Volunteer for a position in the STC or other organization (TW Job)

How to get a job in technical writing 1.0 Introduction to getting a job in technical writing (TW Job) 1.1 Learn the basics of technical writing (TW Job) 1.2 Get real experience doing technical writing (TW Job) 1.3 ...

Move to a tech hub city to find a job in technical writing (TW Job)

How to get a job in technical writing 1.0 Introduction to getting a job in technical writing (TW Job) 1.1 Learn the basics of technical writing (TW Job) 1.2 Get real experience doing technical writing (TW Job) 1.3 ...

What You Cannot Do Sitting Down

I have mixed feelings about Christmas. People in our neighborhood have been bringing over treats all week -- a chocolate pie, a peanut butter pinecone bird feeder, sparkling apple cider, brownies, rice crispies, honey, marmelade jam, Stephen's hot cocoa, sugar cookies, and other food. They bring them with such pace and vigor you would think we were either starving or desperately in need of fattening up. Jane has been making a list of ever...

Start a blog (TW Job)

How to get a job in technical writing 1.0 Introduction to getting a job in technical writing (TW Job) 1.1 Learn the basics of technical writing (TW Job) 1.2 Get real experience doing technical writing (TW Job) 1.3 ...

Top Trends in Technical Communication

In a recent email to me, Jake from California (not his real name or location) writes, I've spent most of today exploring the world of technical writing, and I find that you're very central and visible. I've read, listened to, and watched a good deal of content you've produced, plus viewed snippets of threads on the STC listserv where you either weighed in or were referenced. If I can prevail on you for just a few minutes of your time, I'd...

Podcast: The Myth of Single Sourcing

Listen here: In his controversial post, The Myth of Single Sourcing, Michael Hiatt explains: Single-source publishing is a zombie idea that revives itself periodically and refuses to stay dead. Its zombie supporters chant its purported benefits as a “write once, publish to many” promise and ploddingly follow it as their ultimate goal for mechanized authoring and machine translation. As an object-oriented writing methodol...

Put together a portfolio (TW Job)

How to get a job in technical writing 1.0 Introduction to getting a job in technical writing (TW Job) 1.1 Learn the basics of technical writing (TW Job) 1.2 Get real experience doing technical writing (TW Job) 1.3 ...

Learn some tools (TW Job)

How to get a job in technical writing 1.0 Introduction to getting a job in technical writing (TW Job) 1.1 Learn the basics of technical writing (TW Job) 1.2 Get real experience doing technical writing (TW Job) 1.3 → Learn some ...

WordPress 2.9 Released

WordPress 2.9 was released. Here's a video explaining the new features. http://wordpress.org/development/2009/12/wordpress-2-9/

Get real experience doing technical writing (TW Job)

How to get a job in technical writing 1.0 Introduction to getting a job in technical writing (TW Job) 1.1 Learn the basics of technical writing (TW Job) 1.2 → Get real experience doing technical writing (TW Job) 1.3 Learn some tools (TW...

Removing ice from a driveway is like .... everything

Not having grown up in Utah, when it snows, my first instinct isn't to start shoveling my driveway. So when it snowed last week, I let the snow pile up in the driveway and assumed it would eventually melt. But it didn't melt. Several days later, it still didn't melt. And then it snowed again. In the course of a week, we had driven over the driveway snow more than 30 times with two cars, impacting it down. The ice hardened with a strong cr...

Learn the basics of technical writing (TW Job)

How to get a job in technical writing 1.0 Introduction to getting a job in technical writing (TW Job) 1.1 → Learn the basics of technical writing (TW Job) 1.2 Get real experience doing technical writing (TW Job) 1.3 Learn some tools (TW...

Trying Out Picture in Picture in Screencasts

In a previous post, Adding the Human Element in Screencasts, I argued that adding a human element in a screencast (by human element, I mean someone you can actually see talking) increases the appeal of the video significantly. So I tested this out by adding a picture-in-picture (PIP) effect for two WordPress screencasts. (By the way, the WordPress screencasts I create are mainly to test out some screencasting methods. But I hope they're a...

PowerPoint from Screencasting Webinar

If you're interested in the PowerPoint for my screencasting webinar, here it is below. Powerpoint for Screencasting webinar (click the image to download the file) I always smile a little when people ask for the PowerPoint, because it just consists of pictures. I resist detailed bullets points on each slide because it locks you into a certain order that may be at odds with your presentation's flow. Also, when you give people text to read w...

Upcoming Webinar on Screencasting

This weekend my wife and I had dinner with some of her blogger friends. As I was getting to know the family, one of the children (age 12) showed me some of the stop-motion videos he'd put on youtube. He also had a string of video tutorials he made for Starcraft as well, which he created using Camtasia Studio. The videos aren't the work of a young film genius -- they're simple little screencasts on how to do certain things in video games. ...