Category Archives: News

News about technical writing, communications, information development and content strategy.

Are Daily Rates for Technical Writers Starting To Improve?

In December, I looked at the daily rates for technical writers and others in the tech comms industry. At the time daily rates for technical writers are down to $30 per hour in some places in the Bay Area. However, maybe things are starting to turn around. In Ireland (Euro HQ for most US IT companies) Google has announced 150 new jobs, many in technical roles. So, is the tide starting to turn? Continue reading

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Technical Writing News – FrameMaker Shortcuts, Life-Saving Checklists & Twitter for Professional Development

  Why are most technical writing blog written by men? Do you think it’s true? This week’s newsletter also has updates on Technical Authoring tools such as ComponentOne’s Editable Data Portals for SharePoint, Morae 3.2 (Techsmith’s best kept secret), and … Continue reading

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Technical Writing News Jan 20 – Jumping Sharks, DITA, and Link Journalism

This week’s technical writing news is thin on product news but has lotsa nice goodies. Janet Swisher on how everybody wins, Ellis on wikis for technical documents, Larry’s DITA jumps sharks, Techsmith integrate Jing (video capture app) into Facebook, Gordon … Continue reading

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Technical Writing News – Crystal Balls, Salaries, Metrics & Twitter

The first Technical Writing Newsletter of the year includes some interesting predictions on the future of technical communications, how to justify your role as a technical writer (i.e. metrics), news of Camtasia Relay’s UK Bootcamp and the results of the salary survey for technical writers in Israel. Continue reading

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Technical Writing News – Nov 27th

This week’s technical writing news. Paragraph Autonumbering in RoboHelp 8, Avatar Interactive Trailer Powered by Adobe AIR, What’s new in Acrobat.com, The Myth of Single-Source Authoring, Why The Future Has No Log In Button, Documentation as flash cards. Google Wave’s witty user documentation. What’s more important, content or process? SaaS-based ECM: It’s worth considering. Camtasia Relay 1.2 gets released and Tom Johnson explains why Help Authoring Tools Will Fade. Free Gift! Technical Communication Suite Keyboard Shortcuts from The RoboColum(n) by Colum McAndrew Continue reading

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Technical Writing News – Nov 20th

Meet Captain Jing, eat Alphabetti Spaghetti, create lists in Robohelp, move technical writers to network thinking, LaTeX (not that type!), Why I Wasn’t Sold on Single Sourcing, The Moment I Felt Like an Executive, Does Your Company Need a Dedicated … Continue reading

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Technical Writing News Nov 13th

This week’s technical writing news includes RoboScreenCapture, a FrameMaker screenshot app, Twitter 101 for Technical Communicators, the New Help System in Visual Studio 2010, List of the Top Open Source technical writers on the Web, feedback on STC’s Dues Increases, … Continue reading

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Technical Writing News – Nov 6th

New technical writing screencasts, Madcap win an award, and the Intercom editorial calendar is finally announced. What more could you want? Here is a quick roundup of this week’s technical writing news.

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Windows Desktop Search: Add-in for Lotus Notes

The Windows Desktop Search Add-in for Lotus Notes is a protocol handler that allows you to index the content of Lotus Notes e-mail, contacts, calendar items, and journal items stored on your computer. Once you have installed this Add-in, Windows … Continue reading

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Index Adobe PDF documents with Microsoft indexing clients

iFilter is now bundled within the Acrobat and Reader products. Improvements to iFilter in Acrobat and Reader 8 include support for Vista and Windows Desktop Search, as well as improved performance and stability. Adobe® PDF IFilter lets your index Adobe … Continue reading

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Document Conversion Service providers

Advanced Computer InnovationsThe company’s Windows-based software products are sold to end-users as highly accurate off-the-shelf solutions. Advanced Computer Innovations, Inc. also provides data conversion and custom programming services, including an online conversion service. http://www.acii.com Data Conversion LaboratoryEnable data for the … Continue reading

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How to setup a Table as a Worksheet in Word 2000

This article explains how to create simple worksheets in Microsoft Word by using tables and the Formula (=) field. In these worksheets, you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide values entered in cells. “Individual cells are referenced by column letter … Continue reading

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You cannot open a document in Microsoft Word 2003

The Microsoft Support center offers very details instructions on how to overcome this. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926909/en-us?spid=2530&sid=106

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How to add Date Calculations into Word

View Woody’s Lounge and learn how to enter date & time calculations in Word. You can download the samples in a zip file. Topics covered include: Date & Time Field Basics Converting Gregorian Calendar Dates To Julian Day Numbers Converting … Continue reading

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2 FrameMaker Tutorials

Learn to apply master pages automatically Thsi tutorial shows you how to apply master pages automatically. Let FrameMaker do the job based on the paragraph tags you’re already using. Also, if you have one file with multiple formats? Repurpose your … Continue reading

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Creating layers in PageMaker

Adobe PageMaker 6.5 includes a powerful new Layers tool with countless applications. This online video tutorial will show you three tips: 1. Multiple versions2. Sequencing control3. Layered communication Go to http://www.adobe.com/ap/print/tips/pmklayers/

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HR Policies, forms, guides & templates

Policies, forms, guides, templates featured in the HR Services website can be found here: http://www.hr.ecu.edu.au/main/html/policies,_guidelines_and_forms.cfm Advertisement TemplateCasuals – Appointment Letter (new staff)Casuals – Appointment Letter (existing staff)Construct an Advertisement – RecruitmentInterview QuestionsTemplatePosition Description Template Reference Checking Template (Written)Reference Checking Template … Continue reading

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New Policy Manual Template

Klariti has released a new Policy Manual template. “Our Policy Manual template is in Word™ format and is easily modified to meet your organization’s needs. We also offer free checklists, templates and spreadsheets for organizing and maintaining your policies.” Download … Continue reading

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Word To Framemaker Tutorial

Many tech writers have had to convert Word documents into FrameMaker. It is a very unpleasant and painful process! The good news is that Tech Knowledge offer a nice tutorial that explains how to convert documents as quickly and efficiently … Continue reading

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DocBook: The Definitive Guide free online

You can now download DocBook: The Definitive Guide by Norman Walsh. You can copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, as spelled out in the book’s legal notice. According to its authors: … Continue reading

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