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    Archive for WritersUA

    Conferences I’m Attending This Year

    February 28th, 2012 | 17 Comments »

    tomandben

    I’m attending three conferences this year: Confab, the STC Summit, and Lavacon.  Why did I pick these conferences, over others? I attended Confab’s inaugural conference last year and felt it was a good fit for my web publishing role at work. Although my job title is “senior technical writer,” I spend about 60% of my time being a web editor for LDSTech. LDSTech has a blog, wiki, … more »


    Why don’t technical writers use wikis — or do they?

    February 24th, 2012 | 51 Comments »

    Sarah Maddox guest post on wikis

    The following is a guest post by Sarah Maddox, a technical writer at Atlassian. In a recent conversation, Tom mentioned that he’s been pondering this question: “Why, in a time when collaboration is more important than ever, do wikis still remain mostly unused as a help authoring tool in tech comm departments?” Tom asked me to join his ponderings and write a guest post on … more »


    What Tools Do Technical Writers Use

    December 19th, 2011 | 11 Comments »

    What Tools Do Technical Writers Use?

    Students and others trying to break into technical writing are always wondering what tools they should use. The latest tools survey from WritersUA seems helpful in answering this question. The survey concludes that some of the most popular tools for technical writers are Adobe Acrobat, Camtasia Studio, Adobe Captivate, Dreamweaver, Madcap Flare, Framemaker, Photoshop, Robohelp, Snagit, and Visio. Of these tools, Flare scores highest as … more »


    Book Review: Developing User Assistance for Mobile Apps, by Joe Welinske

    August 2nd, 2011 | 9 Comments »

    Developing User Assistance for Mobile Apps, by Joe Welinske

    Joe Welinske’s latest book, Developing User Assistance for Mobile Apps (published June 2011), fills a gap in tech comm literature that is sorely needed. Joe explores strategies and techniques for providing user assistance for mobile devices, and goes in depth with iOS, Android, Windows, and tablets. Early in the book, he explains: Hopefully the organizations that employ us will start buying smartphone devices for us … more »


    Lots of Conferences Taking Place

    March 4th, 2011 | 11 Comments »

    tomandbenthumb

    Have you noticed how many good conferences are scheduled lately? I remember a couple of years ago, when Doc Train conferences ended, and some of us thought the STC Summit was approaching its last time — I thought conferences would become extinct. Today there are almost too many conferences. Here are some of the interesting looking conferences taking place within the next couple of months: … more »


    Review of Alan Porter’s Wiki: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit

    November 25th, 2010 | 7 Comments »

    wikiporter-thumb

    Alan Porter’s Wiki: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit, published by XML Press in October 2010, provides an excellent introduction to wikis. This is a short, easy-to-read book spanning about 150 pages. Alan has a keen sense of organization and liveliness in his writing. He carries the gardening metaphor throughout the book, ending with five solid case studies and an extended response to common … more »


    WritersUA – The WritersUA Tools Survey – Tools

    February 27th, 2009 | Comments Off

    WritersUA – The WritersUA Tools Survey – Tools.


    Top Technical Communication News for January 2009

    January 11th, 2009 | 7 Comments »

    [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.


    WritersUA Salary Survey, Tools Survey, and Upcoming Conference

    January 10th, 2009 | Comments Off

    WritersUA has their annual salary and tools surveys going on. Their survey results are among the most influential of surveys, so be sure to participate. Click the following links to take the surveys: WritersUA Tools Survey WritersUA Salary Survey Additionally, WritersUA has a conference coming up at the end of March. Although I’ve never been, everyone I’ve met who has attended has praised the conference. … more »


    The WritersUA Salary Survey

    January 9th, 2009 | Comments Off

    The WritersUA Salary Survey


    Technical Writing — Worth it? Interesting? Creative? Well-Paid? Hours? Answering a Few Questions from Saudi Arabia

    April 9th, 2008 | 16 Comments »

    Kalyani from Saudi Arabia writes, My name is Kalyani. I am 37 yrs old and live in Saudi Arabia. I have finished my Diploma in Electronics (4 year course). I was working at Hewlett Packard in India before moving to Saudi. In this country, women have very few opportunities to work i.e., only in the schools or hospitals. I chose to work in the school … more »


    Lots of 2008 SXSW Podcasts Now Available

    March 10th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

    The 2008 South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW) festival, currently underway in Austin, Texas, until March 16, is one of the most popular, high-energy tech conferences of the year. This Interactive conference “celebrates the creativity and passion behind the coolest new media technologies.” Basically, everyone who is doing anything cool on the Internet ends up speaking there. 37 Signals, Facebook, Wired — they’re all there. Many … more »


    2008 WritersUA Salary Survey Published: $76K Is Average

    January 30th, 2008 | 6 Comments »

    I read on Holly Harkness’s blog that the 2008 WritersUA Salary Survey has just been published. Holly writes, The good news is that salaries in the United States now average $76,044, up over $2000 from last year. The bad news is the gender gap in compensation is alive and well. Men average $4000 more per year than women. WritersUA reports that the gap is growing, … more »