Upcoming presentation: Jekyll versus DITA: Bridging the Gap between Tech Comm and the Web

May 16, 2015 update: For the recording and slides, see this post. If you're in the San Francisco Bay area (near Oakland, actually), you might be interested in an upcoming presentation I'm giving to the STC Berkeley chapter this Wednesday. Details are on the STC Berkeley chapter site. I also included the description below: Jekyll versus DITA: Bridging the Gap between Tech Comm and the Web Although the web continues to burst at the seams w...

New series: User-centered documentation

User-centered documentation 1.0 Podcast: How to Create User-Centered Documentation, Interview with Joe Sokohl 1.1 Writing User-Centered Documentation, or, My Best Days as a Technical Writer 1.2 → New series: User-centered documentation 1...

Final analysis between DITA and Jekyll

Jekyll versus DITA 1.0 Check out Ed Marsh's podcast, and also My New series: Jekyll versus DITA 1.1 Authoring with Markdown in Jekyll versus Authoring with DITA in OxygenXML 1.2 Variables and conditional processing in Jekyll versus DITA ...

Producing PDFs in DITA versus Jekyll

Jekyll versus DITA 1.0 Check out Ed Marsh's podcast, and also My New series: Jekyll versus DITA 1.1 Authoring with Markdown in Jekyll versus Authoring with DITA in OxygenXML 1.2 Variables and conditional processing in Jekyll versus DITA ...

Reviewing content in DITA versus Jekyll

Jekyll versus DITA 1.0 Check out Ed Marsh's podcast, and also My New series: Jekyll versus DITA 1.1 Authoring with Markdown in Jekyll versus Authoring with DITA in OxygenXML 1.2 Variables and conditional processing in Jekyll versus DITA ...

Creating links in DITA versus Jekyll

Jekyll versus DITA 1.0 Check out Ed Marsh's podcast, and also My New series: Jekyll versus DITA 1.1 Authoring with Markdown in Jekyll versus Authoring with DITA in OxygenXML 1.2 Variables and conditional processing in Jekyll versus DITA ...

Newbie to Technical Writer in 4 Easy Steps

The following is a guest post from Kaylin Tristano, a new technical writer in the medical software industry. In this post, she shares her tips for transitioning into the field of technical writing. I landed my first technical writing job about four months ago. I'd been working as a librarian and had no writing experience besides a few employee manuals cobbled together in Microsoft Word, so I felt clueless and a little nervous about my new...

Building a table of contents with DITA versus Jekyll

Jekyll versus DITA 1.0 Check out Ed Marsh's podcast, and also My New series: Jekyll versus DITA 1.1 Authoring with Markdown in Jekyll versus Authoring with DITA in OxygenXML 1.2 Variables and conditional processing in Jekyll versus DITA ...

Creating re-usable chunks (conref) in Jekyll versus DITA

Jekyll versus DITA 1.0 Check out Ed Marsh's podcast, and also My New series: Jekyll versus DITA 1.1 Authoring with Markdown in Jekyll versus Authoring with DITA in OxygenXML 1.2 Variables and conditional processing in Jekyll versus DITA ...

Variables and conditional processing in Jekyll versus DITA

Jekyll versus DITA 1.0 Check out Ed Marsh's podcast, and also My New series: Jekyll versus DITA 1.1 Authoring with Markdown in Jekyll versus Authoring with DITA in OxygenXML 1.2 → Variables and conditional processing in Jekyll versus DITA ...

Authoring with Markdown in Jekyll versus Authoring with DITA in OxygenXML

Jekyll versus DITA 1.0 Check out Ed Marsh's podcast, and also My New series: Jekyll versus DITA 1.1 → Authoring with Markdown in Jekyll versus Authoring with DITA in OxygenXML 1.2 Variables and conditional processing in Jekyll versus DITA ...

Check out Ed Marsh's podcast, and also My New series: Jekyll versus DITA

Jekyll versus DITA 1.0 → Check out Ed Marsh's podcast, and also My New series: Jekyll versus DITA 1.1 Authoring with Markdown in Jekyll versus Authoring with DITA in OxygenXML 1.2 Variables and conditional processing in Jekyll versus DITA ...

Some thoughts on attending tcworld India 2015

I just spent the last week in Bangalore, India. The tcworld India 2015 conference took place on a Thursday and Friday, and I spent Saturday and Sunday exploring the city. This was an eye-opening trip for a number of reasons, and I wanted to capture some of my thoughts and experiences here and share them with others. Understanding tekom tcworld India is the name of a company that puts on the conference. There are two associations that orga...

PDF still trumps browser-based help?

In the Skills and Technology Survey 2014 by WritersUA, it appears that PDF manuals are the most common deliverable: Support for manuals in the form of PDF (77%) is at the top of the list as the most valued technology component. Using PDF as a delivery format has become a staple in our documentation sets. PDF files can be delivered on an installation CD or via the Web. In the past, this technology was mainly used for legacy print documents...

Recording of API documentation workshop (REST and Javadoc) at tcworld India 2015

Here's a recording of the API documentation workshop that I gave at tcworld India 2015: In this workshop, I cover the following: Overview of API documentation Deep Dive into REST API documentation Deep Dive into Javadoc API documentation This is similar to other presentations I've given on API documentation, except that in this workshop, I finally get a bit into Javadoc during the last 30 minutes. I also have more activities. Here's t...