I noticed lately that my site has been taking a long time to load. You can check your loading time at Pingdom Tools. It took about 12.5 seconds to load the site! Holy smokes, I can't have that. I resized all my sidebar graphics and added a "Read more" tag before any pictures in posts.
This is a special survey request from Scott Abel of the Content Wrangler. I just took the survey. 2009 is a tough economic year for most of us. Companies are cutting back on nice-to-have purchases and focusing in on what's necessary. This survey conducted by The Content Wrangler (http://www.thecontentwrangler.com) aims to help us better understand your training needs for 2009 and to identify the types of classes you need. We plan to use t...
Listen here: In this podcast, I talk with Ricardo Amigo, a translator and podcaster in Mexico City and Costa Rica, about the field of technical writing. This podcast is more of a reverse interview. Instead of me asking the questions, Ricardo interviews me. The general topic is the field of technical writing, including all of the following: My path into technical writing Structured authoring XML and DITA Information ...
Listen here: Richard Hamilton is the author of Managing Writers: A Real World Guide to Managing Technical Documentation. His book, published in 2009, is one of the few books written specifically for managers that addresses the diversity of issues that managers face today – everything from hiring and firing to motivating, metrics, outsourcing, localization, content management, and more. Managing Writers Richard describes ...
This is a guest post by Thomas Curnyn, a technical writer in Dublin, Ireland. He currently works for a software company specializing in school administration and scheduling software. He's been at his job for the last 5 years and has been a writer for 10 years altogether. Tom wrote quite a while back about writing tests (10 Alternate Tests for Evaluating Technical Writing Job Candidates — A List for Hiring Managers) and he mentioned some t...
If you're interested in writing a guest post for I'd Rather Be Writing, I've added a page of requested topics. See the Guest Post Topics button on the navigation bar. I've been meaning to feature more guest posts for a while now. It's a great way to increase community involvement, provide more regular content on I'd Rather Be Writing, and give visibility to others. Also, if you're not writing for any other venue, this is a space where you...
If you're a writer, the most logical side job for the weekends is freelance writing. You know, copyediting for websites or other projects that people have. I've done this in the past, mostly picking up jobs from my brother-in-law who designs interactive flash sites and games for people. At times, the clients need copy as well. However, I've pretty much stopped doing freelance writing, for several reasons. First, freelance writing is a lo...
April 2009 Update: You can watch a recording of the webinar here. I'm giving a webinar to the STC Suncoast chapter on WordPress on April 14, if you're interested. The title of the webinar is "Introduction to WordPress." Here's the description: If you're a writer, chances are you already have a blog or are thinking of starting one. And if you work in technology, most likely you're thinking of using WordPress, the preferred blogging platfo...
Listen here: Last week Jane presented on Twitter to a group of business students at Brigham Young University -- Provo. This podcast is a recording of her presentation. For more information (beyond the podcast), see her online handout. Twitter for Business Resources about Jane Jane's blog: http://whataboutmomblog.com Jane on Twitter: http://twitter.com/whataboutmom Jane's email: [email protected]
Michael Pick's screencasts on WordPress.tv are, in my opinion, perfect screencasts. They're the best I've seen -- and I'm not just saying this because the video quality is crisp and the audio is rich. Pick blends filmography techniques with screencasting. Instead of the typical screencast that focuses almost entirely on the screen, with a disembodied voice narrating at length around a cursor's boring movement, Pick fills his screencasts w...
The other night Shannon and I saw Twilight. It wasn't my first choice, but it's not bad, especially for a vampire movie. Actually, Edward Cullen's phrase, "You're like my own personal brand of heroin," which he uses to describe Bella (who isn't a vampire), stuck in my mind. Here's the scene: Today I was thinking of this heroin phrase in relation to a couple of emails people sent me about technical writing. A bank teller tells me he fin...
Embedding HD video screencasts into a WordPress blog is something I've been trying to figure out. The HD quality is key because it allows me to compress the file into a small space without the video looking fuzzy -- a necessity for screencasts with small text. I also like the idea of showing video content directly where the reader is, rather than displaying the video in a popup or secondary window. I learned that if you upgrade your space...
Each social media site has its own badge. If you participate in a handful of them -- Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Tripit, etc -- it can be cumbersome to manage all your social media profiles and badges. DandyID.org is a site that helps you manage your social identities. It contains a list of 300+ social media services with profile fields for each. DandyID You enter your profile links for the services you participate in. Then you simply a...
This short film on youtube called "Validation" mesmerized me. If we applied these "validation" techniques to our interactions with SMEs, designers, and project managers, our world would certainly be different. The lead actor in the short film is TJ Thyne, the chemist on Bones.
Sometimes the audience for my help consists of seniors in the range of 60 to 85 years old. The other night I attended an orientation session with users to introduce them to a new application we were releasing. As part of the orientation, I observed first-hand the challenges that seniors have with computers. Here are a few user interface problems: Calendar picker tools are tough to navigate, since the forward and back links are small. In...
