If you have an iPhone, iPad, or other device with a retina display, you probably noticed that images appear crisper than on your regular computer monitor. The retina display significantly increases the number of pixels per inch that fit on the screen, increasing the resolution of the images. What does this mean for technical writers including screen captures in online help files? In short, use larger images and scale them down in the brow...
For the past couple of weeks, I've been working on documentation for a mobile app. This is the first time I've documented a mobile app, so it's no surprise that I realized a few new things. 1. It's hard for users to switch between help and the app. My preference in publishing help material is to give developers a URL that points to a server where I can FTP my help files at will. This lets me retain control of my help material without bein...
The past few weeks, I have to admit, I've been kind of bored as a technical writer. I even considered switching more into content marketing because it seemed more interesting. (Hence my recent posts on content marketing — The Double-Edged Sword of Hiding Controversial Information, Company Strategies That Avoid Controversy, and Writing in the Trenches.) Last week I started a new project at work, documenting a mobile app on the Android plat...
One of the reasons my blog has been successful among technical writers is because I'm in a technical writer in the trenches rather than on the sidelines. In contrast, many other people in the field of tech comm writing blogs are sales engineers, consultants, marketers, or c-level executives. If there's one truism about writing that seems to work universally, it's this: write about what you know. When you're immersed in the environment fir...
I'm giving a webinar to the STC Editing SIG in a few weeks. Here are the details: Writing and Editing Scripts for Video Tutorials November 15, 2012, 3-4 pm EST. When you're writing scripts for video tutorials, you must address some of the differences between writing and speech. Copy may be well written, but will it sound natural and conversational when someone reads it into a microphone? Will it sound personal and familiar? To write copy ...
If you need an idea for a fun Halloween activity, try making a "touch and feel box," as they are sometimes called. Yesterday at work I made a Human Body Parts Donation Station. Kids reach in and feel brains, guts, eyeballs, hearts, and so on. A bookshelf works well for this. Find some posterboard or cardboard and create three long rectangles to cover the shelves. Cut several holes for kids to reach their hands through. Cut some squares f...
Companies face a tough challenge – probably the most difficult challenge in the blogging arena – to establish trust with readers. In my previous post on Hiding Controversial Information, I explained the need for companies to address controversy in order to engage readers. If they don't address it, they abdicate the conversation about these topics to their competitors. However, getting the green light from management to address a controver...
I recently gave a presentation at Lavacon on audio voice over techniques for video tutorials. In case you'd like to view the slides, I uploaded them to Slideshare. Producing Professional Sounding Audio in Video Tutorials from Tom Johnson You can also download the PDF. Note: I have a few audio and video clips that I had to link out to other websites. I didn't create this PowerPoint with the intention that it would be viewed and under...
Although most companies struggle to make their information visible on Google, at times companies want to do just the opposite: hide information about their company. However, if companies hide the controversial information, they give power to competitors or other groups to control the conversation about the topic. This dilemma seems like a darned-if-you-do, darned-if-you-don't situation. If you don't publish information about the topic, yo...
Recently, I was interviewed by Felcia Gopaul for a podcast on technical writing as part of a series by College Funding Source on careers. Felicia has a goal of interviewing 100 professionals in 100 different careers. This interview, as you can guess, is about being a technical writer. You can check it out here. You can also download the MP3 file from this link. Felicia lists the major details of the podcast as follows: Tom's story in be...
Technical communication professors often ask students to interview a professional technical writer to get a better sense of the field. The following responses are from Cheryl Landes, a professional technical and marketing communicator. Cheryl owns her own company, Tabby Cat Communications. The questions come from a student at Missouri State University. What preparation did you have for your current job? I think the best way to answer this...
I've always been curious about the military. I've wanted to join it several times, but the circumstances were never right. No Easy Day is an autobiography of an ex-Navy SEAL who participated as a team lead on the mission into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden. The book generated a fair amount of controversy, because Navy SEAL missions are usually confidential, but the writer, Mark Owens, clearly explains that he has included nothing in the...
One outcome of any good conference is to make you think critically about your professional role and identity. I just returned from three days in Portland at Lavacon. It was the first time I've attended Lavacon, even though I have been helping out with the website for several years. I'm from Tacoma, just 120 miles north of Portland, but I hadn't been to Portland much at all. At least, not that I remember. It turns out downtown Portland is ...
During the fall and winter semesters, tech comm professors often ask students to interview professional technical writers to get a better sense of the field. Having answered a few student inquiries already, I decided to invite other professionals to respond to student questions, and then to copy me so that I could post their responses as a guest Q&A post on my site. The following are responses to student questions from Steve Goldberg,...
In another insightful post from Mark Baker, this one called The Tech Comm Paradox, Mark asks why there's no market pressure for good documentation even though bad documentation is a constant source of user complaints. Mark writes, This then is the tech comm paradox: documentation is a common source of consumer unhappiness and complaints, and yet there is no market pressure on products with bad docs, and therefore doc quality does not impr...
