I've been rethinking a previous post I wrote about the best response to the remark, "Nobody reads the help anyway. " A better response is to ask people (at just the right time) to raise their hands if they've ever searched a help file. Unless someone is totally unique, most likely everyone has tried using help. When everyone has his or her hand raised to indicate they've used help, it provides irrefutable evidence that help is used. The R...
After reading Scott Berkun's essay on the how to be a genius, I listened to some of his podcasts too. One myth is that geniuses get their ideas almost out of the sky -- Newton is watching an apple fall from the tree when he suddenly discovers gravity. Archimedes is taking a bath when he realizes the physics of buoyancy. Here's an excerpt of this Archimedes myth from Wikipedia: According to Vitruvius, a new crown in the shape of a laurel ...
You know the typical scenario -- the technical writer is the last one to be notified of changes to the application (be it interface or functionality), and developers hate reviewing the manuals we write. Recently a business analyst explained an interesting technique to me for not only discovering software changes, but also building rapport with developers. He said that in a previous company, he bought all the technical writers video camera...
Reading this post by Scott Berkun made me want to be a workaholic. Here's an excerpt: Show me a genius and I'll show you a workaholic. Van Gogh produced 2000 works of art between 1880 and 1890 (1100 paintings and 900 sketches). That's 4 works of art a week for a decade, and he didn't start making art until his mid twenties. DaVinci's famous journals represent decades of note taking, doodling and observations, and it's a good guess that wo...
In this three-minute STC Atlanta podcast, Judy Glick Smith says she's tired of trying to convince sales people of the value of documentation. She says she's "tired of fighting the good fight." No doubt as a technical writer you've heard the phrase, "No one reads the help anyway." They let out a small chuckle to indicate that they're only kidding, although deep down they're being totally serious. Many people believe help files are almost i...
I've been using PodPress, a WordPress plugin that adds an audio player to your posts, for about a year now. But today I'm saying goodbye to this plugin. Although Podpress includes size and duration, adds iTunes tags, and shows download counts, it is filled with compatibility problems with WordPress. It seems every time WordPress updates to a new version, PodPress breaks. Lately PodPress has failed to work entirely, despite supposed compat...
Listen here: RJ Jacquez, senior product evangelist at Adobe.com, talks about the new Technical Communication Suite from Adobe, which includes RoboHelp 7, Captivate 3, Acrobat 3D version 8, and Framemaker 8. Topics we discuss include the following: What the Technical Communication Suite includes and how each product interacts Integration of Captivate with RoboHelp Integration of Framemaker with RoboHelp Support for 35...
I was reading an article in a previous STC Intercom magazine about how to add a Send Feedback link to your online help project, but the javascript didn't work. Here's an alternative method that does work. This Send Feedback link grabs the page title and URL and includes it in the e-mail that the user sends. The method below describes the integration using RoboHelp, but the principles apply to almost any online help editor. To add a Send ...
99% of people who buy iPods don't realize several simple things ... iPod doesn't mean MP3 player. Even though most people use the term iPod interchangeably to mean MP3 player, iPods are only a brand of MP3 players. Unfortunately, iPod is now a term like Band-Aid or Kleenex. (My wife is often asking me where my iPod is, even though I have an iRiver.) You can't get music anywhere with your iPod. With an iPod, you have to use iTunes for you...
Listen here: Kevin Siegel, president of IconLogic, talks about show-me demos and Captivate. In this audio-visual age, technical writers need an easy way to deliver Flash-based, dynamic screen demos for their help content. Topics Kevin and I discuss in the podcast include: The effects of video games on learning styles The power of audio in show me demos The role of show me demos alongside written documentation New fea...
I made a help file showing a sample integration of Captivate with Robohelp, specifically showing screen demos inside hotspots. I like that the screen demos hide so nicely. (The content of the demos is not what I'm showing here, but if you're totally new to Audacity, you might find them helpful as a basic intro.) Let me know if you have any feedback.
TechSmith is providing free downloads and licenses for copies of SnagIt 7.2 and Camtasia 3.1. The current version of SnagIt is 8.2 and Camtasia is 5. Still, for totally free software, you can't beat this. Thanks for the tip from Jeff and Digital Inspiration: How to you get them? SnagIt Step One: Download it here. Step Two: Visit the TechSmith website here and request a registration key. Camtasia Studio Step One: Download it here Step T...
I listened to a podcast nearly two weeks ago that I'm still thinking about it. Oliver Sacks, a popular neurologist storyteller, just published a book called Musicophilia that explores the brain's love/obsession/affinity with music. In this Science Friday podcast, he shares extensive details about the book. Sacks explains that unlike other areas of the brain that are localized in specific regions -- for example, memory is in one area, spee...
I'm excited to welcome Adobe as a new sponsor for Tech Writer Voices. This past week, I've been playing around with their new Technical Communications Suite. This Suite includes Framemaker, RoboHelp, Acrobat 3D, and Captivate. I've especially been playing with the Captivate-RoboHelp integration. So far I think it's pretty amazing. You can embed Captivate movies directly in your online help, even in drop-down hotspots. For example, you can...
For a long time, I looked at help authoring tools in terms of their single sourcing ability -- creating the source material in the tool, and then outputting to online help, print, and other targets. However, I've given up on the ideal, at least for now. I'm convinced that the new vernacular, as a SXSW podcast called it, is audio and video. If faced with a decision between learning via written instructions or audiovisual screen demos, whic...
