Amanda asks, “I’m setting up a Tech Pubs Dept for a Financial Services company. What is the best style guide to encourage the staff to use?” Frist off, the main benefit of adopting a style guide is that it puts guidelines in place to ensure consistency across all documents that go out the door. Sounds [...]

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Writing for the Web requires new a different approach to the writing process. Before you start writing web content, try to understand the basics of information architecture and how navigation systems work. On the web, write in small digestible chucks, which fit into the information hierarchy. To create your hierarchy, outline the website as you [...]

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Technical writers write technical documents that explain complex issues in simple, plain English. Technical writers – also know as Technical Authors or Information Designers – write material that supports software and hardware systems. They design, write and produce material that is delivered in print, soft-copy or as Online Help, such as that found in the [...]

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Jane R. in Texas asks for some tips on interviewing tech writers, especially when using assessment tests. Her company is about to hire their first full-time writer and they have not done this before. I’ve worked on both sides on the fence in the past, (i.e. interviewed and been interviewed) and picked up a few [...]

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James in North Carolina asks, “In Word, the Table of Contents is not displayed. Instead, I get an error message: { TOC\O “2-4″\H \Z \T “HEADING 1,1″}. How do I fix this? Is it a bug? “ I think the problem is to do with Field Codes. Here are three suggestions: 1. In Word, go [...]

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The main issues with creating long docs in Word tend to involve formatting, styles, graphics, tables, and bullets. Formatting — cutting/pasting material directly from one file into another is best avoided as this will bring unwanted styles in the target Word file. Instead convert it to raw text and then import it. Styles — create [...]

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A key danger in website design is over-ambition. We need to design a website we can professionally manage. I travel a lot. And when you travel a lot you discover a lot of important things. You learn the answers to crucial questions such as: Why is a dog a man’s best friend? Because a dog [...]

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If you open a Word document and see what looks like large Ps at the end of every sentence, then the Show/Hide marker has been turned on. Sometimes this gets turned on by accident or when you open a doc which as these turned on by default. The the Show/Hide marker is used for examining [...]

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Here are some of the new features in Connect Enterprise: Enhanced support for integrated audio conferencing Acrobat Connect Professional now offers enhanced support for accounts with an audio conference bridge installed, to enable synchronized telephonic audio conferences as part of Acrobat Connect Professional meetings. For meetings with international attendees, Acrobat Connect Professional can show multiple [...]

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