open.</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>*Note: </strong>In Windows Vista, click the <strong>Start </strong>button, click <strong>Computer</strong>, and then click <strong>Map Network Drive.</strong></p>
<h3>3. Create a New Jing Button and Configure It to Publish to SharePoint</h3>
<ol>
<li>Start Jing.</li>
<li>Mouse over the Jing Sun and click the right ball (&#8220;More&#8221;).</li>
<li>Click the <strong>Preferences </strong>button (the cog icon, in the exact middle of the buttons).</li>
<li>Click <strong>Customize Jing Buttons</strong>. A row of buttons appears, somewhat similar to the following image (but without as many buttons).</li>
<div id="attachment_2819" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 459px"><a href="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/jingbuttons.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-2819" title="Jing buttons" src="http://www.idratherbewriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/jingbuttons.png" alt="Jing buttons to customize" width="449" height="147" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Jing buttons to customize</p></div>
<li>Click the <strong>New </strong>button.</li>
<li>In the top row of icons, click <strong>Save.</strong></li>
<li>In the Button Description field, type a name for the button. This helps you identify the button. (You can&#8217;t customize the graphic, and you may have multiple instances of the same graphic, so choose a good description.)</li>
<li>In the Save Location field, select <strong>Other</strong>. You&#8217;re prompted with a pop-up allowing you to browse for a folder.</li>
<li>Click the plus sign (<strong>+</strong>) next to My Computer and select drive you mapped; then click <strong>OK</strong>.</li>
<li>In the Clipboard Contents field of the Jing dialog box, select <strong>Custom Code</strong>.</li>
<li>In the Image custom return text field, type <strong>http://abccompany.org/sites/jing/Documents/[filename]</strong>. (Or whatever your path is &#8212; just make sure you add [filename] in brackets at the end.)</li>
<li>In the Video custom return text field, type <strong>http://abccompany.org/sites/jing/Documents/[filename]</strong>.</li>
<li>Click <strong>Save</strong>.</li>
<li>Drag the buttons in the order you want, and then click <strong>Close</strong>.</li>
</ol>
<h3>4. Set a Hotkey to Launch Jing</h3>
<ol>
<li>If the Jing preferences window isn&#8217;t open, mouse over the Jing sun and click the right ball (&#8220;More&#8221;).</li>
<li>Click the <strong>Preferences </strong>button (the cog icon).</li>
<li>In the Capture Hotkey field, type a trigger key, such as <strong>Alt+V</strong>.</li>
<li>Click the <strong>check mark </strong>button to close the Jing Sun dialog.</li>
</ol>
<h3>The Five-Click Process</h3>
<p>Now that you&#8217;ve set all this up, the five-click process for uploading a Jing videos is as follows.</p>
<ol>
<li>Click Alt+V (or whatever hotkey you configured to start a capture).</li>
<li>Click the video or image button to specify the type of capture.</li>
<li>If it&#8217;s a video, the video capture begins. After you&#8217;re finished, click the stop button to end the capture.</li>
<li>Click the custom Jing button you created (the one configured to upload directly to a SharePoint directory). After uploading, Jing automatically copies the path to the video or image to your clipboard.</li>
<li>In your wiki, click the hyperlink button to insert a link, or the image button to insert an image. Press Ctrl+V to insert the link to the video or image.</li>
</ol>
<p>
<h2>Blog Sponsors</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://webworks.com">Webworks ePublisher</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scriptorium.com">Scriptorium</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.helpgenerator.com">Help Generator help authoring software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://idc.spsu.edu">Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication</a></li>
<li><a href="http://simplifiedenglish.net">Simplified English</a></li>
<li><a href="http://info.mindtouch.com/irbw/tcs-custom-tour?persona=content">MindTouch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/madpak/overview.aspx?utm_source=IdRatherBeWriting&#038;utm_medium=Banner&#038;utm_campaign=MadPak"</a>Madcap Software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.drexplain.com/">Dr.Explain</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/try.html?sdid=ITRSO">Adobe Technical Communication Suite</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.congree.com/en/download-congree-personal-edition.aspx">Congree</a></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/31/a-five-click-solution-to-publishing-and-uploading-screen-videos-to-sharepoint/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Use FTP? Here&#039;s the Jing Wrapper and Embed Code &#8211; Jing Blog</title>
		<link>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/30/use-ftp-heres-the-jing-wrapper-and-embed-code-jing-blog/</link>
		<comments>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/30/use-ftp-heres-the-jing-wrapper-and-embed-code-jing-blog/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:17:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Johnson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[embedding videos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Flash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mpeg4]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Notes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[videos]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://writerriver.com/?p=732</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Use FTP? Here&#8217;s the Jing Wrapper and Embed Code &#8211; Jing Blog. Blog Sponsors Webworks ePublisher Scriptorium Help Generator help authoring software Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication Simplified English MindTouch]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://blog.jingproject.com/2009/01/use-ftp-heres-some-embed-code.html">Use FTP? Here&#8217;s the Jing Wrapper and Embed Code &#8211; Jing Blog</a>.<br />
<h2>Blog Sponsors</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://webworks.com">Webworks ePublisher</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scriptorium.com">Scriptorium</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.helpgenerator.com">Help Generator help authoring software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://idc.spsu.edu">Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication</a></li>
<li><a href="http://simplifiedenglish.net">Simplified English</a></li>
<li><a href="http://info.mindtouch.com/irbw/tcs-custom-tour?persona=content">MindTouch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/madpak/overview.aspx?utm_source=IdRatherBeWriting&#038;utm_medium=Banner&#038;utm_campaign=MadPak"</a>Madcap Software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.drexplain.com/">Dr.Explain</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/try.html?sdid=ITRSO">Adobe Technical Communication Suite</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.congree.com/en/download-congree-personal-edition.aspx">Congree</a></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/30/use-ftp-heres-the-jing-wrapper-and-embed-code-jing-blog/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Understanding the Jing Pro Video Formats &#8211; Jing Help Center</title>
		<link>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/30/understanding-the-jing-pro-video-formats-jing-help-center/</link>
		<comments>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/30/understanding-the-jing-pro-video-formats-jing-help-center/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:23:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Johnson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Camtasia Studio]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Captivate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Flash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jing pro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[movie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mpeg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Notes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[screen demo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Screencasting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[swf]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TechSmith]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://writerriver.com/?p=728</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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). Blog Sponsors Webworks ePublisher Scriptorium Help Generator help authoring software Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication Simplified English MindTouch]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://help.jingproject.com/tips-tricks-and-advanced/understanding-the-jing-pro-vid/">Understanding SWF versus MPEG-4 Formats in Jing Pro </a></p>
<p>I was confused by the difference between SWF and MPEG-4 before I read this explanation (which includes video examples).<br />
<h2>Blog Sponsors</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://webworks.com">Webworks ePublisher</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scriptorium.com">Scriptorium</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.helpgenerator.com">Help Generator help authoring software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://idc.spsu.edu">Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication</a></li>
<li><a href="http://simplifiedenglish.net">Simplified English</a></li>
<li><a href="http://info.mindtouch.com/irbw/tcs-custom-tour?persona=content">MindTouch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/madpak/overview.aspx?utm_source=IdRatherBeWriting&#038;utm_medium=Banner&#038;utm_campaign=MadPak"</a>Madcap Software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.drexplain.com/">Dr.Explain</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/try.html?sdid=ITRSO">Adobe Technical Communication Suite</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.congree.com/en/download-congree-personal-edition.aspx">Congree</a></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/30/understanding-the-jing-pro-video-formats-jing-help-center/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Top Technical Communication News for January 2009</title>
		<link>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/11/top-technical-communication-news-for-january-2009/</link>
		<comments>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/11/top-technical-communication-news-for-january-2009/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:29:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Johnson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Podcasts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Camtasia Studio]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cherryleaf]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[doc-to-help]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[i'm a tech writer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[salary survey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[techcomm toolbox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tools survey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress 2.7]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WritersUA]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.idratherbewriting.com/?p=2636</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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&#8217;ve normally done. The show notes below are excerpts of what I cover, but without any commentary. 1. Techcomm toolbox One of the most common questions heard on ... <a href="http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/11/top-technical-communication-news-for-january-2009/">more &#187;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a title="Top 10 Tech Comm News for January 2009" href="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://idratherbewriting.com/podcasts/top10_jan09.mp3"></a></p>
<p><a title="Top 10 Tech Comm News for January 2009" href="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://idratherbewriting.com/podcasts/top10_jan09.mp3">Download MP3</a> (to download, right-click and select Save Target As)<br />
Length: 12 min.</p>
<p>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&#8217;ve normally done. The show notes below are excerpts of what I cover, but without any commentary. <span id="more-2636"></span></p>
<p><a href="techcommtoolbox.com">1. Techcomm toolbox</a></p>
<blockquote><p>One of the most common questions heard on many forums is “What tool do you use for [purpose]?” Answers vary, of course, because everyone has their own favorites and some folks will even answer that the right tool is “the one that best meets your needs”.</p>
<p>Sometimes, many people will answer that you need to look at the different tools, download trial versions, and test. But where is the list of tools to choose from?</p>
<p>It’s here at TechComm Toolbox, your online resource for all applications, services, consultantsm, and trainers related to technical communication.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.mardahl.dk/2009/01/11/im-tweeting/  ">2. Emergence of STC groups on twitter</a></p>
<blockquote><p>More and more STC groups are joining and participating on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/stcaccess">stcaccess</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/stcchicago">stcchicago</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/stchouston">stchouston</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/stcboston">stcboston</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/stcintermtn">stcintermtn</a>. Also, Writer River now has a Twitter feed: <a href="http://twitter.com/writerriver">writerriver</a>.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://writersua.com" target="_blank">3. WritersUA Salary survey and tools survey going on</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The WritersUA Tools Survey is underway. The survey is designed to provide our community with a guide to the relative popularity and satisfaction of a number of tools. &#8230; The Salary Survey provides a look at the various factors that contribute to higher salaries in the software user assistance community.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://blog.jingproject.com/2009/01/like-jing-youll-love-jing-pro.html">4. Jing Pro Released</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Jing Pro brings you simply the best-in-class experience for quick visual online conversation. Imagine everything you already know and love about Jing, then add:</p>
<p>* HD quality video for the web<br />
* Direct output to YouTube<br />
* No more branding on the end of your videos.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="imatechwriter.com " target="_blank">5. I&#8217;m a tech writer photo gallery </a></p>
<blockquote><p>Technical Writers (aka Technical Authors, Content Wranglers and Documentation Managers) have an unfair image. This project aims to challenge this image, by showing technical writers in a different light. The photos below are of technical communications professionals, doing a variety of activities.If you are involved in technical writing and you&#8217;d like to be included, contact us and send us a photo, together with your name and location.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://conference.stc.org/">6. STC to record and make available the entire Summit</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Beginning this year at the Summit in Atlanta, STC will capture the content (audio and visuals) of almost every session and make it available to attendees at no additional cost. This will increase the value of your experience tenfold. After the conference, STC will sync the audio with the presentations and make them available (by passcode) for attendees on the STC website. This will allow [you] to “attend” all those sessions [you] missed. It will also allow [you] to revisit the ones that [you] did attend and to refresh [your] memory of the fine points made by the speakers. (From Mark Clifford&#8217;s January <em>News and Notes</em>)</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://wordpress.org/development/2008/12/coltrane/">7. WordPress 2.7 released.</a></p>
<blockquote><p>This may be the last time you ever have to manually upgrade WordPress again. We heard how tired you were of doing upgrades for yourself and your friends, so now WordPress includes a built-in upgrade that will automatically notify you of new releases, and when you’re ready it will download them, install them, and upgrade your blog with a single click. [Also, <a href="http://buddypress.com">BuddyPress</a> is in beta: "BuddyPress is a set of WordPress MU specific plugins, each plugin adding a distinct new feature. BuddyPress contains all the features you’d expect from WordPress but aims to let members socially interact."]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://tech-writing.alltop.com/">8. Alltop publishes Tech Writing category</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Alltop is an “online magazine rack” of popular topics. We update the stories every hour. Pick a topic by searching, news category, or name, and we’ll deliver it to you 24 x 7. All the topics, all the time.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/whatsnew.asp">9. Camtasia 6 released</a></p>
<blockquote><p>When recording audio and video at the same time, it&#8217;s hard to be perfect. So we&#8217;ve made it easier to fix mistakes. Simply decouple the audio and video tracks to edit them independently. And move audio clips between (and along) tracks to line everything up perfectly. Bottom line: fewer retakes and less time spent on editing.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.componentone.com/SuperProducts/DocToHelp/What%27s+New/">10. Doc to help releases 2009 version, with ribbon-based interface</a></p>
<blockquote><p>What&#8217;s new: built-in xml based editor, dynamic help control for embedding help in .net applications. xhtml converter, drag and drop linking, and abbility to import project settings.</p></blockquote>
<p>
<h2>Blog Sponsors</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://webworks.com">Webworks ePublisher</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scriptorium.com">Scriptorium</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.helpgenerator.com">Help Generator help authoring software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://idc.spsu.edu">Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication</a></li>
<li><a href="http://simplifiedenglish.net">Simplified English</a></li>
<li><a href="http://info.mindtouch.com/irbw/tcs-custom-tour?persona=content">MindTouch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/madpak/overview.aspx?utm_source=IdRatherBeWriting&#038;utm_medium=Banner&#038;utm_campaign=MadPak"</a>Madcap Software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.drexplain.com/">Dr.Explain</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/try.html?sdid=ITRSO">Adobe Technical Communication Suite</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.congree.com/en/download-congree-personal-edition.aspx">Congree</a></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/11/top-technical-communication-news-for-january-2009/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
<enclosure url="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://idratherbewriting.com/podcasts/top10_jan09.mp3" length="11649152" type="audio/mpeg" />
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Help on Movable Type Blog Format &#8212; Jing Help Center</title>
		<link>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/06/help-on-movable-type-blog-format-jing-help-center/</link>
		<comments>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/06/help-on-movable-type-blog-format-jing-help-center/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:34:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Johnson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[help]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[movable type]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Notes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Screencasting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TechSmith]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://writerriver.com/2009/01/06/help-on-movable-type-blog-format-jing-help-center/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Help in a Movable Type Blog Format &#8212; Jing Help Center Blog Sponsors Webworks ePublisher Scriptorium Help Generator help authoring software Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication Simplified English MindTouch]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://help.jingproject.com/" target="_blank">Help in a Movable Type Blog Format &#8212; Jing Help Center</a><br />
<h2>Blog Sponsors</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://webworks.com">Webworks ePublisher</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scriptorium.com">Scriptorium</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.helpgenerator.com">Help Generator help authoring software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://idc.spsu.edu">Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication</a></li>
<li><a href="http://simplifiedenglish.net">Simplified English</a></li>
<li><a href="http://info.mindtouch.com/irbw/tcs-custom-tour?persona=content">MindTouch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/madpak/overview.aspx?utm_source=IdRatherBeWriting&#038;utm_medium=Banner&#038;utm_campaign=MadPak"</a>Madcap Software</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.drexplain.com/">Dr.Explain</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/try.html?sdid=ITRSO">Adobe Technical Communication Suite</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.congree.com/en/download-congree-personal-edition.aspx">Congree</a></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/06/help-on-movable-type-blog-format-jing-help-center/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

