One of the advantages of belonging to the Society for Technical Communication (STC) is having access to the rich information sources on technical communication. These sources include Intercom, the Technical Communication Journal, past proceedings from conferences, the Notebook blog, and more. Unfortunately, there isn't a single search that allows you to comprehensively search all of these sources at once. I this screencast, I show you how...
A lot of people don't realize that they're missing unique authentication keys in their WordPress's wp-config.php file. These unique authentication keys will help keep your WordPress site more secure. In this screencast, I show you how to add the necessary authentication keys.
I recently had a project with a small group of users, maybe 35. I joined the project about a month before the scheduled release. I wasn't sure what kind of help the app needed, or what format. A wiki? Screencasts? Online help? A short PDF? I talked with the lead customer, and he hadn't given much thought about help. I talked with the project manager, a quality assurance engineer, and a developer. The PM didn't know what kind of help the a...
When you have a lot of posts to change, you can bulk edit the posts by changing the number of posts shown in the screen options menu before applying the edit.
When you upload photos to a post in WordPress, the photos become associated with the post. If you insert the word gallery in brackets (as shown below), the post will show all the post's photos in a thumbnail grid. [gallery]
You can add custom fields below posts, and then pull out the values of those custom fields and insert them into a template. This reduces the sophistication behind styling post data, and automates the display in a template. This technique relies on the Custom Fields Template plugin.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3VXnryN9iY Here are the main steps: 1. Install the Custom Field Template. 2. Navigate to Appearance > Editor and include thi...
I received the following question from a reader: I have semi-transitioned to a new position at my job where I’m responsible for creating and maintaining documentation for our systems, programs, policies, etc. I was selected for the position because I have written many tutorials for our applications to be read by new employees. Since I have no formal education in writing (I love to write, but I majored in accounting with a masters in infor...
If you have a lot of photos, you can implement them into galleries and albums using the NextGen Gallery plugin. This image gallery plugin is one of the most robust plugins for uploading, managing, captioining, and tagging images. It works well if you have a lot of images that you constantly upload and display on your site.
Findability / organizing content 1.0 New Series: Organizing Content [Organizing Content 1] 1.2 Introducing Project Swordfish [Organizing Content 2] 1.3 Things Fall Apart, The Centre Cannot Hold [Organizing Content 3] ...
If you've ever had to migrate a WordPress site, moving images from one host to another, you know how tedious and time-consuming this process is. In this WordPress screencast, I provide a tip that helps you move the images in a seamless, simple way that almost seems like magic using the Cache Images plugin.
You can add an "Edit" link in the metadata below your post title. This Edit link makes it easy to edit the specific post without having to navigate through the Posts section of your WordPress Dashboard. Here's the edit snippet of code that I mention in the screencast: <?php edit_post_link('Edit', '', ''); ?> Add this code snippet somewhere within the loop, such as with the post metadata.
Download MP3 Length: 12 min. In this podcast (another monologue), I respond to more student questions about technical writing. The questions are as follows: Question 1 - Who/what are the people and purposes that you write for now? And in the past? Question 2 - What are the kinds of things that you write? Question 3 - What are the processes, methods, practices you use to write those things? Question 4 - What are the technologies you use...
Recently due to flooding in my window wells, I had to dig the wells deeper. I piled up the dirt and rocks around the outside, and then realized I needed to sift the dirt from the rocks because I wanted to put the rocks back in, but move the dirt elsewhere in my yard to re-slope it. To sift the dirt from the rocks, I needed a dirt sifter, also called a gravel sifter. I thought I could simply buy one at Home Depot, but they do not sell them...
You can show ads in your sidebar through a simple plugin called WP125. This plugin allows you to add and manage a collection of 125 pixel graphic ads. One note I forgot to mention in the screencast is that each ad must be exactly 125 x 125 pixels in size. Otherwise you'll end up with strange looking spaces in your sidebar images. See more WordPress Tips.
Listen here: You can download the MP3 file, subscribe in iTunes, Google Podcasts, or other podcast platforms. In this monologue podcast, I answer a student's questions about the field of technical writing, including how I fell into it, what kinds of projects I work on, and other details. Her questions are as follows: What did you study in college and where did you attend? What degrees/certificates do you have? Did you know what you...
