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 as possible. “The infamous Word2Frame document describing tips and techniques for converting from Word to […]
Author Archives: Fionn
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
For Indian readers considering tech writing as a career, download this free podcast with Sandeep Balakrishna, a seasoned technical writer based in Bangalore, India.“He has been a technical writer for 10 years, and has observed the explosive growth of technical writing in India. According to Google Trends, seven of the top ten cities where the […]
I was recently asked how to start documentating for a Banking solution which is been developed in Java on Open-Source platform. What kind to documents should i write for this project? Now, there isn’t much to go on here, so… It depends on what the client actually wants. Here’s what I’d do: 1. Ask the […]
This article compares Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker by examining the following key areas: Ability to create Long DocumentsShort DocumentsUsing Microsoft Word as a DTP ToolPrinting and TypeCross-platform capabilitiesWord’s Nice and Not So Nice FeaturesImporting GraphicsIndexing Over the past decade, Adobe has created a suite of publications software, with FrameMaker fulfilling the role for documentation […]
Though the terms Usability and Information Architecture are often understood to be the same thing, this is not true. Usability This tends to study a person’s ability to do (i.e. use) something, such as reading text on a webpage. Usability is not restricted to the web and is used across many industry sectors. For example, […]
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 […]