Good documentation is hard to write for a number of reasons -- operating systems, versions, technical abilities, and business scenarios often differ between tech writers and users. Products often evolve after the doc was written, since tech writers aren't always integrated with the team through the life of the product. Support and feedback channels don't usually route to the doc source, crippling the writer from valuable feedback. Finally, steps are often inaccurate, and tutorials are often focused too narrowly on isolated tasks, without addressing more end-to-end scenarios.
If you're planning to go to the STC Summit this year, or you're looking to get more information on API documentation, check out my pre-conference Summit workshop. I'm teaching a half-day workshop on REST API documentation. This will take place Sunday, May 15 from 8:30am to noon.
At the last Write the Docs meetup in San Francisco on March 29, we had 11 presenters give lightning talks. This post includes the recordings (audio + slides) of each presenter. There's also a compiled audio file in case you just want to listen to the audio. Lightning talks are a fun format that allows a lot of different members to present their own perspective and learning.
The following article is a sponsored article I wrote on behalf of Xeditor, which is one of the companies I advertise on my site. Xeditor provides an easy-to-use, Word-like interface for writing XML (either DITA or your own custom schema). You configure Xeditor to work with your CMS or CCMS, allowing authors across your company to contribute, edit, and review content.
I recently gave a workshop on REST API documentation to the STC Sacramento chapter. The workshop is about 3.5 hrs long and covers a lot of the concepts that I detail in my API doc course. In the workshop I first show you how to use a REST API like a developer. We then walk through common sections in API documentation, especially reference topics. Finally I give a tour of API documentation publishing tools.
Version 5.0 of my Documentation Theme for Jekyll is now available. This version allows you to associate different sidebars for different products on the same site. I'm trying to move away from the separate outputs model to provide a more web-friendly and integrated doc site experience that facilitates navigation across products on the same site.
In this guest post, Lavanya Krishnamurthy explores the use of a casual tone in documentation as a way to give users a sense of having a conversation with the author. She presents several easy techniques for implementing a casual tone, and also notes the potential tradeoffs this approach can have.
Shannon applied to a master of liberal arts program at Stanford and was accepted. She starts her program in the fall. Only 21 applicants were accepted this year, so it was pretty selective. (They didn’t say how many total applicants applied.) She’s really excited about it. The program is designed for working adults, so the classes will be in the evenings and extended out over a 4-5 year period instead of 2. What exactly do you do with an M...
These past three weekends, Callie and Lucy and Molly have been selling Girl Scout cookies. I’ve been one of the adults at the their cookie booth each time. The first time we were out selling, we brought Molly. But after about an hour and a half, she and her sisters were fighting over who got to do which task (hold the money, display the sign, or tally up the sales). After that, we unfortunately had to leave Molly at home. Daisies...
The other week on Twitter I noted that, despite the power visuals play in communicating technical concepts, there's not a lot of good information out there on visual communication in the context of technical documentation. As a result, I'm starting a series focused on visual communication, somewhat like the series I wrote about API documentation. One benefit of publishing this info on a blog is that I can regularly publish small articles and benefit from widespread feedback to help me course-correct early and move towards more accurate information.
Ryan Weber, the Director of Business and Technical Writing at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, has a podcast called 10 Minute Tech Comm. In this podcast, he records short interviews with technical writing practitioners and innovators covering a wide variety of topics. Recently Ryan interviewed me for a podcast on API technical writing.
As I move into my new job, one goal I have is to learn from the experiences at my former job and improve this time around. I want to avoid repeating the same mistakes but also remember to build on those things that worked. This post is a retrospective look at the good and bad of previous experiences.
The following is a guest post by Marcia Riefer Johnston exploring an alternative view towards the RTFM argument. In this post, Marcia argues that it's the writer's care and interest in the product and users that leads to producing help content worth reading versus content that is mechanical, dry, and lifeless.
A recent article in the Technical Communication Journal explores lightweight DITA and the way it removes some of the complexity from the authoring process. Lightweight DITA is still in development, but it holds great promise in simplifying DITA and allowing authors to connect into larger systems for managing doc content without abandoning HTML.
I'm starting a new job at Amazon Lab126 in Sunnyvale, California this week. This past week I closed out the remaining projects, tasks, and other final details at 41st Parameter / Experian in preparation for the transition. This week I'll be in Seattle (where Amazon's headquarters are located) all week for training.
