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2015 archives

  1. My 2016 technical writing trends and predictions, or the ripple effects of API growth on technical writers

  2. Recording of Creating Documentation for Startups: Panel Discussion -- Write the Docs San Francisco

  3. My upcoming 2016 STC Summit workshop and presentation

  4. How do you stay updated with changes developers are silently making?

  5. Those pesky authoring tool questions, and an update on my adventures with Jekyll

  6. Recording of Version Control, Writers, and Worfklows by Richard Mateosian

  7. Question: How long does it take to ramp up on your Jekyll theme?

  8. Swagger UI probably the coolest thing I've done in API docs

  9. 10 realizations as I was creating my Swagger spec and Swagger UI

  10. Guest Post: Could Software Perform Technical Writing? by Robert Desprez

  11. Single sourcing the Swagger spec and main documentation using Jekyll

  12. Version 4.0 released for the Jekyll Documentation Theme

  13. Planning my API doc course

  14. Upcoming Write the Docs Meetup

  15. My pros and cons of using Jekyll for documentation

  16. Can you replace a CCMS with version control such as Git or Mercurial?

  17. Tell me about your career as a technical writer...

  18. Why incremental regeneration in Jekyll 3.0 is such a big deal

  19. Increase efficiency 24 times faster when fixing errors — implications for technical writers on agile teams

  20. Podcast: Spec-driven Development of REST APIs, with a focus on RAML -- interview with Michael Stowe

  21. Udemy podcast (with me) and infographic on technical writing

  22. 5 REST API resources to add to your reading list

  23. Tutorial for creating interactive consoles with RAML

  24. Question: If you weren't a technical writer, what would you be?

  25. Why so little focus on API doc at tech comm conferences?

  26. Question: Can I earn a living blogging?

  27. Question: How long has your API doc course been available?

  28. Question: How are you publishing and delivering your docs?

  29. Question: How do I tell what platform people are using for API docs?

  30. Experimenting with a shorter post style

  31. Added native library API section to API doc course

  32. Upcoming "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) session

  33. Swagger tutorial for REST API documentation

  34. Survey analyzing skill requirements in job postings

  35. How to avoid broken links when single sourcing

  36. Editing workflows and reviews through Github's pull requests

  37. Comparing object-oriented design to content reuse

  38. How authorization works with APIs

  39. What is a REST API?

  40. Proposals for 2016 *STC Silicon Valley Chapter* presentations now accepted

  41. My process for creating vector diagrams with Illustrator

  42. Version 3.0 of my Documentation theme for Jekyll released

  43. Question: What qualities should technical writers have to work at startups?

  44. Podcast: The divide between academics and practitioners -- Interview with Lisa Meloncon

  45. Why is there a divide between academics and practitioners in tech comm?

  46. When are wikis ever successful?

  47. An easy way to support my site: Sign up for technical writing job alerts

  48. Podcast: How do design, length, and relevance affect how people use API reference docs -- interview with Bob Watson

  49. LearningDITA.com: A new online learning resource for DITA by Scriptorium

  50. How do you test content that's beyond your skill level?

  51. Should you add your testing scenarios into your documentation?

  52. Peter Gruenbaum has released part 2 of his Udemy course on API technical writing

  53. Survey results about the possible REST API workshop

  54. Is it inefficient to frequently switch contexts among multiple projects?

  55. Survey about possible REST API workshop — your feedback would be helpful

  56. Getting mobile friendly display and responsive design just right, especially with ads

  57. Reader question: How do I move forward out of a stagnant tech writing career?

  58. Should technical writers care about more than documentation?

  59. Build a technical writing portfolio by writing documentation for startups

  60. Communicating feedback from testing documentation

  61. Guest post: 10 New Things to Love and Hate About Flare

  62. Should QA test documentation?

  63. Listen to Ed Marsh's Content Content podcast with me as a guest

  64. The key to writing good documentation: Testing your instructions

  65. Pingdom reports with WordPress on Bluehost/MaxCDN versus with Jekyll on Github

  66. Three questions people ask me each week

  67. Slides, notes, and lessons learned at the STC Summit 2015 in Columbus, Ohio

  68. My upcoming workshop and presentation at the STC Summit 2015 in Columbus, Ohio

  69. How to avoid early death from sitting down all day

  70. How do you authenticate your documentation?

  71. My daughter published a real video game through "Girls Make Games" camp

  72. Check out my conversation on ContentHug

  73. How can technical writers cut through engineering jargon and decode complex information?

  74. Why no one stopped by my technical writing booth at career fair day

  75. Moved my blog from WordPress to Jekyll

  76. Integrating Documentation into engineering code and workflows

  77. API technical writing course on Udemy from Peter Gruenbaum, and some thoughts on documenting JSON

  78. Switched commenting systems to Disqus

  79. Introduction to technical writing -- slides and audio recording

  80. API Documentation presentation to East Bay STC chapter -- slides and recording

  81. How to design documentation for non-linear reading behavior

  82. Recording and slides from "Jekyll vs. DITA: Bridging the Gap Between Tech Comm and the Web" presentation

  83. User-centered documentation slides

  84. Upcoming presentation: Jekyll versus DITA: Bridging the Gap between Tech Comm and the Web

  85. New series: User-centered documentation

  86. Final analysis between DITA and Jekyll

  87. Producing PDFs in DITA versus Jekyll

  88. Reviewing content in DITA versus Jekyll

  89. Creating links in DITA versus Jekyll

  90. Newbie to Technical Writer in 4 Easy Steps

  91. Building a table of contents with DITA versus Jekyll

  92. Creating re-usable chunks (conref) in Jekyll versus DITA

  93. Variables and conditional processing in Jekyll versus DITA

  94. Authoring with Markdown in Jekyll versus Authoring with DITA in OxygenXML

  95. Check out Ed Marsh's podcast, and also My New series: Jekyll versus DITA

  96. Some thoughts on attending tcworld India 2015

  97. PDF still trumps browser-based help?

  98. Recording of API documentation workshop (REST and Javadoc) at tcworld India 2015

  99. Recording of Innovation in Technical Communication keynote at tcworld India 2015

  100. Slides for tcworld India 2015 presentations

  101. Reveal JS: An HTML5 alternative to PowerPoint, with support for SVG graphics

  102. Pushing content into any format with Jekyll

  103. How to create a help API

  104. Static site generators start to replace web publishing platforms like WordPress

  105. Some web tools worth using in help solutions

  106. Piggybacking onto the innovation of the web

  107. Microsoft and the last 5 great technological innovations

  108. Interactive video workshop in San Jose this Saturday, 1-5pm

  109. The genius of Github and how it can transform tech comm

  110. XML and the web: drifting farther apart?

  111. The only significant innovation for tech comm

  112. A long list of technical innovations semi-relevant to technical writers

  113. Sustaining and disruptive innovations

  114. Podcast: The upcoming tcworld India conference on March 12-13, with Akash Dubey

  115. Why do we need PDFs?

  116. Upcoming workshop: Creating Interactive Video Tutorials, with Bernard Aschwanden on Feb 21

  117. Best practices for API documentation -- podcast with Andrya Feinberg

  118. Survival strategies for API documentation -- slides and recording

  119. Creating context-sensitive help by converting your help into a JSON API with Jekyll

  120. Writing is like sorting laundry -- practical advice for tackling documentation projects

  121. 10 reasons for moving away from DITA

  122. API workshop video + audio + slides + workshop files from TC Camp

  123. Reinventing the table of contents

  124. Implementing ScrollSpy with Jekyll to auto-build a table of contents

  125. Moving from passive to reactive documentation -- recording of presentation by Greg Koberger, ReadMe.com founder

  126. Most important factor in APIs is complete and accurate documentation

  127. API doc survey: Do engineers write API doc in the source code?

  128. API doc survey: How much of your doc process is automated?

  129. Several REST API tutorials using the EventBrite, Klout, and Flickr APIs

  130. Experimenting with Jekyll for tech comm

  131. API doc survey: Most challenging aspect of API documentation

  132. Jan 12 Silicon Valley STC meeting: Passive vs. reactive doc + readme.com

  133. Question: How do I add my DITA content in Confluence for SME review?

  134. Podcast: Unifying the API doc publishing toolchain, with Mark Baker

  135. API doc survey result: How to learn what you need to know?

  136. API doc survey result: How do you get the source files that contain code comments?

  137. API doc survey result: Automating REST API documentation

  138. Podcast: Automating REST API documentation, with Peter Gruenbaum

  139. New cost-per-click feature for advertising on I'd Rather Be Writing During 2015

  140. My *real* top 10 technical writing trend predictions for 2015

  141. Top 10 posts, podcasts, tweets of 2014 -- and what it all means

  142. API doc survey: Do you create API doc by looking at source code?

  143. API doc survey: What IDE do you use?

  144. API doc survey: Do you test out the API calls used in your doc yourself?

  145. Predictions for Top 10 Technical Writing Trends for 2015

About Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson

I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.

If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the tech comm, be sure to subscribe to email updates below. You can also learn more about me or contact me. Finally, note that the opinions I express on my blog are my own points of view, not that of my employer.