Today should have been a day of great excitement, almost like a coronation. Having struggled with a 175 page user manual for several months, I finally finished a first draft. Today I met with the client, alongside the senior project manager, the project manager, and a few others to present the sacred document, with the words "Reference Manual" on the front. I say it should have been a day of celebration. Instead, it was an event I knew wa...
Today I bring you a random compilation of helpful little tips -- for work, for home, or for dealing with kids, etc. -- that I've learned in life. If you're tired at work, rotate tasks on the half hour to stay productive. If you want to save money on toys, take your kids to a thrift store and let each child choose his or her own toy. If your bath tub drains slowly, remove the plug and use a bent coat hook to pull out the endless hair that...
Last week I had the opportunity to listen to Chad Hymas, an inspirational speaker (not the Chris Farley type), who related several powerful stories that changed him. A quadriplegic after a tractor-hay bale incident, Hymas shared how one can live a happier, more fulfilled, more productive life even without the use of one's limbs. We all sat mesmerized while Hymas related story after story. His speech wasn't polished or his diction articula...
Webworks and Twitter -- Innovative uses of Twitter with documentation Earlier this week I asked how others are using Twitter in their documentation and branding strategies. Alan Porter at WebWorks wrote me with details, saying: As you know we have a branded Twitter account (webworks_com) that we use for product announcements, information on speaking engagements, webinars and just general company updates. We also have a hashtag set up for ...
Although some feel the name of your tech writing department doesn't matter a whole lot (for example, TexasWriter says "Find out what people now call it. Ask what they mean by it. If it's accurate, use it. You aren't marketing, don't make it up"), actually your department's name does have an impact on the role you're expected to play. For example, our current department's name is "User Education." Because of this, every time a user has a h...
EServer TC Library (tc.eserver.org), an indexed library of technical communication articles, is the most popular technical communication website in the world, according to Alexa.com, a site that measures web traffic and Internet reach. The EServer TC Library doesn't produce original articles itself, but rather has a team of indexing scholars adding links to worthwhile content across the web. The indexers sort the content into twelve categ...
Twitter, often referred to as the water cooler of the Internet, teaches us the art of brevity by limiting communication to 140 characters or less. But unless you can compress instructional content in ingenious ways, you'll find Twitter limiting as a method for delivering documentation. Instead, Twitter is better used for the following: Eavesdropping on customer conversations Putting a personal face on your company Increasing the reach of...
Fortune cookies with fortunes rewritten as numbered lists. Bobblehead with favorite SME's face pasted on the front. Stack of how-to manuals from everything you assembled for Christmas. Copy of that House episode with the agoraphobe tech writer and comment "Saw this and thought of you." "Certificate" of year's achievements with typos on it. Jigsaw puzzle of the current interface the tech writer is documenting, but rearranged. Photo calend...
Last Sunday I was sitting in church when I felt my BlackBerry buzz. I quickly and discreetly checked to see if it was anything important. Indeed, it was a message from Guy Kawasaki letting me know my site was included in Alltop. At first I was floored, because Guy Kawasaki is a well-known figure in the tech world and it's cool to receive an email from him. Second, Alltop is a prestigious content aggregator. I later explored Alltop more th...
Thinking a little about my philosophy of life A couple of months ago I started writing little thoughts on post-it notes next to my monitor at work. The thoughts consisted of random little epiphanies or conclusions about life. I took the best 10 post-in notes and have collected them here as an attempt toward a philosophy of life. It's not much of a "philosophy," but I don't know what else to call it. In writing, story is what matters -- e...
Voiceover techniques 1.1 Finding a Conversational Voice in Video Tutorials 1.2 → The Problem with Speaking Conversationally in Video Tutorials 1.3 Finding an acoustic environment (Voiceover) 1.4 Sounding natural (Voiceover) ...
A few years ago, I wanted to better understand content management, so I picked up Managing Enterprise Content, by Ann Rockley, and read it through. It opened my eyes to a lot of new concepts. Ann is one of our field's leading experts in content management. She's now expanding in to something she calls "intelligent content." Intelligent content is a concept that builds on other concepts you may already be familiar with. I think we're goin...
Last night, unable to sleep at about 4 a.m., either because I went to bed early or because I simply couldn't sleep, I grabbed my BlackBerry, on its usual place on my nightstand, and began to read through my email and feeds, as I am accustomed to do, lying half-conscious on my pillow, when I saw this intriguing question from Harold Motley about whether the transition from literary studies to technical communication was fairly common, or r...
Will Write for Metamucil: User Assistance
Have you ever thought of tearing up your to-do list? A couple of weeks ago I started listing all of my to-do's in Outlook. Soon the list grew so long that I felt I would never be able to do it all. We all lead extremely busy lives. We have goals, commitments, and an almost endless amount of tasks to complete. Are there any productivity tips that work for you? Here's how my friends on Twitter responded: DeeElling: Take the work and go els...
