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Entries Tagged as 'Technical Writing'

5 Reasons Women Technical Writers Are Better Than The Boys

June 16th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

Post written by Ivan Walsh. Follow me on twitter Technical Writing attracts women. They’re very good at it and make great team leads. Maybe I’ve been very lucky but it ‘seems’ that the girls are better as technical writers than men. Am I right?

11 Amazing Adobe Distiller Tips For Technical Writers

May 16th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

Most Technical Writers use Adobe PDFs to create technical guides, reports and other business documents. And while there are many free PDF converters out there, Adobe Distiller has some great features that give you greater control of your documents, such as making the PDFs download faster, password protection, embedding thumbnails and font control.

My Top Ten Favorite Technical Writing Tools

April 25th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

I’ll be honest. I love Microsoft Word! Adobe FrameMaker has it’s moment but, y’know, it’s can be so lame that it beggar’s belief. I’ve used the same technical writing tools for the last 5 years. A few products have come across my desk but nothing that really blown me away. Here’s a run-down of what I use to write my technical documents. No order of preference. Which should I keep? Which should I replace?

How to Setup a Technical Writing Department

April 22nd, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

This year I’ve helped two companies setup their Technical Documentation Departments. To be honest, they call them Technical Communications Department, but that’s another matter. One of the problems in getting the dept setup was communicating the value that the tech docs dept could offer other business units and also how it would save them money. In the end we got there but there was a lot of negotiating and arm-twisting along the way.

Are Online Degrees in Technical Writing as Good as Real World Universities?

March 24th, 2010 · View Comments · Career, Technical Writing

If you had a choice, would you hire someone with an Online Degree or someone who graduated from a real world ‘bricks and mortar’ University? I get emails most week asking if online degrees are worth the money, are they trustworthy, will people hire me, will I get ripped off… before we get into that, here are five universities that offer online degrees in technical writing. Are online degrees as good as real degrees?

How To Make Friday Your Busiest Day And Reap The Rewards

March 20th, 2010 · Comments Off · Technical Writing

lance-armstong-getting-things-done Friday is my busiest day. Most folks power down and go into weekend mode. Not here! Ask yourself, ‘why do I go down a gear on Friday?’, ‘How does this benefit my career?’ Ok, let’s be honest. We do this because others do it. Right? This is a high-risk way to manage your career. You’re letting others determine how you behave. And it damages your career in many, many ways. Here’s an alternative approach.

How To Get More Traffic To Your Technical Writing Blog

March 17th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

To quote Van Halen, ‘everybody wants some.’ And what you want is traffic. Why write a blog if no-one visits, right? I have 17 technical writers’ blogs in my Google Reader & RSS feeds. Most are fine but… if they used some of the following tactics, they’d get more traffic, comments, money and Nobel prizes. [...]

How Stephen King Can Make You A Better Technical Writer

March 11th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

Scott says, “If you want to improve as a writer, you not only need to write. You need to read. Writing and reading are two sides of the same coin. You need to do both to achieve your potential.” I head downtown most weekends and buy 2 or 3 books, mostly business, history and some fiction. Every so often I run out of options (we’re in Beijing) and get something I usually wouldn’t buy, for example, Iain M Banks. Reading outside my comfort zone stretches me. I encounter writing styles, opinions, and information that I usually side-step.

Writing Technical Documentation for Chinese and Japanese Readers

February 24th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

Carsten Mende explains how loan words are used in China and Japan. These are English words that are commonly used in everyday Chinese, (i.e. loaned) but may not translate correctly if taken literally. He looks at how the ‘Chinese and Japanese languages incorporate English terms and how they are used’ and gives suggestions on what to avoid when translating documentation into these languages.

2010 MadCap Software Roadshow – European Dates

February 22nd, 2010 · Comments Off · Technical Writing

MadCap Software will travel across the US, Canada and Europe in 2010, providing one-day technical writing seminar. Designed by Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Management, the seminars will discuss how to get the most out of your technical writing & publishing tools. The US and Europe dates are as follows.

How to Run Structured Interviews & Improve Task Analysis

February 20th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

It’s not the questions you ask that matters, it’s the way you ask them. Technical writers, business analysts, and developers all ask questions. They want answers. And some are better than others. Some ask many times to get the definitive answers. Others think they have the answer but, on closer inspection, have overlooked some vital [...]

US Dates for 2010 MadCap Software Roadshow – San Diego, Chicago to Atlanta

February 17th, 2010 · Comments Off · Technical Writing

[Interview] Svi Ben-Elya on Technical Writing & Professional Empowerment in Israel

February 9th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

After moving to Israel in the early 1980s, Mr. Ben-Elya became one of Israel’s first technical writers. He developed a reputation for helping companies solve their documentation problems innovatively but painlessly, while within the technical writing community he became known for helping others. Mr. Ben-Elya’s reputation enabled him bring together all parts of Israel’s technical writing community (independent contractors, technical writing companies, and in-house writers) in Oct. 2003 to found Elephant. http://elephant.org.il.