Post by Ivan Walsh. Follow me on Twitter. Last week we showed you how Bullet Lists can crash MS Word. We outlined some techniques to reduce the file size, mostly by creating pre-formatted bullet lists in advance. But what happens if you’re given a User Guide that’s already bloated to massive proportions. It’s too late [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Business'
How to Fix Corrupt & Damaged Microsoft Word Documents – Part 2
July 15th, 2010 · View Comments · Word 2007
Tags: Business·Crash·errors·FAQ·How To·normal.dot·Style·writing
37 Ways To Be a More Productive Writer
June 23rd, 2010 · View Comments · Business Process
Working in China means more business writing and less technical writing, especially proposal development, web marketing case studies and white papers. As a few of the folks I hang out with on LinkedIn are also moving into business writing, I thought I’d add a few tips for business writing. While there is some overlap with technical writing, it does require a different mindset, for example, to understand the emotional drivers that persuade customers to accept or reject business proposals.
Tags: Business·Case·Example·Format·Free·guide·Productivity·Proposal·Startup·Style·writing
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.
Tags: Business·Creativity·Documents·Format·guidelines·Mental Power·Productivity·Risks·Style Guide·Technical·Writers
How To Build & Destroy Your Brand On The Web
February 26th, 2010 · Comments Off · Books I Like, Communications, Social Media, Tips, strategy
Gerry McGovern provides this week’s guest article. You build a brand on the Web one click at a time. You destroy your brand by wasting your customers’ time. I am a customer of a number of banks. I judge these banks, at least partly, by the experience I have with them online. I used to [...]
Tags: Advertising·Bank of Ireland·brand·Business·Chris Brogan·Consultant·Harvard Business Review·Marketing·Richard Branson·strategy·Tom Peters·User interface design
7 Ideas to Inspire Your Business & Laser Focus Your Blog
January 21st, 2010 · Comments Off · Career, Communications, How To, Productivity
Denise Wakeman asks, “How am I going to come up with fresh content for my blog three times a week?” She lists some excellent ideas designed to help save you time and stimulate some new ideas. Here are some others you might want to consider.
Tags: blog·Business·Chris Brogan·Google Alert·HootSuite·Ideas
Do Business Leaders Need to Write Well to Succeed?
November 23rd, 2009 · Comments Off · Business Process, Communications, Technical Writing
Thom Haller asks on TCW if ‘to be an effective leader, you need to learn how to write well’.
Tags: Adobe Framemaker·Business·Career·communication·contract·Fortune 500·Leadership·MadCap Flare·management·Online Help·Robohelp·Single Sourcing·STC·Structured Authoring·Technical Communications·Technical documentation·Technical Writing·Warren Buffett
How do you measure technical documents? What metrics do you use?
November 21st, 2009 · View Comments · Career, Technical Writers, Technical Writing
One of our tech docs team was fired yesterday. Why? Technical documents provide no value. This is how Management sees it.
Tags: Adobe Framemaker·Business·Career·contract·Design·Human-Computer Interaction·MadCap Flare·Marketing·Online Help·Productivity·Robohelp·Single Sourcing·STC·Structured Authoring·Technical Communications·Technical documentation·Technical Writing·user interface
Are technical documents a waste of time?
November 20th, 2009 · View Comments · Career, Technical Writing
“Don’t worry” she said. “No one reads this stuff anyway. Just get it done.” Sounds familiar?
Tags: Adobe Framemaker·Bank·Business·Career·contract·Employment·Information technology·MadCap Flare·management·Online Help·Project management·Project manager·Resumes·Robohelp·Single Sourcing·STC·Structured Authoring·Technical Communications·Technical documentation·Technical Documents·Technical Writing
How to Study Technical Writing Online & Get Certified
November 10th, 2009 · Comments Off · Career, How To, Technical Writing
The University of Limerick, Ireland offers an excellent online course for those who want to study technical writing at home. This university has a pretty amazing campus, specializes in the Arts and provides a conveyor belt of freshly-minted technical writers to Microsoft, Google and IBM in Ireland. It’s one of the few universities in Europe [...]
Tags: Business·Career·Degree·Distance education·Distance Learning·education·Electronic learning·Google·Graduate School·ibm·microsoft·Online Courses·University·University of Limerick
5 Reasons Why Women Are Better Technical Writers Than Men?
November 7th, 2009 · Comments Off · Career, How To, Salary
Technical Writing attracts women. They’re very good at it and make great team leads. Maybe I’ve been very lucky but I believe women are far better as technical writers than men. Here are five areas where I think they have the edge of the guys. 1. Communication When in entered technical writing, I assumed my [...]
Tags: Adobe FrameMaker·Art·Business·Career·communication·Degree·education·English language·interview·Junior Technical Writer·management·Prod·Productivity·Team Building·technical writer·Writers Resources
Is this true? The goal of a project is to make the user successful!
November 6th, 2009 · View Comments · Career, Content Management, How To, Productivity
Ben says: “The goal of a project is to make the user successful at what he wants to accomplish. Go ahead, read that previous sentence a few times. It’s one that would do well to sink in.” Is this true?
Tags: Advertising·Business·Call centre·Customer Management·Goal·management·Product·Public relations·Technical support·Usability·Users
Is a Degree In Technical Writing Worth The Effort?
November 5th, 2009 · Comments Off · Career, Google, How To, India, Jobs, Technical Writers
Do you have a degree in technical writing or technical communications? Was it worth the money? If you had a second chance, would you have chosen this or opted for another career path? One of my younger cousins has started her degree in university in Limerick, Ireland. Not the place most of us think of [...]
Tags: Asia·Business·Career·Course·Degree·distance learning course·education·Google·ibm·India·Ireland·Limerick·microsoft·Online Techical Writing Course·Technical Writing
Technical Writing News – Nov 6th
November 5th, 2009 · Comments Off · Adobe FrameMaker, News, Reviews, STC, Salary
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.
Tags: Adobe FrameMaker·Betsy Weber·Business·Business Services·Camtasia·Cherryleaf·Communications·Contracting·contracts·Freelancing·Intercom·israel·Jobs·MadCap·MadCap Software·Open Source·OpenSource·Screencasts·Seneca College·Snagit·STC·Symposium·Tasks·tech writing·Technical Authors·Technical Writing·Techsmith·Website·Writing and Editing
How To Make 200 Extra Minutes Every Week & Leave The Office Before Everyone Else
November 4th, 2009 · Comments Off · Productivity
Looking for time-saver tips? This works. I get between 60-200 emails every day. 60 is low. Once I got over 480. As I run my own business, every minute is counted. Even when I worked 9-5, I kept a tight control of my email. If you don’t control it, it’ll control you. What I want [...]
Tags: Business·Chris Brogan·E-mail·Gmail·Harvard Business Review·Hotmail·Prod·seth godin·Time-·Time-saver·Time-wasting·Yahoo
Why do you need to develop a Capacity Plan?
November 3rd, 2009 · Comments Off · How To, Process Design, Software Development, Templates
Developing a Capacity Plan is vital if you want to understand how much capacity will be required to support your IT systems and, by extension, the infrastructure that supports it. Think about it. If you plan to install a new large-scale solution, for example, IBM WebSphere or SAP, you also need to consider the impact [...]
Tags: Bandwidth Requirements·Business·Capacity Management·Capacity Plan·Capacity Planning·Disk Capacity·Help Desk·ibm·IBM WebSphere·Information technology·Infrastructure·Memory Requirements·Network Capacity·Processing Capacity·Processing Requirements·Production Environment·requirements·Resource Capacity·SAP·Server Capacity·Service Capacity·template·Volume Requirements
