I've been exploring Captivate lately because I wanted to translate some screencasts for a project I'm undertaking. It turns out, Captivate doesn't work so well for screencasting. Slide-based eLearning, sure. But when you have a lengthy software simulation, it fails because you can't edit the audio while watching the video play. Really? Yes. Really. You know, like if you wanted to ensure the timing of the video is correct as you're listeni...
At least once a month, I post a few messages from the sponsors. Today we have a message from Madcap Software and Techsmith. From Madcap Software Driven by customer demand and request, MadCap Software is pleased to announce MadCap Consulting, a new service aimed to provide our customers with the resources necessary to perform skilled technical communication projects on both a full-time and part-time basis. Find the Right Consultant. Whethe...
The other day Shannon called and said I should come home because water was bubbling up in the sprinkler box in the yard. I don't know anything about sprinkler systems, so with a sense of dread I drove home. Sure enough, the valve box was a puddle of water. I do know how to shut off the water to the sprinklers, so I did that and then waited for the water to soak down into the ground or evaporate. The next day, when the water was dry, I che...
I'm giving a webinar on WordPress tomorrow, July 13, at 1:00 to 2:30 pm EDT. The webinar is organized through the STC Consulting and Independent Contracting Special Interest Group (CIC SIG). Here's the description: Blogging is no longer a phenomenon. It is a way of life; another layer of communication to understand and utilize. An effective blog site can be critical to establishing a successful presence in the electronic marketplace of th...
</embed> Before WordPress 3.0, one of the frustrations with WordPress was configuring the navigation menu when you wanted to combine pages, categories, and URLs. The new navigation system in WordPress 3.0 solves this problem, because it allows you to create a menu by dragging and dropping almost any type of link. But just upgrading WordPress to 3.0 won’t automatically give you the new navigation system. You have to modify your them...
Techsmith gave me a free copy of Camtasia Studio 7 and Snagit 10 to give away on my blog. To enter the contest, just leave a comment on this post. In your comment, tell me something interesting about screencasting. It could be a tip, an argument, a story, a scenario, a technique, or whatever. The most interesting comment wins a copy of Camtasia Studio 7. The second most interesting comment wins a copy of Snagit 10. Winners will be announc...
On Tuesday, July 13, TechSmith is create 24 Screencasts About Camtasia in 24 Hours. It must be fun to do screencasts at 3 a.m. :) If you're into screencasts (and use Camtasia), these sessions should provide a lot of good information. They're streaming the screencasts live here and are also recording them to publish later.
I've been researching how to translate screencasts. Here's one problem to overcome: Even if you use youtube's caption system, if you embed the translated videos on a web page, will users have to select both their language and captions? Normally, we want the video to display these automatically if we're embedding the video a page that we have translated. It turns out that by adding some parameters from the Youtube Embedded Player Parameter...
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] ...
Errol Morris has a lengthy essay in The New York Times on something known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Essentially the effect is that even though something is obviously wrong, a person is incapable of recognizing it. Cornell profesor David Dunning stumbled onto the idea when he read about a bank robber who squirted lemon juice on his face, believing that the juice would mask his face from the security cameras. Dunner writes, If Wheeler [...
Notepad++ is my favorite text editor, but lately it's been acting a bit berzerk. Every time I open it, NotePad++ says Load Config.xml failed, or something like that. It's been bugging me for weeks. I finally found the fix here. If you get a load config.xml failed message, take these general steps to fix it: Go to C:Program FilesNotepad++ (or wherever the program files are). Copy the config. model and stylers.model files. Go to C:Usersyou...
A reader asks, Technical writing is a field that I've been pursuing and about to complete a certification. My question, how important or valuable would also pursuing a web design certificate for a technical writer? The certificate in web design? Not necessary. But a working knowledge of HTML and CSS? Yes, critical, because everything is moving (or already moved about 10 years ago) to the web, including documentation. If you create help in...
If you're looking for a solid professional development opportunity, check out the Lavacon Conference this year. Held September 29 to October 2 in San Diego, California, the conference focuses on learning how to "publish digital content that enhances the customer experience, reduces production costs and promotes your online brand." If you read the session descriptions, it looks like an exceptional conference, especially if you have any des...
IT Author's latest podcast, Testing testing 123, dives into testing. Rather than just commenting on testing from a technical writer's point of view, Alistair Christie and his co-host Graham Campbell interviewed an actual tester. It's a good interview with lots of informational nuggets. For example, "regression testing" is testing those software features that were tested previously. Every new feature has the potential to affect other featu...
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] ...
