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Technical Writing

Technical writing posts cover general aspects related to the practice of tech comm, and this is my catch-all category for topics that don't fit anywhere else. Technical writing refers to creating instructions for software or hardward products, often in the form of online help, instructional manuals, tutorials, or other guides. Technical writers help clarify complex topics and create step-by-step guides through difficult tasks.

The following content is in the technical writing category:

NotebookLM podcasts -- the missing piece in the GenAI puzzle?

Using AI to jump-start code samples

Unified Knowledge powered by Zoomin -- Q&A with Paul Maass

Two days in my life as a technical writer, followed by reflection and analysis of fragmenting microtasks

What a day in the life of a Technical Writer in the energy industry looks like -- Guest post by Bonnie Denham

Routines and habit stacking

Links from around the web -- June 10, 2024

What should your documentation metrics look like? Q&A with Zoomin about their 2024 Technical Content Benchmark Report

AI is accelerating my technical writing output, and other observations

Evaluating my 2023 site analytics -- why did my traffic drop?

My 2024 technical writing trends and predictions

Book review: Understanding Girls with ADHD: How They Feel and Why They Do What They Do

Movemate standing board review — fixing your back, legs from sedentary decline from a tech job

What is Diátaxis and should you be using it with your documentation?

[Podcast] AI and APIs: What works, what doesn't

Telling your conversion story into tech comm

How to meet other technical writers in Seattle -- WTD Seattle coffee chats

Doctave Q&A with Niklas Begley

News turns the content wheel of advertising

Newsletter: Endless news cycles, style checkers, finding research, noticing things around you

How to find academic research to back up your tech comm decisions

Book review of the Art of Noticing, by Rob Walker

From DITA to docs-as-code and Docusaurus: Q&A with Mike Howes

Newsletter: Copilot for Docs, Wappalyzer, Illusions, Late projects, Forbidden Fruit

Newsletter: Doctave, Chatbase, SiteGPT, small CLs, TC bibliography

What’s missing from the AI workflow: incentives for content creators to provide training data

Newsletter: Content creator ROI, Netlify, Madbot, and Hollywood

Newsletter: AI doc alerts, state of tools, saying easy or just, automated writing teams

Newsletter: Markprompt Q&A, LearningDITA, Snowflake docs, AI Commits

Meandering thoughts on my 2022 site analytics

Markprompt Q&A with Michael Fester

Newsletter: GPT-4 tutors, Phind.com, Dark user manuals, interfaces for reading docs, automation scripts, and bball

A script that creates a new Jekyll post and populates it with YAML frontmatter, and also makes a curl call to add a Rebrandly shortlink

Newsletter: Docs-as-ecosystem, structure in WordPress, identity crisis, and pencils

Newsletter: AI and tech comm survey results, Zoomin's predictions, Beating an ATS, ChatGPT plugin docs

Newsletter: Why engineers need to write, tech writers in pop culture, 101 subreddit, Cambrian period of AI (April 4, 2023)

Upcoming Webinar: API Trends Across the Lifecycle Webinar (April 11, 2023)

Beyond 'parts' documentation: Moving towards systems thinking with developer portals

Updates on my standing experiment: surprisingly good for the lower back

Presentation recording: Specialization myopia syndrome and the content journey

Podcast: All about Redocly, with founder Adam Altman

Building your own balance board for a standing desk

Finally got Covid -- my experience

Five ways to leverage big-picture thinking as a technical writer

New Job-Hunter Support Group course offered by Bobby Kennedy

New series: Sitting, standing, and walking

Book review: May I Ask a Technical Question, by Jeff Krinock and Matt Hoff

Two examples where high-level overviews are essential: Macbeth and Elon Musk

Pulling readers through long documents

Podcast about Archbee -- a new documentation tool with a block-based editor, API publishing capability, content re-use, and more

Attempting to write a Life of a [something] narrative

'Putting together things': Articulating a thesis about the effects of hyper-specialization on documentation

Expanding from cross-product newsletters to a book club and site

Some advice if you're just starting out your technical writing career

Systems thinking: Limits to Growth, Complex Cause and Effect, and Shifting the Burden

Systems thinking and developer portals

The impact of technical diversity on documentation -- epiphanies on a trip to IKEA

Technical diversity/pluralism/fragmentation in tech comm

My Commute Seattle Spotlight

Review of Peter Norton's Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving

Docs as Code

Inline ads -- updated advertising offerings

Keynote presentation to STC India 2022

Remote work

Git and GitHub

API documentation

Every page is page one

Marcom and tech comm

Scrum

Let's Talk Docs podcast -- episode on measuring API documentation quality

The History of Content -- Content Components podcast with Patrick Bosek and Sarah O'Keefe

Preparing for technical writing jobs and interviews -- posts from Aaron Redshaw

Content strategy

DITA

WordPress and web CMSs

Quick reference guides

Screencasting

Faceted filtering

Wikis and crowdsourcing

Help authoring tools (HATs) and single-sourcing

Intro to the series: Trends to follow or forget

[Podcast] Become a technical writer: conversation with Bobby Kennedy about the technical writing courses he offers

My multimodal commuting strategies

Archbee product review -- first look at a new online platform for writing and managing documentation

Part 6: The newsletter as the social content of corporations

MEGAComm recording: How to increase awareness of tech comm inside corporate walls

Results of the survey about fizzled trends: Every trend is still with us

Survey about documentation trends that fizzled (one-minute survey)

Webinar recording of 'Using MadCap Flare to Generate API Documentation'

Part 5: More specifics about finding a focus

Part 4: Creating engaging content: A balance of interests

Part 3: Five basics for building an audience on the web

Part 2: Initial attempts and failures with workplace content

Part 1: Introduction to influence on the web

Themes from 2021: working from home and podcasting

Site analytics for 2021 -- a few observations and reflections

Write the Docs Podcast Episode 35: Docs for Developers book, with Jared Bhatti and Zachary Sarah Corleissen

Presentation recording -- 'Best practices in API docs: Product overviews and getting started tutorials'

The existentialism of technical writing

tcworld China 2021 keynote: 'Tech comm and marketing: How to make your tech comm group more visible to those within your company'

Sending doc status reports -- a tool for visibility and relationship building [API doc course]

Recording of 'Product overviews vs. getting started tutorials: striking a balance between read-first and try-first user behaviors'

Five basketball strategies and how they might apply to tech comm

Balancing product overviews with getting started tutorials

Write the Docs Podcast Episode 34: Adding personality to documentation, with Fabrizio Ferri

Five project management responsibilities of senior technical writers

Trying to get back to normal

Paligo: Structured Authoring and Component Content Management made easy

Experiments: Leaving reviews on Google Maps

10 characteristics of ambiguous content

Experiments: Will reading a physical newspaper improve the way I consume news?

Experiments: What would happen if I exercised 2 hours a day?

Balancing action with narration: Creating product overviews and getting started tutorials to satisfy both try-first and read-first learning modes

An in-depth look at MadCap Flare 2021’s New Markdown Import Feature

Finding a focus

Technical writing course Q&A -- 'Become a Technical Writer', with Bobby Kennedy

Switching from Skype to Zoom for podcasting tools

Videocast: Micro content and Flare -- Conversation with Kate Schneider

Updated glossary article with technical examples [API doc course]

My life story, or reflections on what shaped my life's career trajectory

Analyzing doc portals by looking at developer journeys -- recommended podcast episode from Cherryleaf

Who can make documentation requests

Some good decisions and minor mistakes

10 observations after using my API documentation checklist in a real scenario

Adding last modified timestamps to content

Product overviews -- a tricky space where documentation and marketing overlap

Q&A about Xeditor -- online XML editor -- with founder Matthias Kraus

Cherryleaf collects tech writer goals for 2021

Moving to Seattle and making housing decisions using virtual tools

Job transition: from Amazon to Google

New API course article: Processes for changing internal doc culture

New API course article: Processes for external contributors

The story behind Document360 -- podcast with founder Saravana Kumar

Playing a product design role as a content designer -- podcast with Jonathon Colman

Webinar -- Optimizing Content Development: Grow Your Content Faster Than You Grow Your Team

Part VI: Results from the survey correlating org models and tech writer value

A tip for doc reviews -- bring a list of questions

Part VI: Conclusion, analysis, and feedback

Part V: On being strategic, interpersonal, and sponsored

Part IV: Engaging deep enough to blur the lines between content and product design

Part III: Correlating organization models with low value estimations

Part II: Personal layoff stories and reasons

Part I: Introduction and background

Diversity in tech comm -- Conversation with John Paz

What's the point of site search?

WTD Australia event recording -- 'Remote discussion: Techcomm in the times of pandemic'

Guest post: Why are technical writers often treated as such an unimportant part of a company?

Results of Pandemic Impact on Tech Comm survey

Podcast: Building Great Documentation -- WAPI FM radio hour

Connecting micro content with search analytics -- notes on the first MadCap Flare and MadCap Central 2020 Release

A user manual for your death?

My Knowledgebase Ninjas podcast episode -- Metrics don't work

Are technical writers increasingly playing non-technical roles? Some thoughts on the evolution of technical writing roles

Staying updated about what developers are changing -- my techniques for information sleuthing

The Manuscript Podcast, with Breno Barreto -- Episode 2, How technical should a tech writer be?

Checklist of different types of API docs

Podcast with Andrew Davis: Hiring API doc writers -- an inside look at fixing broken processes

Write the Docs Podcast episode 27: Starting a doc group/process when you're the first

New podcast: Unifying Technical Content Sets into a Broader Ecosystem, with Cruce Sanders at [A]

Autonomous Agile Teams and Enterprise Content Strategy: An Impossible Combination?

Learning about event planning -- life pro tips from Jack Molisani

Write the Docs Podcast episode 26: Technical writing and Reddit, with Alan Bowman

2020 Developer documentation survey

Podcast: API Design and Usability with Arnaud Lauret (API Handyman)

When reference docs lack a tutorial -- a look at Wescheme's Bootstrap documentation for students learning programming

Follow-up to 4 Technical Writing Tests Post

4 Technical Writing Tests to Screen Candidates

Write the Docs Podcast episode 25: Researching how developers use API docs, with Andrew Head

Matching documentation review practices to company culture

Some specifications docs I've been working on -- and thoughts on strategies and techniques for managing specs

Podcast: Dealing with Project Overload -- Strategies to Manage Overflowing Documentation Tasks

Podcast: 10 myths about API documentation

Write the Docs Podcast episode 24: Conference chatter and the Australian scene, with Swapnil Ogaler

Write the Docs Podcast episode 23: How to write inclusive tech documentation, by Lucie Le Naour

Can you collaborate on doc projects in Git with other writers?

Write the Docs Podcast episode 22: Managing multiple doc projects across Git repositories, with Giles Gaskell

Every project is a monster you battle and slay

Recording of Tech Comm Trends Presentation (STC Puget Sound chapter)

ClickHelp -- a flexible online platform for authoring and publishing technical documentation

My documentation project plan template

Reader question: Am I specializing too much by limiting my focus to docs only?

The essence of technical writing, and my five stages of review for documentation

Flare adds micro content feature, taking steps toward content management for AI scenarios

Write the Docs Podcast episode 21: On career growth, leadership, and mentoring in Tech Writing

How to encourage risk-taking and idealism without falling prey to cynical attitudes born from experience

XML Documentation for Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) — Integrating documentation and marketing content into a seamless whole

Confronting the fear of growing older when you're surrounded by young programmers

Recording and slides for my trends presentation at the Symposium for Communicating Complex Information (SCCI)

How to become a 10X technical writer in the workplace

How to motivate users to provide feedback: Show that you're listening to their input

Recording of Trends presentation on The Content Wrangler BrightTALK channel

Site analytics from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2018 -- are more engineers writing docs now?

Employment and salary outlook for technical writers based on the 2017-2018 STC Salary Database

The absolute worst that can happen in 2019, or, Imagining a dystopian corporatocracy emerge after a permanent government collapse

Top 10 holiday gifts for technical writers

My podcast about writing with Ellis Pratt on Cherryleaf

My upcoming presentation and workshop at the 2019 STC Summit in Denver

Upcoming BrightTALK webinar on trends -- January 15, 2019

Write the Docs Podcast episode 18: Recap and thoughts on the WTD Australia 2018 conference

How to avoid being a secretary for engineers

I'd Rather Be Writing is now an Alexa Flash Briefing skill

The Tell-Tale Project — Guest Post by Edgar Allan Poe, Technical Writer

The ideal number of slides for an hour-long presentation, and other thoughts on preparing slides

10 ways technical writing is just like the World Cup

MadCap Flare 2018 and MadCap Central Review for the May 2018 Release -- Guest post

My site now has Algolia search integrated

Do you have to relocate to an urban tech hub to find a technical writing job?

Strategies from pickup basketball -- Why you shouldn't guard the worst player or focus too much on the documentation no one reads

A Review of the MadWorld Conference -- guest post by Jayna Locke

The math game my daughter and her friend created with Codesters

What can we learn from the homogenous profiles in the Stack Overflow 2018 survey?

Guest post: The story behind DocToolHub, a site for finding tech comm tools

Perspectives on tech comm from the VP Candidates — Q&A with Pam Brewer

Perspectives on tech comm from the VP Candidates — Q&A with Ben Woelk

Two open-ended surveys to gauge practitioner/academic attitudes

Unexpected realizations after a comprehensive review of my 2017 site metrics

New STC Intercom article: How to Research What You Need to Learn to Be Successful as a Technical Writer

What technical writing trends will we see in 2018?

Part VIII: Conclusion

Part VI: Deepening documentation's value by simplifying complexity

Part V: Influencing the content experience

Part IV: Enabling information flow

Part III: Determining value through usage

Part II: Reviewing past research

Part I: Introduction to the series

Why is TC Camp's unconference format so popular? Interview with Liz Fraley, TC Camp Founder

The Untold Story of Techwriter.pl: A Polish website about technical communication for technical writers, trainers, and translators

Write the Docs Podcast episode 10: What's going on in our lives as documentarians and product owners

Convert Google Docs content to Markdown or HTML using the gd2md-html add-on

Has plain language deepened or ruined our delight in language?

Why Stack Overflow's Documentation effort failed -- a few thoughts from a technical writer's perspective

Tech docs and Agile: Alternatives to integrating into engineering Scrums (Part 2)

Tech docs and Agile: Problems with integrating tech writers into engineering Scrums (Part 1)

When the pain of ignorance exceeds the pain of learning

Transparency in documentation: dealing with limits about what you can and cannot say

Write the Docs Podcast episode 7: Let The Robots Do The Work

Circle review -- How to manage your kids' access to Internet devices

My second-chance points strategy with documentation

The problem with Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) in documentation

Write the Docs Podcast episode 6: Metadata and UI copy

Impressions from the Write the Docs Conference -- and thoughts on achieving sustainability without selling out to vendors

Slides for Write the Docs Portland presentation on doc navigation best practices

Testing your documentation -- updates in API doc course

Write the Docs Podcast episode 5: Where do we belong?

My Calm Meditation app -- another experiment to test my docs

Following instructions involves learning a new language -- adventures with Tinker Crate projects

Amazon begins pilot with voice-interactive user manuals

Write the Docs Podcast Episode 4 -- Continuous Integration and Docs as Code

Adobe FrameMaker 2017 -- time, tools, and the tech writer’s focus on content

Upcoming 2017 Write the Docs Conference in Portland

Guest Post -- MadCap Central: A Review for Companies Delivering Technical Communication Services

How do you learn what you need to learn to be successful as a technical writer?

Technical Writing Trends and Predictions for 2017

FrameMaker and the mobile web: Evaluating Adobe FrameMaker's responsive HTML5 output

MadCap Central -- a first look at MadCap’s new cloud-based collaboration and publishing solution

Generalist versus specialist: What should you focus on with knowledge building in your tech writing role?

Write the Docs Podcast Episode 2 (which Focuses on Findability) Now Available

Updating a single page versus updating the documentation as a whole

Write the Docs Podcast episode 1: New podcast from the Write the Docs community

Should you ever apologize for something product-related in your documentation? Looking at Apple's dongle documentation

How to avoid becoming extinct in your technical writing career

Markdown or reStructuredText or DITA? Choosing the right format for tech docs

How to tell if you're a content strategist

Apple's Two-Step Verification versus Two-Factor Authentication, or, When Marketing's lingo makes it impossible to communicate with plain speech

How to respond to product disasters: Analyzing Samsung's response to their exploding phones in contrast to Dyn's response to the DDoS attack

From podcasts to audio books and now back to podcasts -- experimenting with a new angle

Saving Your Sanity Through Better Client Relations -- with Alisa Bonsignore

My gravity towards tools

Kanban may be a better fit than scrum when you support large numbers of engineers

How can technical writers thrive in agile environments? Event recording and details

Implementing Swagger in your API documentation -- My ISTC article

Recording of Let's Tell a Story -- Scenario-Based Documentation, by Matt Ness (STC Silicon Valley Presentation)

Balancing the never-ending list of documentation to write with your natural interests and passions

The variety of tools tech comm professionals use

The Story of Paligo: A new browser-based CCMS with all the features you'd ever want

Applying Tim Ferriss' 4-hour work week rules to tech comm projects

How the Solve This! meetup format turned out -- plus some unachieved parallels with the Dead Poet Society

The difference between marketing writing and technical writing in one small sign

A jump in Google traffic due to content quality?

Interested in working as a technical writer at Amazon?

Recording of 'Move fast and ... document things,' by Ruthie Bendor at Write the Docs

Recording of 'Two great teams that work great together: Bridging the gap between documentation and support,' by Neal Kaplan at Write the Docs

Some post-STC Summit thoughts

How do you establish more context in a topic-based writing model?

Three types of knowledge every technical writer needs to be successful

Eight reasons why documentation fails for users, and what to do about it

Lightning talks from San Francisco Write the Docs meetup

Hi there – Let’s get casual… Guest post by Lavanya Krishnamurthy

Retrospective — Looking back at the good and bad of previous experiences

So People Don't RTFM? Write a FM That's Worth R'ing — Guest post by Marcia Riefer Johnston

I'm starting a new job at Amazon Lab126

Three models for single source publishing — and challenges with each

How to apply agile processes to manage your life's projects

Analyzing top posts on my blog during 2015 — Deciding between brand versus readership

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

My upcoming 2016 STC Summit workshop and presentation

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

Planning my API doc course

Upcoming Write the Docs Meetup

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

Question: How are you publishing and delivering your docs?

Upcoming "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) session

Survey analyzing skill requirements in job postings

How to avoid broken links when single sourcing

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

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

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

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

Should you add your testing scenarios into your documentation?

Is it inefficient to frequently switch contexts among multiple projects?

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

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

Should technical writers care about more than documentation?

Communicating feedback from testing documentation

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

Should QA test documentation?

The key to writing good documentation: Testing your instructions

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

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

How to avoid early death from sitting down all day

How do you authenticate your documentation?

Check out my conversation on ContentHug

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

Switched commenting systems to Disqus

Authoring with Markdown in Jekyll versus Authoring with DITA in OxygenXML

Some thoughts on attending tcworld India 2015

PDF still trumps browser-based help?

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

Pushing content into any format with Jekyll

How to create a help API

Static site generators start to replace web publishing platforms like WordPress

Piggybacking onto the innovation of the web

Microsoft and the last 5 great technological innovations

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

XML and the web: drifting farther apart?

The only significant innovation for tech comm

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

Why do we need PDFs?

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

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

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

API doc survey result: Automating REST API documentation

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

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

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

Predictions for Top 10 Technical Writing Trends for 2015

Authoring tools for startups -- Guest post by Vinish Garg

Convert Markdown Content to DITA in 20 seconds

The Upcoming TC Camp Unconference and my morning API workshop

Tech comm on a map: See all the tech comm groups, meetups, conferences, events, and consultants on a Google map

Impressions from my first Write the Docs meetup

The Evolution of Technical Writing

Simplifying DITA authoring by using a Markdown to HTML to DITA workflow

DocOps: Interview with Jim Turcotte

Import DITA's XHTML Output into WordPress

Outside the tech comm tool bubble, there is a wide, wide world

Foreword to Developing User Assistance for Mobile Apps, 2nd Edition

STC Intercom Issue Entirely Dedicated to API Documentation

Thirteen life hacks

Benefits of tool diversity, part II

Strategies for content re-use in Confluence

10 technical writing principles to live by

Started a new job

How to embed looping videos on your web page

My Intercom article on gamification and user engagement

The need for robust tech comm authoring tools

Strategies for using links with DITA

STC Chapter provides lavish "all expenses paid" outing to San Diego zoo for members

Now that debts are paid off, plan to travel the world for a year, documenting things

Dita Von Teese to give keynote at DITA North America 2014 Conference

New hot coals event to be highlight at Lavacon conference

The Content Wrangler Announces New 52 Mini-Conference Model

soap! A new conference for technical writers in Poland

Do I need to take courses in technical writing? Guest post by Laura Palmer

Videos and reflections from the 2014 Intelligent Content Conference

A simple way to write, edit, and publish documentation online using Google Docs and Markdown

How can we know something that is totally unfamiliar to us?

An argument for complexity rather than simplicity in technical communication

Gamification and user engagement in e-learning and documentation

Will structure and style make documentation processes less costly?

Upcoming interviews at the Intelligent Content Conference

Upcoming presentation to Sacramento STC Chapter on Jan 16

Upcoming API Workshop in San Jose on Feb 8, 2014

How to lose weight without starving yourself

TC Camp Unconference in San Jose, Calif. on January 25, 2014

Is Atlassian Marginalizing Confluence Power Users? Guest Post by Steve Goldberg

A bucket list for a career in tech comm?

Questions from readers: How to organize reviews, and whether a dedicated editor is worthwhile

Balancing new and familiar: Avoiding the Groundhog day syndrome

Everything I needed to know about technical writing I learned in preschool...

What to do with old manuals from products you own

Reader Question: How do I create online help, how to guides, quick start tutorials, or video tutorials?

Recommended Article: APIs are delivering on their promise (SD Times: Software Development News)

Turning Around the Disdain for Help by Focusing on Content

Sample Chapter from Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs, by Marcia Riefer Johnston

How Things Will Be in Tech Comm … After the Singularity?

Version 2.0 of I'd Rather Be Writing -- More Community Driven

Reader Question: How Do I Restrict Content by Role in the Same Output?

Exploring Markdown in Collaborative Authoring to Publishing Workflows

Does Merging Support Content with Documentation Increase Findability?

What makes Basketball Fun? Gamifying Exercise

How Can a Technical Writer Develop a Love of Programming Code?

How Do You Gamify Writing?

Why Do People Rank High on the MindTouch #Techcomm Influencer Report?

Adding Syntax Highlighting to Code Examples Online and in Microsoft Word

Avoiding Quadrant Four

Gamifying Chores

What I Learned in Searching for a Job

Moving to California and Starting a New Job

Two Competing Help Models: One-Stop Shopping or Specialized Stores?

Single Sourcing and Redundancy

How to Get Programmers to Change User Interfaces

Four Less Common Types of Technical Writers Companies Are Looking For

Import DITA Webhelp Output into WordPress

Single Sourcing Screen Captures to Print, Online, and Mobile Using Flare and Capture

Looking at Search Analytics to Improve Help Content

Top 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions about Technical Writing

Connection Points with the Tech Comm Role

Create a Child Theme to Customize a WordPress Theme

Message from Sponsors — January 2013

Reader Question: "My Wish List for Technical Writing Tools"

Moving Between the Agora and the Desert

Knowledge Has a New Shape, and It's Not the Book

The Rebirth of My Podcast

My Upcoming Presentations at User Assistance Europe in Manchester, England

A Few Notes from Too Big To Know

Five Ways to Avoid the "Congratulations" Cliche as You Start a User's Guide

Book Review: Your Brain at Work, by David Rock

Implementing Highlighting in Madcap Flare's HTML5 Output

Exploring Flare's Mobile Webhelp Format in Depth

Retina Display and Screen Capture Sizes in Online Help

10 Realizations While Writing Documentation for a Mobile App

Staying Out of Maintenance Mode

Writing in the Trenches Versus Writing on the Sidelines

Upcoming STC Editing SIG Webinar: Writing and Editing Scripts for Video Tutorials

Halloween Human Organ Donation Station

Company Strategies for Blog Content That Avoids Controversy

PowerPoint Slides from Lavacon Presentation on Producing Professional Sounding Audio in Video Tutorials

The Double-Edged Sword of Hiding Controversial Information

Podcast on Technical Writing

Book Review: No Easy Day

Specializing in the Next Big Thing: A Few Lingering Thoughts from Lavacon

Exploring the Tech Comm Paradox

How to Create Video Tutorials -- A Five Step Process

How to Change the World

Incorporating Elements of Speech into Writing

Why Isn't Spoken Language Easier for Writers?

Bringing the Scientific Mind to Tech Comm

Quick Reference Guide Gallery

Comparing Zumba to Technical Writing

Messages from Sponsors -- August 2012

Guest Post: Core Skills for Technical Writers Often Overlooked

This Theme Is Now Responsive

Unconscious Meaning Suggested from the Structure and Shape of Help

Why Do We Need Navigation At All?

Writing as a Holy Calling

How Can Newbies Learn Tech Comm Tools Given Their Cost?

Is Collaborative Authoring Over-Hyped?

Upcoming STC Webinar: Creating Help in a Wiki Environment

An Ingenious Way to Solicit Community Contributions, or, How to Replace the Screen for an Asus Laptop UL50AG

Content Strategy Workshops: Interview with Rahel Bailie

When Wikis Succeed and Fail

Confab 2012: Thoughts and Reactions

15 Tips for a Successful Conference Experience

How Character Drives Story -- Book Review of Ann Patchett's State of Wonder

Q&A: What should my major be for a career in technical writing?

Book Review: Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson

Stuck in a system

Asking questions is more important than finding answers -- why?

Differences between blogs and wikis, and why you might need both

Leveraging the wisdom of the 80/20 rule: Focusing on content that matters

Guest Post: Why I Love Wikis

Subpage Titles on Wikis -- Challenges, Conventions, and Compromises

Guest Post: Wikis Are the Future of Technical Documentation

Guest Post: A Week in My Life as a Technical Writer (with some humor)

Guest Post: Is Technical Writing Creative?

Thinking About a Social Media Strategy: A Few Elements to Consider

Technical Communication Metrics: What Should You Track?

Conferences I'm Attending This Year

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

Incensed at "Laid-back" Categorization of Technical Writing Career

Why I Love Audible

My New Email Strategy: The Email Game and ActiveInbox

Looking at The Peter Principle, Dilbert Principle, and Parkinson's Law

On Being an Individual Contributor

A Life of Its Own: An Essay About an Article That Was Never Published

A Reverse Approach to Help Authoring: Writing Documentation Post-Release

Brainstorming Solutions to Volunteer Management/Engagement

Messages from Sponsors -- January 2012

STC Certification: An In-Depth Interview with Steve Jong

Interview with Ugur Akinci about Technical Communication

Upcoming Webinar: Designing Quick Reference Guides

Graduate Research Findings about Technical Communication and Blogs in the Workplace

Using JIRA to Track Writing Assignments

A Lifetime of Reading Versus a Lifetime of Writing

What I Learned About Tech Comm During 2011

The Urge to Correct: Frustrations with Language Translation and Misuse

What Tools Do Technical Writers Use

Kanban and Limiting the Scope of Work

Matrix Foretells Future of Learning

Misleading Documentation Metrics

Writing My Last Chapter

Some Thoughts on Technical Writing in the Cloud

Wiki Culture, Reader/Writer Distinctions, and Divergence from Structured Authoring

Should Technical Writing Be Taught in High School? (Collaborative Post)

Why I Returned to Wikis for Help Authoring

Survey about Technical Writers and Blogging Activities

Senior Technical Writer Job Opening at the LDS Church

Moving Towards the "Dark Side": From Technical Writing to Content Marketing

Managing 60 + Volunteer Writers

The Importance of a Personal Face -- On Halloween

Blog Versus Web Log: Back to Origins

Adding Captions to Youtube Videos

Building Trust in a Corporate Blog

The Conference Proposal I Didn't Submit

Appearing on The Forge Show from TechSmith Today at 2pm EST

Visual Storytelling Guides: A New Deliverable in Technical Communication?

Visually Appealing Documents Combine Text with Images

Why Rubrics Fail as a Means of Measuring Documentation Quality

What I've Learned from Lunchtime Creative Writing Workshops

How I Took Back My E-mail Inbox

The Proximity Problem for Technical Writers

Book Review: The Hunger Games, and a Possible Parallel for Technical Writers

Should You Get a Graduate Degree in Technical Writing?

Collaborative Post: Why Is the "Technical" More Important Than the "Writing"

What Does It Mean to Know How to Write?

Three Solutions to the Corporate Blogging Paradox

Interview with Kevin Cuddihy, Editor of the STC Notebook Blog

Blown Away by Author-it Aspect

My Problem with Fiction, and How I Tried to Resolve It

Familiarity Affects Preferences for Text or Video

Guest Post: CMS UX Woes. It Shouldn't Be This Hard.

A Few Notes from Usability Testing: Video Tutorials Get Watched, Text Gets Skipped

Google Plus as a Professional Communication Tool

Collaborative Post: Giving Guidance to a Masters Student about Technical Writing Careers

Building on Past Successes for Future Directions

Groupon's Copywriting Style

On Content Strategy and Identity

The Most Important Stories ... Aren't the Ones I'm Writing

The Value of Content

Why Is Corporate Blogging So Hard?

Presentations Versus Conversations

Technical Writing in China

MindTouch Webinar — Organizing Help Content: The Problem of Findability

Join the LDSTech Blog Project and Write Articles for Your Portfolio

What Does It Mean to Be Innovative?

Moving from Google Reader to Twitter Hashtags

Every Page Is Page One

WordPress Workshop Outline for the STC Summit

Will We Still Know Us, Tomorrow?

Mooer's Law and Findability

Avoiding Burnout as a Technical Writer [Collaborative Post]

Collaborative Posts Q&A

Content Strategy for Content Agility

Predicting Tech Comm's Future for Mobile

Introducing Technical Writing World, a New Social Network for Technical Writers

Topic Chunking and The Broken Alarm Clock

The Importance of Chunking for Sorting

Guest Post: To each their own

Book Review: Everything is Miscellaneous, by David Weinberger

Book Review: Letting Go of the Words, by Ginny Redish

Getting Others to Work for You -- The First Step Toward Scalability

How to Become a Content Strategist [Collaborative Post]

Book Review: Elements of Content Strategy, by Erin Kissane

Book Review: Search Patterns, by Peter Morville and Jeffrey Callender

New Content Strategy Podcast and Other Good Resources

Seven Methods of Classification in a Hymnbook

Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based Hierarchies

Arguments for and Against Tripane Help

The Real Source of Findability

Update on the Search for Enterprise Authoring

Lots of Conferences Taking Place

Trends in Search Engine Optimization -- Shifting from Search to Social?

Post-Publishing Word Count Can Be Three Times as Long

I am perhaps finishing my basement, someday

WordPress Tips: Alternatives to Akismet, Design Software, and Dummy Content

The Enterprise Help Authoring Problem

"Powerful as a consumer, lame as an employee"

Formalizing My Help Strategy

The Problem of Free and the Long Tail of Content Production

From DITA to VITA: Tracing Origins and Projecting the Future

Making Help Content Enjoyable to Read -- Impossible Quest?

Free Ticket to Intelligent Content 2011 Conference

Less Text, Please: Contemporary Reading Behaviors and Short Formats

Minimalistic Callouts Heighten Visual Appeal

Findability and The Information Paradox

*Don't know how you do it all*: Some Thoughts on Productivity

Structured Authoring Survey from Scriptorium

Are Certificate Programs Helpful for Transitioning into Technical Writing? [Collaborative Post]

Martin Luther and Technical Communication

Technical Writing – Making Resolutions for the New Year

When Your WordPress Upgrade Fails

Screencasting Tip: Self-Dub the Audio

Participatory Economics: Are Companies Budgeting for Social Media?

Content Curation versus Content Creation

Does Tech Comm Fit into Mobile Trends?

Give the Perfect Gift this Season: A Laminated Quick Reference Guide

"Known Limitations": Making the Negative Space of Help Content a Little More Explicit

Do community efforts work?

My Comments on "Best Careers 2011: Technical Writer - US News and World Report"

Simplicity in a 550 page manual?

WordPress Tip: Integrating a WordPress Blog into your Website

The Perfect Voice -- Professional or Authentic?

Doc Plan Pains and Empowerment

Technology vs. Content, or Why Teaching WordPress Is Frustrating

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

Forum → Wiki → Blog Workflow

Tactics for Survival: A Technical Writers Field Guide to Overcoming the Forces of Petty PMs and Broken IT Environments

My Brand Is ...

Diverse Content and the Long Tail of Search Engine Metrics

10 Quick Tips for Project Managers about Help Content

When Help Content Is Forgotten

Text Matters

"I need your help with some documentation" (Xtranormal Movies)

Being Contrarian

What's the Statistical ROI of Technical Documentation? [Collaborative Post]

Strategy Versus Tactics and the Ongoing Debate about Roles

Why Help Content Fails and #contentstrategy

Why Tech Comm Is a Career Path of Last Resort for Students

Are Academics Just Talking to Themselves?

Technical Communication Careers: Getting Started and Finding Your Niche (BYU Idaho Presentation)

Guest Post on Firehead Blog -- "Finding a Content Strategy for Your Blog"

Paper.li as an Alternative to Google Reader [Screencast]

The Increasing Momentum of Content Strategy

Eight Defining Questions that Shape Content Organization [Organizing Content #29]

Students Contemplate Whether a Technical Writing Career Will Be Fulfilling

Visuals Engage Users -- Why Aren't There More Illustrations in Help Content? [Visual Imagination #1]

Organizing Content for Constructivist Learning [Organizing Content #28]

Substandard Wages for Technical Writers: A Growing Trend?

Why No One Will Hire You: 40 Professionals Give Advice on Improving a Technical Writer's Resume [Collaborative Post]

Downloading Audio from the STC Summit

Instructional Design Versus Technical Communication

Searching STC Resources for Information

You learn more from users in 5 minutes than you do from 2 weeks of project meetings

WordPress Tip: Inserting a Gallery of Images into a Post

WordPress Tip: Adding Custom Fields in Posts

Why Learning Software Is So Hard, and Organizing Content into Levels [Organizing Content #26]

The Importance of Visual Communication, or How to Build a Dirt Sifter

Organizing for Learnability [Organizing Content #25]

Perspectives on a Career in Technical Writing: Responses from 16 Tech Comm Professionals

I miss working with my hands

100 Rejected Summit Proposals

Best Practices for Writing Interface Text [Organizing Content #24]

The Interface Is Text [Organizing Content #23]

WordPress Tip: When you Forget your WordPress Username and Password

The Technical Writer as an Outsider: How Ambitious Are You? [Organizing Content #22]

WordPress Tip: Embed a Video into a Post Using WordPress's Auto-Embed Feature

Editorial Strategies and Mind Games

Introduction to WordPress -- Recording of WordPress Webinar

Principles for Organizing Print Material [Organizing Content #21]

The Role of the Gatekeeper

Relying on the Wisdom of the Crowds with Help Authoring [Organizing Content #20]

Moving into Technical Writing -- A DICE Article and More Links

WordCamp Utah is August 28

Emergence [Organizing Content #19]

Captivate Versus Camtasia Studio

Message from the Sponsors, July 16

Problem Solving and Sprinkler Repair

WordPress Webinar July 13 with the STC Consulting and Independent Contracting SIG

Add WordPress 3.0 Navigation System to Your Site

Free Copy of Camtasia Studio 7 and Snagit 10

24 Hours of Screencasts with Camtasia Studio

Showing Youtube Captions by Default in Another Language

Separating Basic from Advanced Topics: How Twitter Organizes Their Help [Organizing Content #18]

Do Some Project Managers Suffer from the Dunning-Kruger Effect?

"Load config.xml failed" message with Notepad++

Does a Technical Writer Need to Understand Web Design?

Save $50 on Registration to Lavacon Conference in San Diego

Breaking Things as a Form of Creativity

Organizing Content as Story [Organizing Content #17]

Tiny Tasks and Content Dilution

With Blog Usability, Provide Context and Avoid Mystery Puzzles

Experimenting with a New STC Chapter Meeting Model

Designing from the Content/Story Out

Can Blogs Work as a Web Platform for Help? [Organizing Content 16]

Removing Inline Links to Increase Readability

Lavacon's Web 2.0 Conference Website

e-Learning Event Coming Up This Friday (Utah location)

Faulty Assumptions About the Scope of Help Content? [Organizing Content 15]

The Semantic Web and Content Findability: Interview with Patrick Warren [Organizing Content 14]

Using Mediawiki Templates to Organize Content [Organizing Content 13]

New Menu Navigation System in WordPress 3.0

Help Authoring Tool Comparison from Sarah Maddox

From Help Authoring Tools to Web Tools, Especially Wikis [Organizing Content 12]

WordPress Tip: There's a Plugin for That

Search Engine Optimizing Your Help Content for Google [Organizing Content 11]

Figuring Out Search Algorithms [Organizing Content 10]

Browse Versus Search: Stumbling into the Unknown Unknown [Organizing Content 9]

Second-Level Faceted Navigation [Organizing Content 8]

Implementing Faceted Classification/Search with a Help Authoring Tool [Organizing Content 7]

Faceted Classification, Faceted Search [Organizing Content 6]

Topic-Based, Hierarchical Navigation [Organizing Content 5]

Imposing Order Versus Observing Order [Organizing Content 4]

Things Fall Apart, The Centre Cannot Hold [Organizing Content 3]

Introducing Project Swordfish [Organizing Content 2]

New Series: Organizing Content [Organizing Content 1]

25 Facets for Navigation [Organizing Content 5]

Changing Your Career to Technical Writing [Guest Responses from Bill Albing and Alyssa Fox]

"Tom Johnson: A Modern Day Technical Writer" -- NIU Article

A Few Ways to Make the Next STC Summit Better, #stc10

Videocast Gallery from the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

Finding Time to Draw: Ben Minson at the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

New Variables for Technical Writing Project Managers: Larry Kunz at the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

Tough Situations for Technical Communication Managers: Saul Carliner at the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

The Do-It-Yourself Philosophy: Saul Carliner at the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

SXSW Conference Versus STC Summit: Anne Gentle and Janet Swisher at the STC Summit, #stc10

Simple Tips for Website Accessibility: Brenda Huettner at the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

Old Guard Versus New Guard: Whitney Hess at the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

Pay-per-Content Versus Free: Char James-Tanny and Bill Swallow at the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

Upcoming Books from XML Press: Richard Hamilton at the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

Embedded Links and Online Reading Accessibility: Whitney Quesenbery and Caroline Jarrett, #stc10

Breaking into the Mobile Market: Joe Welinski at the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

The Art of Questioning: Rich Maggiani at the STC Summit, #stc10

Storytelling for User Experience: Whitney Quesenbery at the STC Summit #stc10

Trending Towards Mobile: Neil Perlin at the STC Summit #stc10

Trust and Transparency: Leadership Day at the STC Summit #stc10

What I'm presenting on at the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

The Compulsion to Figure Things Out

Quoted in Technical Writing Careers Blurb in U.S. News & World Report

“Blogs are Still Where Substantive Conversations are Happening.”

Typography for Lawyers

Why Tech Comm Professors Don't Teach Video

Why Usability is Praised and Tech Comm is Ignored

The Long Tail Applied to Writing

WordPress Tip: Quick Tip for Reducing Spam

Intro to From Overlooked to Center Stage (Overlooked)

Presenting at the Atlanta Currents Conference (Overlooked)

Why "This American Life" Is My Favorite Podcast

Feasibility, Believability, and Fixability: Three Reasons Not to Use a Professional Voiceover Actor

Comparing Creative Writing with Technical Writing (2 min Videocast)

When Social Media Becomes Hollow

Fixing Fumbled Sentences

WordPress Tip: Integrate Google Calendar into WordPress

WordPress Tip: Avoid Getting Hacked through Bluehost's cPanel

Finding Space to Breathe: Managing Overwhelming End-of-Project Tasks

Together or Apart: Collaboration Models for Technical Writing

The Art of Asking Questions

Praise: The Worst Feedback You Can Give Developers?

"I never really understood that feature, so I left it alone..."

The Common Language Everyone Speaks

Cures for the Information Exclusion Complex

What Would a WordPress Template for Chapter Sites Look Like?

Fragmented Communities and the Chapter/SIG Web Site Problem

Madcap Flare's Extensibility: Adding jQuery to Flare

Web Site Critique and WordPress Q&A Webinar This Thursday

Intermountain STC Chapter Meeting This Wednesday at 7 pm

The Turnaround Screencast

DITA Features in Madcap Flare Webcast Tuesday at 11 a.m. EST from Scriptorium

How to Embed Video on a Web Page

Trying to Find a Theater Stage/Voice for an Impossible Situation

Notes on My Latest Screencasts

Implementing Google Custom Search on WordPress

The Case of the Stolen Documentation

Directions I'm Going in 2010

Aligning Yourself with a Cause

A Creative Way to Become a Technical Writer

If No One Reads the Manual, That's Okay

What You Cannot Do Sitting Down

WordPress 2.9 Released

Removing ice from a driveway is like .... everything

Trying Out Picture in Picture in Screencasts

PowerPoint from Screencasting Webinar

Upcoming Webinar on Screencasting

WordPress Tip: How to Transfer WordPress to a New Web Host

Design Fixations with Mediawiki Skins

Collaborative Authoring Trends and Costs

Adding the Human Element in Screencasts

Ramping Up on Mediawiki

About My New Site Redesign

Site Critiques and WordPress Q&A -- Community Leaders Webinar Jan 28

What's the Best Microphone for Screencasting?

My Upcoming STC Webinar on Screencasting

Play Chess Online with ChessJam

A Microcosm of Technical Writing in the Kitchen While Cooking a Banana Cream Pie

Why Help Authoring Tools Will Fade

Contingent Senior Technical Writer Opening at LDS Church's ICS Department in Riverton, Utah

What I'm Presenting on at the Dallas Summit

Embedding Videos into Madcap Flare

Combining Cinema with Screencasting

How to Incorporate Twitter into Your Presentation

What I've Been Learning in Flare

Why Is It Important for Video Tutorials to Be User-Led?

Minimizing Documentation

21% of Intermountain Chapter Members Planning to Renew STC Membership

Design Reviews and Posting Without Answers

How Microsoft Visual Studio Is Doing Help

Podcast Roundtable for PodcampSLC Series

Theme Parks and External and Internal Input

The Long Tail of Online Profitability

Wikis and the Holy Grail of Content Independence

Reinventing Yourself Through Your Blog

NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo Start Nov 1

WordPress Tip: Install WordPress Locally

A Few Surprises in Using a Wiki for Documentation

Being irresponsible (Sins of blogging)

Forms of Play

Survey about Framemaker and EMC Documentum Integration

Technical Writer Ranks #5 in Least Stressful Jobs; Also, CNN Money Total Jobs Count Screwy

An Interview About Technical Writing

Chrysler Drops Long Car Manuals in Favor of Short Guides + Video

WordPress Tip: Section Widget and Advanced XML Export -- wordpress Plugin Winner and Runner Up

Google Releases Sidewiki and Adds to the Growing Trend of Conversation

Duct Tape Technical Writers

Smashing Magazine Lists 10 Web Usability Guidelines

Dallas STC Summit Proposals Due Oct 5

New Content Strategy SIG

STC 2008 Salary Database -- See Salaries for Technical Writers in Your State

Tips to Get Around Age Discrimination

"Tell me a story" -- Advice from Writers

The Appeal of Adobe InDesign

STC: Quo Vadis? Mike Hughes gets introspective about the STC situation

The Content Wrangler Moves to WordPress

How Do Blogs and Wikis Fit Together?

NY Times criticized for letting Pogue maintain Apple bias

WordPress Tip: WordPress Worm Requires Upgrade to 2.8.4

Writing as Conversation -- Brainsparks Podcast with Ginny Redish

The best time to publish your blog posts

Creativity in the Workplace

Avoiding the Shut Down Mode

Clive Thompson on the New Literacy

An argument for slowing down in an age of rapid online exchanges

Why teens don't use Twitter

Making Spaces in Cluttered Houses and Cluttered Lives

A Few Software Tips to Make Technical Writing Easier

Humor essay about a car manual's diction

"Social Documentation" -- Cool but Problematic

The Importance of LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook in Job Searches

Students Engaged by Discussion, Not Smart Classrooms

Convert RSS Feeds into a Magazine Format with Zinepal

Productivity Tip: Paper Number Piles

Applying Strunk and White's "Omit Needless Words" to Life

New Intermountain-STC Chapter Site

All About Technical Writing -- The Writing Show

Every piece of content matters - an interview with Gerry McGovern | Information & Design

Writing Style Guides and Your Parenting Style

Exporting Documentation to Wikis

Write When Inspired, Rest When Tired

Finding Business Models in the Economics of Free

Why Free Is the Future of Business

Stephen Fry iTunes Festival Keynote on Copyright and Music Piracy

Exactly How Much Does a Wordcamp Cost?

Tech Comm Lobotomies

Discovering Relationship Tables

Blogging as an Outlet for Technical Writers

Perks About Working in an Office Instead of Working from Home

Lying in a Hammock, or, Having a Single Goal without a Purpose

Are You Irrelevant? Engaging, Provocative Video

Screen Captures May Not Make Sense

Tip for Usability in Context-Sensitive Help

UAX (User Assistance Experience): Online vs. on-line

Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule

Read This If You Hate Meetings - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com

Daring Fireball: Charging for Access to News Sites

My STC Live Webinar on Blogging This Wednesday at 1pm

Moving Towards a Manifesto About Online Versus Print Formats

Become a Link Journalist for Writer River

What can Technical Authors learn from celebrity chefs and musicians? Cherryleaf Technical Authors Blog

Toward Content Quality :: UXmatters

Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data - Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design

My Guest Post on Unstoppability for DMN Communications

Three Questions to Start Thinking Like a Content Strategist

Insight into the theory of mind

New York Times Starts a “What We're Reading” Section

A List Apart: Articles: Content-tious Strategy

Content Strategy - a knol by Jeffrey MacIntyre

Best Practices For Effective Design Of "About me"-Pages | Design Showcase | Smashing Magazine

The Paris Review - Gay Talese: The Art of Nonfiction No. 2

InDesignSecrets » Learn InDesign One Feature at a Time

Keys to Being a Trusted Source of Information: Gryphon Mountain Journals

If You're a Writer, Write

What Users Don't Care About

Get Set Up

Content Theory: Sheep and Chaos — MK Anderson

A Mile Wide and 30 Seconds Deep: A Metaphor for Help from Mike Hughes

Two New Tools I'm Learning

How the Web and the Weblog have changed Writing

Interactive Google Map of Where I Work

Feedburner Add Customizable Subject Lines to Email Subscriptions

Mind Hacks: In our wildest dreams

Implementing a Department Wiki? A Writer Shares Some Dos and Don'ts (Guest Post)

Palimpsest: This is the future of technical communication

I Need Your Human Aggregated Content

Secrecy versus openness in communication

PDF Manuals: The Wrong Paradigm for an Online Experience

Can You Get Fit in Six Minutes a Week? - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

How Google Does Help

Real Projects for Entry-Level Writers Trying to Build Their Portfolios

Outsourcing vs. offshoring, and how U.S.-based technical writers can stay competitive « Your Writing Dept Blog

"What I'm Reading": A New Feature on My Site and a Tweak of Writer River

Core Dump: STC Floundering?

Identity and Authority. Why the Foundation of Documentation is Changing. | The LugIron Software Blog

Seeing the World in Clearer, Simpler Ways

It's Time to Shoot Your Blog | Copyblogger

Fictitious Documentation

Inkscape: the free alternative to Adobe Illustrator

The Blockhead Blog: Does the STC deserve to survive?

In Which I Comment on the STC Issue — MK Anderson

Speakers and fees: an insiders view | Speaker Confessions

Palimpsest: Flare 5 DITA feature review Part 1: Overview and map files

Extracting Images from Visio and Inserting Them in Indesign

Cartoon 12 [The Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway]

How to Avoid Extinction as a Technical Communicator

Cartoon 11 [The Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway]

Cartoon 10 [The Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway]

Quick reference guide slides from the Transalpine Conference

Social Networks and the TransAlpine Conference

Cartoon 9 [The Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway]

Day 8 Cartoon [The Twelve Days of Christmas in June Giveaway]

Add Links Using the Publish2 Bookmarklet

Day 7 Cartoon [The Twelve Days of Christmas in June Giveaway]

Day 6 Cartoon [The 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway]

Day 5 Cartoon [Christmas in June Giveaway]

Thinking About Vienna and the Legacy of Mozart

Day 4 Cartoon [Christmas in June Giveaway]

WordPress Tip: “Crunching” and “Burning”

Day 3 Cartoon [12 Days of Christmas in June Giveaway]

Day 2 Cartoon [The Twelve Days of Christmas in June Giveaway]

Day 1 Cartoon -- [The Twelve Days of Christmas in June Giveaway]

12 Days of Christmas in June Giveaway

Free video soft: video converter, ipod converter, mp4 converter

Having Fun with Snagit

WordPress Tip: Implement WordPress's Threaded Comments

WordPress Tip: 10 Reasons Why I Like WordPress

Following the NBA Can Make You a Better Technical Writer

Your WordPress Site Can Get Hacked If You Don't Have This

Sailboats and Cruise Ships, or, How My Work Podcast Was Dwarfed by a Mega Work Podcast

Drawing as a Tool for Thinking: The Back of the Napkin

The Best Thing I Did This Week

Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers and the Real Reason You Are a Successful Writer

Mother-in-Law Tip for Reading Manuals

STC Summit Atlanta Adventures: The Agony and Ecstasy of Presenting

Personal Branding: You Are What You Write About

Two Stories About How to Write Help

Going to Atlanta, #stc09

Documentation Usability: A Few Things I've Learned from Watching Users

WordPress Tip: Recording of WordPress Webinar

Can Others Do Your Job?

Making Money from Blogging

Telecommuting into Nonexistent Worlds

Anne Gentle to Give Virtual Presentation on Wikis on Thursday, April 23

What to Blog/Write About

Quick Reference Guides: Short and Sweet Documentation

Quick Reference Guides Right Where You Need Them

Blogging: A New Role for Technical Communicators

Why Most Designers Will Be Freelancers Within 20 Years | Freelance Folder

How Video Can Turn Your Career Around

The Corporate Blogger Story

AP Article Leads to "Helping Husbands and Fathers" Photo Project

Site Name Change

Adobe InDesign and Transparent Images on Color Backgrounds

Have Notebook Will Travel

Some Notes from Podcamp

Interviews that Shaped My Podcasting Style and Approach

InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Eliminating YDB (Yucky Discolored Box) Syndrome

Check Your Site's Loading Time

Survey About Technical Writers' Training Needs for 2009

What To Do When You're Not Picked to Be America's Next Top Tech Writer

New Feature: Regular Guest Posts

Why I Don't Take Freelance Writing Jobs Anymore

WordPress Tip: Introduction to WordPress -- Webinar, April 14

Examples of Perfect Screencasts

"Like My Own Personal Brand of Heroin"

HD Screencast Example

Managing Your Social Media Profiles and Badges

The Importance of Validation (video)

Notes Watching Senior Users at the Computer

Podcamp Salt Lake City, March 27 -- "Interviewing Remote and Local Guests for Podcasts"

Emotional States of Computer Users in Times of Frustration

Lessons Learned with Quick Reference Guides: Timing and Truth

STC Presentation this Thursday: "Quick Reference Guides: Short and Sweet Technical Documentation"

Translating with the New Madcap Lingo V2

InDesignSecrets

Trends in Web Design Involving WordPress

WordPress Tip: Rotating Flash Tag Clouds

Blogging Webinar Thursday Evening

WordPress Tip: Podcasts on WordPress: WordPress Weekly from the WordPress Tavern

Communication Preferences and Jane's Voicemail Message

"You know what .chms need? More bling-bling. More flash..."

Tip: Automatically Push Your Latest Blog Posts Across Twitter

Can SharePoint 2007 Be Used as a Help Authoring Tool?

Embedding HD Quality Screencasts in Your Blog

Free Screen Sharing Software: Adobe Connect

TiltViewer - About

Structured Authoring Survey from Scriptorium

10 Things I Learned from My Last Podcast

A Five-Click Solution to Publishing and Uploading Screen Videos to SharePoint

Customizing a SharePoint Site

Added a Blog Wall to my site

DITA Topics Tutorial

Embracing Opportunity

Premium WordPress Themes, WordPress 2.5 Premium Themes, Premium Wordpress Blog Templates | Blog Oh Blog

Styling Category Levels in WordPress (video)

Below the Line: Podcasters report their top 3 podcasting tips - part 1

Coding Horror: The Two Types of Browser Zoom

Upcoming Presentations, or, Blogging and Increased Visibility

Thoughts on Troubleshooting and Problem Solving

WordPress TV Launches -- The Appeal of Video Continues to Expand

Twittering Tips for Beginners - Pogue's Posts Blog - NYTimes.com

Poll: What blogging software is available for use at your work?

WritersUA Salary Survey, Tools Survey, and Upcoming Conference

My STC Intercom Article about Writer River and Community-Driven Websites

Tech Comm Toolbox: a Directory of Tools, Consultants, and Conferences

Dilbert animated shorts from your favorite comic strips

Flare Context Sensitive Help – Focusing the Minimized Help Window Back on Top

WordPress Tip: Questions I'm Often Asked About WordPress and Blogging

Wrapping up 2008 – Successes, Failures, and Goals for the Next Year

Tech Comm Toolbox

Good Designs Have Strong Contrast

The Pleasure of Language -- Essential Listening for Hyper-corrective Grammarians

How to Create Columns with CSS Float | eHow.com

Quick Reference Guide Formats -- Tips for Finding Attractive Layouts

Generational tech guilt?

WordPress Tip: Integrate WordPress into an Existing Website

A Tech Writer's World: A Killer Manual

Documentation Honesty and Poor User Interfaces -- An Ethical Dilemma?

What I See -- James Hall's Essays and Florida

The Podfading Roller Coaster

When Trust Becomes a Characteristic Flaw in a Project

Twitter Hashtags and Virtual Gatherings

Generations Change, But Help Formats Remain the Same?

Helpful Little Tips for Life

Writers See Stories Where Others Don't

Twitter Part II –- One Step Deeper

The Name of Your Department Does Matter

EServer TC Library: The Most Popular Technical Communication Website in the World

Does Twitter Fit into Your Branding Strategy?

Top 10 Gag Christmas Gifts for Technical Writers

Guy Kawasaki's Alltop Site Now Includes Technical Writing

Snippets Toward a Philosophy of Life

The Problem with Speaking Conversationally in Video Tutorials

What Constitutes "Intelligent Content"? Interview with Ann Rockley

Transitioning from Literary Studies to Technical Communication

My Tip for Productivity: Tear Up the To-Do List

Usability Newsletter Interview – I'd Rather Be Writing – The Man Behind the Words

Does Design Matter in Comparison to Content?

Finding a Conversational Voice in Video Tutorials

Dawn or Dusk -- Considering the Advantages of Early Morning

You Can Now Advertise on My Blog

Author-it Launches a Blog -- An Interview About the Who, Why, and How

'Lost the Fire – How to Rekindle It' – A Second Response

My Recommended Training for Corporate Bloggers: Live with a Mommy Blogger

Guest Post: Tech Writing Careers -- The Raw, Unvarnished Truth

Guest Post: Real Writers in Virtual Worlds

Two-Minute Video to Convince Others of the Value of Technical Documentation

Interview with Scott Abel, Conference Organizer Extraordinaire

10/23 Intermountain STC Meeting: An Informal Discussion of Any Tech Comm Challenges You're Facing

Seamlessly Integrating a Blog into Your Non-Blog Website

Caught in the Current of Writer River: Building and Participating in Community-Driven Websites

10 Ways to Gather Feedback from Users

What We Learn from Help Authoring Tool Surveys

Becoming a Writer -- Reflections on a Trip to Idaho

Results for My 10 Technical Writing Stereotypes Survey

Answering Reader's Questions: 'My Desire to Write Burns in My Heart Daily'

HelpScribe: Why software is the best technical writing field

Ingenious Technique for Helping Your Child Learn to Ride a Bike

Free Ticket to DITA Tech/Comm Conference in North Carolina Nov 3-6

Ten Technical Writing Stereotypes

WordPress Tip: Using WordPress as a CMS -- Wordcamp Utah

SEO Tips for Your Blog -- Wordcamp Utah

WordPress Tip: WordPress and Podcasting — Wordcamp Utah

WordPress Tip: WordPress 2.7 and Beyond – Keynote by Matt Mullenweg at Wordcamp Utah 2008

Free Doc Train East Ticket

Leaning Towards Longer Topics and Shorter TOCs

Recommended Podcast: "The Enforcers" from This American Life

Users Read Help Manuals Like an Encyclopedia, Not a Novel

Tip: Search Engine Optimize Your Blog Posts to Increase Your Readership

WordPress Tip: Limau-Orange Theme with Navigation Bar from Contempt

STC-Intermountain Meeting Tonight

Watch What Happens When You Copy from Word into a Blog Post

Thinking About an STC Proposal to Submit

What's Convenient Gets Used -- a General Principle That Applies to Nearly Everything

Wordcamp Utah -- Sept 27 in Provo, Utah

Prove My Help Authoring Tools Survey Wrong

Help Authoring Tool Survey: Who, What, and How

How Much Should You Document? Everything? Strategies for an Agile Environment

FLOSSmanuals.net: A New Wiki Help Authoring/Publishing Tool Hybrid

Why I Hate Camping -- And Then an Epiphany

Flare 4 Giveway — Enter to Win a Free Copy by Commenting on This Post | I'd Rather Be Writing - Tom Johnson

Explain what you feel is an important feature for a help authoring tool and why (Flare Giveaway)

Everything That Happened Today, or, The Busy Lives We Lead

Utah Technical Writers Group -- Finding the Technical Writing Community in Utah

Resources for Single Sourcing Projects

Comprehensive Podcast Index -- A List of All My Podcasts

On Podcasts -- Reasons for the Break and Plans for the Future

WordPress Tip: WordPress as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Application

Corporate Migration to the Blogosphere

Another Collaborative Site: Read Scriptures Together

How to Listen to Podcasts

Too Connected – Utopias and Dystopias of Communication

With All This Fuss About Tools, Three Best Practice Attitudes

User Assistance: Why I Hate PDFs

Word Macro for Resizing Images that Have a Specific Style

Tapping your creative juices Interesting ...

An Article That Changed My Approach to Help

Instructional Text in the User Interface: Some Counterintuitive Implications of User Behaviors :: UXmatters

Trends in Technical Communication: a review [TechScribe software documentation]

Free PDF Alternatives -- Save Yourself $700 and a Headache

A History of Tech Comm Tools. This is a ...

Echoes from the past: DITA, Help, Single-Sourcing tools -- Looking from the 60s to today

Get Training in Technical Writing

A Career in Technical Writing: End of Part One : PoeWar.com Writer's Resource Center

Thank You Silahsiz Kuvvetler for Showing Me the Light

Personal Essays on a Technical Writing Career -- by John Hewitt

The Myth of Simplicity and Complexity in Help Authoring

WordPress Tip: Show the Latest Post in Full, Then Summaries of the Other Posts

WordPress Tip: WordPress' Biggest Mistake

Reader Question: Creating Online Help for Touch-Screen Applications?

New Site Policy About How I Respond to Questions

Organizing Large Photo Collections Online -- Use the NextGen Gallery WordPress Plugin

When you don't feel like blogging, is it time to blog?

Tips for Distributing the Workload Among Your Team -- Answering a Reader's Question

Venn Diagram of What a Blog Should Be About

When can I say "janky" in my on-screen text?

WordPress Training This Saturday 9 am to Noon

WordPress Tip: WordPress Image Galleries — Give Your Photo Galleries a Lightbox/Slideshowesque Display

WordPress Tip: Woopra — Enough Live Site Stats to Write a Dissertation

Quick Reference Guides: The Poetry of Technical Writing

The Intersection of the Personal and Professional, or, Why My Attempts at Nonfiction Essays in Grad School Bombed

Approaching Help as Solutions to Problems — An Interesting Format from the CSS Cookbook

Interview with Me in TechCraft

"What's Next?" -- A Nice Way to End Help Topics

14 Widespread Myths about Technical Writing

My Compromise with SharePoint -- What Works and What Doesn't

My WordPress Site Was Hacked

Podcast: Five Books to Add to Your Technical Communication Library

The Kind of Documentation Users Really Want

"How can I become a successful TECHNICAL WRITER?"

Systems that Get Better the More People Use Them

Announcing WriterRiver.com, a Digg-like Social News Site for Technical Communicators

Technical Writer as Conversation Stopper, and Other Notes from the STC Summit in Philadelphia

My First Guest Post -- And Best Writing Tip

Playing with Sound -- Adding Downbeat Tempo to a Discourse on Shakespeare

Follow the STC Conference Twitterers at http://twemes.com/stc2008

Marketing Yourself and Your Experience to Others in a Web 2.0 World

My STC Summit Presentation and Panel -- "The Art of the Podcast" and Marketing Yourself in a Web 2.0 World

Exploring Web 2.0 Possibilities in a SharePoint-Endorsed Environment

Integrating All Library Content into One

Feedback on the Podcast From a German Listener

Poewar Giving Away $250 to the Guest Blogger Who Brings in the Most Traffic

Scott Nesbitt Interview with Stewart Mader on Wikis

Musings of a Tech Writer Podcast -- Mark in Canada Reflects on The Content Wrangler Versus the STC

SharePoint Wikis: Both Liberating and Frustrating

Giving a Virtual Presentation to STC-Phoenix on Tuesday, May 13

Post Doc-Train Thoughts While Sitting in the Vancouver Airport

Changing the Rules of the Game for the Benefit of the User

Social Media 101: Now Everyone's a Technical Writer

The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint That I Wish Everyone Followed

WordPress Tip: Using WordPress to Build Websites Instead of Blogs

WordPress Tip: My WordPress Quick Start Guide — Now Available on the WordPress Codex

WordPress for Beginners Course

The Broken STC Model -- and What's Replacing It

Updated Date and Time for WordPress Course -- Wednesday Evening, April 30

Madcap Blaze's Topic Review Feature: A First-of-a Kind Feature with an Interesting Workflow

WordPress for Beginners Course -- Wednesday Evening, April 30

Why Software Applications Need Product Blogs, and Why They Don't Get Them

How Much Time Do You Spend in Web 2.0 -- Interesting Article from the Read/Write Web

Find a Way to Have Fun in Your Writing

Looking for Corporate Examples of Web 2.0 Engagement

Guest Post -- From Blogging Veterans: Three Keys to Successful Blogging

The Right Way and Wrong Way to Teach People WordPress: Notes from a Wordcamp Utah Planning Meeting at Applebees

Podcaster Meetup at Doc Train West Conference in Vancouver

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

Keep an Open Mind: Detention Without Amanda Jones Isn't Necessarily Bad

NY Times Article Suggests Effects of Blogging = Weight Loss/Gain, Sleep Disorder, Exhaustion, Heart Disease, and Nervous Breakdown

How to Get Your Blog Mentioned in the Society for Technical Communication's Intercom: Include the Word "Technical Communicator"

A Recipe for More Engaging Software Demos

My Podcast in iTunes -- The iTunes Gods Have Granted Me Mercy

The Question No One Asked Me at the Career Advice Panel, Thank Goodness

The Best and Worst of Times with a Hard Headed Woman

Twitter Tools and Uses: The Most Comprehensive Listing of Twitter Resources I've Seen

A Creepy Widget I Absolutely Had to Add to My Blog

I Enjoy a Good Alien Podcast Now and Then

How to Get Everyone and Their Dog/Family/Friends Reading and Subscribing to Your Blog -- 10 Tips

What's the Best Thing You've Done to Grow Your Career?

I'm Planning to Offer WordPress Training -- Are You Interested?

Four Simple Ways to Avoid Totally Botching an Interview

Virtual Meetings: A Lofty Yet Impractical and Unwanted Ideal? or Exactly What We Need?

Seven Reasons Why I'm Twittering -- Especially During Conference Time

Are You One of the 824 Technical Communicators on Ning Yet?

Uncooperative Subjects: A Comparison of Two Failed Interviews and How to Turn Them Around

Body Hacks and Optimization

10 Alternate Tests for Evaluating Technical Writing Job Candidates -- A List for Hiring Managers

Six Ways I'm Using the H4 Zoom Recorder to Do Technical-Writing Related Things

Lots of 2008 SXSW Podcasts Now Available

My 5 Pet Peeves with Reading Blogs (mostly surrounding comments and feeds)

Deciding When to Speak Up and When to Shut Up

Two Types of Posts in the Blogosphere: Knowledge Posts and Creative Posts

Recording SME Demos -- It's Easier Than You Think

How to Record Live Presentations with the Zoom H4 Digital Recorder

Stoking the Creative Muse: How Finding Ideas to Write About Is Similar to Remembering Your Dreams

How My BlackBerry May Benefit You

Eight stitches for Susan

CNN Producer Fired for His Blog -- A Growing Discontent for Mainstream Media

10 Ways to Bomb Your Presentation

Have a Blog? a Podcast? Want one? Come learn everything you need to know

Why You Should Send Me (and Other Bloggers) Your Products for Free

A Glimpse into the World of Agile Technical Writing, a.k.a. Extreme Technical Writing (XTW)

Welcoming Camtasia Studio as a New Blog Sponsor

Two New Blogs to Add to Your Reader: Craig Haiss' Helpscribe and Sharon Burton's Madcap Blog

"Selection Beats Damping": A Compelling Argument About Why Blogs Trump Print Media

Top 10 Workspace Configurations for Technical Writers

Free Doc Train Ticket ($899) for Your Response to a Question About Innovation

Survey Results: How I'm Changing My Blog Based on Your Responses

Are Gerunds in Topic Titles Problematic in Search Results?

How Jing Can Benefit Technical Writers

Will you take my short survey?

Answering Questions on the "Practicalities of Blogging"

A Web 2.0 Documentation Idea Gone Wrong

I wish all companies provided tech support like this

Blogger Compiles Extensive Examples of Unnecessary Quotation Marks

Notes from My First WordPress Meetup

Camtasia Versus Captivate: Thinking About Screen Real Estate Problems in Video Captures

Madcap Flare Review: 45 Things I Love About Flare, 31 Things I Hate About It

2008 WritersUA Salary Survey Published: $76K Is Average

Blogging Jobs for Technical How-to Articles

PodcastFAQs.com: A New Information Resource for Podcasters

President Hinckley Passes

Clearplay: An Ingenious DVD Player That Filters Movies Without Altering Them

WordPress Meetup in Salt Lake City with Matt Mullenweg

Upcoming PodCamp in Salt Lake City on March 15

The Art of Interviewing — 10 Tips for Perfecting the Most Important Element of Podcasting

Innovation in Technology -- During Research, Unexpected Findings Lead You Down New Paths

How to Share Everything with Everyone (well, a few things anyway)

How to Get Out of a Slump, and Handle Pressure Situations Calmly

"Regular Sloggers Trying to Make a Living"

Three Notable Characteristics of Top 10 Posts: Lists, Headings, Images

Malcolmn Gladwell's Blink: Your First Impression Is Usually Correct in Complex Situations

Why Some Leaders Don't Blog: The Untold Story

The #1 Reason Why People Fail at Their Goals

"The great new tool for writing a book today is a blog ..."

My Blog and Podcast Site Are Now Merged into One -- Steps on How I Did It

Jeter Interviews Mike Hamilton at Former Blue Sky Software Office in La Jolla, Calif.

"Could you please tell me what the job of a technical writer is like?"

Adventures with the New Technical Communication Suite from Adobe (mostly RoboHelp 7 and Captivate)

The Hardest Part About Blogging: Coming Up With Something Interesting to Say

Why People Think Help Is Useless, and How To Change This Thought

Myths of Innovation: Brilliant Ideas Come From Constant Reflection, Not Random Chance

Interesting Technique for Discovering Software Changes and Building Rapport with developers

Reading this post made me want to be a workaholic

A Good Response to "No One Reads the Help Anyway"

Goodbye Podpress, it's time for a new mp3 player

Adding a Send Feedback link to Your Online Help / RoboHelp Project

99% of people who buy iPods don't realize several simple things ...

Sample Integration of Captivate Screen Demos in RoboHelp Hotspots

Free Copies of SnagIt 7 and Camtasia 3

Musicophillia -- The Brain's Unexplainable Affinity for Music

Thoughts on Adobe's New Technical Communication Suite

Embracing the New Vernacular Instead of Pursuing the Holy Grail of Single Sourcing

IT Author Podcast -- Two Podcasts on Flare, One on the Making of a Technical Writer, and a Dogcast on User Psychology

Online Anonymous Rating Sites: Empowering Individual Voices

Is Podcasting Dead? Jason Van Orden Versus Read/Write Web

MadCap Software Sponsors the Tech Writer Voices Podcast

Brain Waves and the Stimulation of Motivation/Creativity

Three Excellent Podcasts on Networking, Outsourcing, and DITA

Tech Writer: "Someone who writes as opposed to someone who rides something"

WordPress Automatic Upgrade -- Recommended WordPress Plugin

Innovation, Imagination, Creativity -- Google VP of Search Products Tells Story of Gmail

"A self-forgetful, perfectly useless concentration"

Reflections on Allison Reynold's Talk on Job Skills for the Workplace

Getting Excited About the Upcoming STC Summit in Pennsylvania

WordPress Tip: Recommended Plugin: Better Comments Manager

The Rockley Group Blog Is Here! I have a couple of DITA questions

My TechCraft Article: Should You Sit Near SMEs?

Implementing WordPress 2.3's New Tagging Feature

Counterpoints to "7 Blogging Beginner Mistakes"

LunarPages Sponsors the Tech Writer Voices Podcast

New WordPress Plugin Enables One-Click Installation of Plugins and Themes

News Posts versus Thought Posts

Five Skills Every Technical Writer Needs

My STC Intercom article: "Top 5 Podcasts for Technical Communicators"

Why you shouldn't be afraid of offending others and racking up a few penalties

A blog worth adding to your feeds -- and reasons why

My Shared Items from Google Reader

Recommended Podcast: This American Life's "Devil in Me" -- Explores a strategy for overcoming your inner demons

A Quick Way to Unsubscribe from Feeds in Google Reader

Cool Example of AJAX in a Blog -- Increases Usability

Is technical writing a calling or a job? Recommended DMN Communications podcast

Extracting information from SMEs

Three new resources to check out

My online absence isn't a permanent vacation

Thoughts on the Accumulation of Stuff [Junk]

Closing One Chapter, Opening a New One

Rethinking the Importance of Screenshots, Diagrams, and Other Visuals

Tom is moving to Utah

Gigzig: Shows Where You Were 5 Years Ago and Where You're Headed 5 Years From Now

A Perfect Model for Online Tutorials -- MS Visio Shapes Course

Survey for New USF Tech. Comm. Program -- Would These Courses Create Highly Qualified Tech Writers?

Best Tech Writing Tip Ever: Watch a User Try to Follow Your Instructions

Small and Simple Things -- The Best Kind of Goals

Rethinking the Term "Users"

Three Simple Mistakes Non-Technical Writers Make

Thoughts on the Rapidly Changing Pace of Technology

Tips for Avoiding a Sedentary Lifestyle in the Workplace

Resolving Browser Display Discrepancies Between IE and Firefox

If I Had Ten Days to Live ...

The Paradox of White Space: Some Research and Examples of White Space in Web Design

Making Special, Hidden Categories Separate From Your Home Page and Feed

Counterargument to the Importance of Categories in Blogs

Switching from Desktop to Online Tools

Accessibility for Blogs? New Audio Feature: Listen to Posts

Nicely Designed WordPress Blog — Simple, Lots of White Space

Converting Your WordPress Blog into a CMS (Content Management System)

David Pogue's Review of the iPhone -- Engaging Videocast Worth Watching

Economic Prosperity Tied to Openness and Tolerance, says Richard Florida; Also, Thoughts on Inclusive, Distributed Leadership

Search Engine Optimization for Your Blog: Three Easy Techniques, and also Drawbacks to SEO

Wikis in Documentation: Ann Gentle Asks, Can Wikis Stand Alone, or Must They Be Supplements?

Context-Sensitive Help -- An Easy Method Using Javascript

POPURLS -- Consolidated News Aggregation From Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, Tailrank, Newsvine, and 20 Other Sites

Google Reader's Shared Items Feature -- Allows You to Easily Share Selected Posts from Your Feeds

PostSecret -- a Postcard Confession Site, Fathers Theme

Survey Results of My Blog's Readership and My Accompanying Analysis

TechCrunch Founder Interview on iinnovate -- Arrington Talks About How Blogging Is a Treadmill

Intro to Information Architecture -- Reflections on the Different Roles We Can Play

My Podcast Picks

Installing Mediawiki Is Much Easier Than The Instructions Suggest -- My Quick 10 Step Tutorial for Installing Mediawiki

Madcap Flare Spotlight -- "Six Persistent Flare Problems" Post by Paul Pehrson

Google Master Plan Video -- Speculations on the Hidden Purposes Behind Google's Information Collection

Everything Is Miscellaneous -- The Problem with Classifying Information

Writing Style to Keep in Mind for Blog Posts -- Be Clearer Than Usual, State Main Point Up Front

Punishing by Rewards -- Motivational Techniques That Don't Work

Leadership Lesson: After Building Some Trust, Make Direct Invitations

How Information Travels in the Blogosphere -- a funny anecdote

Making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- Recommended Podcast

How to Record Conference Calls -- Answering Reader's Question

Lip Dub Video Clip Captures Essence of the Web -- Spontaneity, Authenticity, Participation, Fun

Vista Help Emphasizes Concepts in Effort to Create Power Users

Who are you? A one-question survey to identify my readers

How Scoble Reads 622 RSS Feeds -- Thoughts and Reactions

Installing Multiple Versions of WordPress on the Same Account, But Masking Them to Appear as Different Domains

Google Maps Offers Mind-Blowing Street View -- It's Like Walking Around Virtually in a City

Alan Houser Starts a Blog -- Check Out the Group Wellesley Wire

The Return of the Newsletter — How to Keep the Newsletter Concept Without the Work

How to Break into Technical Writing

The Death of Associations -- Declining STC Statistics Prompt Innovation, Realigning of Value

Usability Tip from Ricecooker Critiques Podcast -- Print the Documentation on the Product

Former HP CEO Talks About Corporate America and Why Constant Innovation Drives Success

WordPress 2.2 -- Here's Why It's Worth the Upgrade

Be Careful When Upgrading to WordPress 2.2 If You Have the WP-Cache Plugin — Adventures in Backing Up and Restoring WordPress Databases

My Podcasting Method for Face-to-Face Interviews

STC Conference: Whitney Quesenbery on the Five E's of Usability

Three Things to Avoid When Doing Face-to-Face Podcast Interviews

Blog Carnivals and my 'Makes-Me-Smile Monday' Post

On My Way to the STC conference in Minneapolis

Graduating Kindergartener Asks Difficult Interview Questions

STC Atlanta Launches Podcast — Michelle Schoen Is Atlanta's Resident Podcaster

Wikis in Action — The Top 57 Wikis by Rank

Setting Up a Wiki in a Few Minutes — Installing Dokuwiki

Help Support Tech Writer Voices — Consider this Our Spring Membership Campaign

Calling All Tech Writing Bloggers: List Your Blog in the New Tech Writing Blog Directory Wiki

Neil Perlin Enters Blogosphere and Gives Away Free Flare Stylesheets

Google 411 -- Free Information Listings via Phone

Perfect Explanation of RSS -- Engaging Video Tutorial

Free Conference Call Recording/Podcasting Service at FreeConferencing.LiveOffice.com

How Blogs Dominate Google — One Highly-Linked-To Blog Can Rule the World

Jott—a Free Voicemail to Transcribed Text Memo Service

Podcast Downloads Report -- About 8,500 downloads so far

Podcast Site Redesign -- I'm Now Using the Leia Theme

If you missed my presentation, here it is online (delivered through WordPress)

Where I'm Going, My Aspirations -- Everything Seems to Align with Web 2.0

More Topics

Basic Tutorial

WordPress as a CMS

Different Uses of WordPress

Why Blog?

Twenty Ways to Make Your Blog More Usable: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at WordPress

Blog Usability Checklist

Glamorous Careers Turn Out to Be Boring--This American Life Podcast

WordPress Plugins: Take Your Blog's Functionality To a New Level

Going to Vancouver on Tuesday for Doc Train Conference!

New Theme Viewer: 39 WordPress Themes I Like

WordPress Themes Crash Course: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started with Themes

Unraveling the Geologic Stratum of the Blogosphere: Why We Blog

RockYou—Create Dynamic Slideshows with Music for Your Site

On Writing Better: Tips from a South by Southwest Panel

Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers' Experiences

Former MySpace Exec. Explains How Experience Can Be an Impediment to Success

A Case for Corporate Transparency: How Channel 9 Changed Microsoft from the Darth Vader of Tech to Downright Visionary

STC Candidates: Submit a Story about a Defining Moment in Your Career

Answering Reader's Question: Can you give me a little information about the blogging section of your Web site?

Google CEO's Advice for People Entering a Technology Career: Stay Engaged, Keep Learning and Trying Things

How to Subscribe to RSS Feeds with Internet Explorer 7

Single Sourcing Wiki Tools for the Enterprise — Traction TeamPage5?

MySQL CEO Says, "It is dangerous to hire someobody who has too much experience."

WordPress vs. Movable Type: The Advantages of Open Source and What It Means for Technical Writers

Broken Days and Perfect Days

Yahoo Pipes and the Mashed Up World of Aggregated, Filtered, Blended Information

Three New Features for this Blog: a Post Index, Inbound Links Display, and Public Web Stats

Finding Work You Love Vs. Loving the Work You Find

Florida Competition Winner Explains Principle of Success: Brevity

Corporate Blogging: Five Rules for Success in the Blogosophere

Answering Reader's Questions: How To Keep Up with Work/Family Balance, and Which Tools to Use

WritersUA Publishes 2007 Salary Survey; 73k Is Average

Sierra Says Help Needs to Be Human, Conversational, and Geared Towards Panicky Users

Special STC Election podcast: Call for Participants

Dan Rather Podcast from South by Southwest: "Journalism needs a spine transplant; it has lost its guts"

TECHWR-L and Technical Editing SIG Implement Drupal and WordPress

The Evolutionary Strategy of Web 2.0 — It's Like Having 100 Personal Researchers Working For You

Embedding an Audio Player into Your Site Without WordPress

Nine Lessons for Would-be Bloggers -- Great Advice from Josh Porter on Overcoming Blogging Hangups

Microformats and the Semantic Web

Second Life: A 3-D Space for Virtual Meetups and Instruction?

Wikinomics: Combining Wikis with Economics; the More You Share, the More You Win

Librivox: Open Source Audio Books; You Contribute Your Own Readings

Plagiarism and Cannibalism Both Natural and Necessary, say Writers and Musicians

Creating Passionate Users Explains How to Make the Best User Manual Ever

Starting Your Own Blog: Tips for Non-profits

Free Podcasts at Open Culture: Informational Podcasts on Almost Everything

Looking at the Past; Exploring Directions for the Future

Number One Issue for Technical Writers Today: Keeping Pace with Rapidly Evolving Technology

Chapter Chat Results: It Went Well, But Only 4 Participated

OPML Files — What Feeds Are You Following?

Design good websites by following principles of technical writing style

Examples of companies integrating podcasts into their mix of technical communication deliverables?

37 Signals, To Do Lists — Printable To Do Lists To Get Organized

My First Virtual Administrative Meeting

"I don't have time to listen to podcasts..."

Grammar Girl Podcast — Some Thoughts on Grammar as a Topic for a Podcast

Spinvox: The Next Killer App. for Cell Phones

Integrating Google Adsense into this Blog

Never Listen to Voicemail via Cell Phone Again — Callwave.com & Spinvox Deliver Voicemail to Email for Free

Suncoast Member Map Finished

Guy Kawasaki's Impossible Burden: After Blog and E-mail, There's No Time to Write the Book

Matt Mullenweg Explains Genius of Akismet and Appeal of Fast Development Cycles

Eric Schwartzman Talks About Integrating Podcasts into the Marketing Mix

Virtual Meetings? Chat Feature

Blogging for Your Future Employer

Are Newsletters Dead?

WordPress Easter Egg Defies Logic by Removing Styles

Boagworld Shares Advice on Podcasting

Ze Frank's Show — STC Speaker in Minneapolis Conference

Doug Davis on the Job Side of Technical Writing — Location, Industry Experience, and Salary

Two more surveys — Innovations and WritersUSA

Podcast Revenue Idea: Provide 20 second Job Listing Spots in Place of Ads

Reflections on the First Cohost Podcast

Is technical writing boring?

DMN Comm. Podcast Gives Thumbs Down on RoboHelp; But More Interesting Is Shift in Style

10 Ways to Make Your Blog More Appealing

Take Clyde's Blogging Survey

Tech Writer Voices Switching to Co-Host Style

Writing Blog Posts by E-mail

Forrester Podcast Recommended — Web 2.0 Is About Building Relationships

Making a Chapter Member Map Mashup with Google Maps

10 Reasons Not to Upgrade to Robohelp 6

Podcasting Reader's Comments — The Pilotless Drone

Video on SharePoint 2007 Wiki, Blog, and RSS Functionality from Microsoft's Channel 9

Getting Started with WordPress — Video Tutorial on Installation

RoboHelp to Wiki Conversion Tool

Installing WordPress -- a Quick Video Tutorial

Using Wikis as Project Documentation Tools

Recommended Podcast: 43 Folders on Kung Fu, Meditation, and Sex

Blogs that Lose Direction and Go from Blog to Blah?

Survey Gizmo: The best tool/thing I have used/done

Are We Moving Toward GooOS, the Google Operating System?

User Paradox with Not Reading User Manuals

Using Ajax Shelf to Help Users Find Pages on Suncoast Site

10 pet peeves of technical writing

Tips from the Frederator: Pursue Life's Passion Online, and Blog Often, Short, and with Pics

Adobe Enters Blogosphere

Adobe Seminar -- Nice Connection and Demo, But Questions Seemed Filtered

Dealing with the Documentation Aspects of Bad Software -- My Response to the Latest DMN Communications Podcast

Wordpress 2.1 Review

Allure of New Media Requires Strict Bedtime Control or Else Sleep Deprivation Will Set In

The Curse of Knowledge -- The More You Know, the Worse You Become At Communicating That Knowledge

Recommended Podcast: Boagworld > Community Websites, by Paul Boag

Latest Podcast Is Posted on Tech Writer Voices

WordPress 2.1 Released -- This is a major release

Survey on Blogging -- Darren Barefoot

Applying Web 2.0 to Podcasting

Trying to Create Tech Writer Voices Logo

Technorati Blogosphere Report -- 1.3 million new posts per day, so what are people writing about?

Reading Blogs versus Reading Traditional Print Media

RoboHelp 6 Not Compatible with Word 2007

Preview Images of Link Destinations with Snap

Create RSS Feeds From Any Site With Ponyfish

Ten Tips for Problem Solving and Troubleshooting

WordPress = Bliss: The Joy of Customization

RoboHelp 6 launched — List of New Features

Web Developer Firefox Extension Makes CSS Editing Easy

Patience Thresholds for Technology

Listening to Podcasts Without Dedicating Any Time for Them

Why Software Sucks, by David Platt

Read a Book by E-mail, a Little Each Day with Daily Lit

Recording your chapter presentations

Dynamic Help in Visual Studio .NET

Podcasting article in STC Intercom magazine

Inexpensive Screencast Software: Blueberry Flashback Express Recorder

Talkr service converts text-only blogs into podcasts

Google Talk

WIFM and Blogging

The Concept of Trackbacks

Year in Review -- "You" Chosen as Most Important Person

Help 2.0: The Convergence of Help with Web 2.0

Rating Feature Now Available

WordPress Shopping Carts

New Look and New Approach to Blog/Podcast

Wikipedia -- indisputable Web 2.0 triumph

The Challenge of Web 2.0 Documentation: WordPress's Immense Codex

Payscale: a Web 2.0 salary comparison tool

How many of these Web 2.0 sites do you know?

Make your computer run faster by disabling all the auto-startup programs

Reading Tech News: Digg

Google Groups Rocks — Find Answers to Almost Everything

Web 2.0 dieting and nutrition site: Sparkpeople.com

WordPress as Budgeting Software: Mo.neytrack.in

Why Blogger is more popular than WordPress: Ease of Use

Using Gmail to read Threaded Conversations from Listservs

Designing for "Web 2.0" audiences

Skype Firefox Exention Changes Phone Numbers into Buttons

First Blog Post Using Word 2007

Open Source Folder Compression Utility -- 7 Zip

Word 2007 Features and Demo -- offers style sets to quickly transform documents

Creating Word templates with customized help delivered by Clippy

Posting Youtube Videos — A Required Tone for Internet Audiences?

Creating your own RSS Feed

Keith Hoffman Interviews Susan Burton, Exec. Director of the STC

Looking up IP addresses

New Podcast on Web 2.0, DITA, CMS

Podcasting article and my 15 favorite podcasts

Wordpress to offer Enterprise Edition

Open Source Software and Wikis

Checking out Youtube: A Few Fun Videos to Watch

Firefox and Deepest Sender are superior to IE7

The coolest thing ever -- Total Tech Writer Blog Aggregation

First survey results with Survey Gizmo

Recommended podcast: Facilitating Collaboration

Top 100 blogs and top 100 podcasts

Two useful tools for surveys and webinars

Getting Ideas for Your Blog: Oneword.com

Podcast metrics analysis for Tech Writer Voices

Corporate Blogging

Wordpress releases first official Wordpress Multi-User Edition

Calling all potential podcasters...

Being Interviewed Is Fun

Figuring out Audio

The popularity of how-to podcasts

Online SIG links to TechWriterVoices

Podcasting site is finished

Combining Podcasting with Technical Writing

Podcast site almost ready

DITA Structured Blogging and Online Help

Recording Phone Interviews

Advantages of using Wordpress for blogging

Websort -- Testing out the Logical Taxonomy of your Site

Using the Yahoo Maps API

Recording STC Chapter Presentations

A restful Labor Day weekend; thoughts on podcasting

Hard Drive Totally Crashed

FTCC launches its site and call for entries today

We need an IT Conversations for Tech Writers

Barry Schwartz — Less is More — Why Too Many Options Leads to Dissatisfaction

Malcolm Gladwell — Why People Can't Express What They Really Mean and Feel

Motivations for Hackers [and Technical Writers?] -- Paul Graham speech

Teddy Roosevelt's River of Doubt

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.