2010 October | I Heart Technical Writing, Tips, Tools and Templates for Technical Writers

Entries from October 21st, 2010

Review: Camtasia Mac 1.2 & Do Tech Writers Use Macs?

October 21st, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing Software

If you’re a tech writer who uses Apple Mac products, you’ll be delighted to hear that Techsmith have released Camtasia for Mac. This release come s with some lovely features and is a welcome addition to my suite of technical writing tools. Before I forget, you can also get Snagit for free on the site also for Mac.

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Tags: Camtasia·Mac·Review·screencast·Techsmith

8 Ways to Deal With Critics

October 19th, 2010 · Comments Off · Leadership

One of the hardest things about running any business is dealing with the constant flow of criticisms, negativity, and sniping. Part of this goes with the territory. When you try to start something, others will try to pull you back. That’s how they validate themselves. And that’s fine until their criticism begins to undermine your [...]

Seven Marketable Skills that Most Technical Writers Have

October 19th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writers

When you think of technical writing, what comes to mind?
Do you think of someone sitting all alone in a cubicle, glued to a computer screen, diligently documenting complex software?

Why Adobe FrameMaker Sucks – A Slight Rant

October 17th, 2010 · View Comments · Adobe FrameMaker

Ok, let’s start this product comparison between Microsoft Word (in the red corner) and Adobe FrameMaker (in the blue corner). Before we get into the actual review, I’d like to share how I first encountered FrameMaker and, more importantly, why its roots in an obscure DTP package are the reason why it is the strange beast we love and hate.

Is Adobe FrameMaker Worth the Money?

October 16th, 2010 · View Comments · Adobe FrameMaker

If you’ve been given a budget for a technical writing dept (tech comms), then you looking for value for money when it comes to buying new tech writing software. We all understand that. The problem I have at the moment is deciding how to use the budget I have. And Adobe FrameMaker is giving me a real headache. For writing long docs, it’s fine. But the cost is a real problem. Is it worth the money?

More Obscure Error Messages From Yahoo!

October 15th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

I don’t usually do this but… I seem to be getting some very obscure error messages on the web. I’m used to the Twitter Fail Whale. Yesterday, I saw Digg’s The Axle is Broken and today I get this from Yahoo! The thing is… what am I supposed to do? Any ideas what a LaunchFFC-1 [...]

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Tags: Error Message·Yahoo

Getting Kids into Tech Comms with Screencasting

October 12th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

This is one of Techsmith’s lesser known tools and is ideal for screen-casting, especially in school and other educational scenarios. And they’ve just made it better.