Knowledge is power. Knowing the daily rates of others in your industry helps you negotiate fees and get a better deal. I’ve worked in the US, UK and now here in Asia and have seen a vast difference in the rates that writers work for. Some of my friends in India work for $15 per […]
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?
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 […]
Robohelp or Doc-to-Help? My client has given me permission to use whatever tool I want to do the next batch of tech docs — and they’ll buy the software. No cost to me. Which one should I choose? Robohelp or Doc-to-Help Doc-to-Help was the first help authoring tool (HAT) I used in my technical writing […]
Image by Ivan Walsh What do you want to see in Microsoft Office 2010? Arpan Shan, who has access to the beta versions at Microsoft, shares his favorite 10 Office 2010 features. Some of these you may already know, but he highlights some nice ideas that seem to be coming through. In Word 2010, for […]
Image via Wikipedia Lorem Ipsum is dummy text that has its origins in the printing and typesetting industry. It has been the printing industry’s standard dummy text since the 1500s, when a printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It came back into popularity in the 1960s […]
Goethe once wrote to a friend, “If I had more time, I’d have sent you a shorter letter.” Here’s why.
Sarah O’Keefe (Scriptorium) discusses STC’s new dues structure: Dues are going up; Printed publications are no longer included in basic dues; No chapter or SIG membership are included in the basic dues. She adds that while reaction is largely negative, she finds value from her STC membership and gives some examples and reasons to join/stay […]
Image via Wikipedia The STC recently increased its annual subscription rates to over $200 prompting howls of protest for technical writers. In response to this, it has come out and defended its position by justifying the price increases. Here’s my take on the key points.
Do you need spend hours trying to make all your photos be the same size, format, with your company watermarks added in the corner? How can you convert 100 images to same file format, add a 1 pixel black border, and make them all the same size in less that 5 minutes? Here’s how.
Does writing a blog constitute work? Forbes reports that the New York State Department of Labor recently declared a laid-off attorney ineligible for unemployment benefits as she was bringing in $1.30 a day from blog ads.
Image via Wikipedia I’ve being working from home now for almost seven years. Some contracts are on-site so I go to the office, but in general, I work in my home office. Actually, for the past 7 months, this means working in my bedroom. More on this later. I’m married, with a little nipper, and […]
Here is the simplest way to take a screenshot of a region, desktop, an entire webpage and also how to include the hyperlinks if you want to save the webpage as a SWF or PDF. We’re going to use SnagIt as our preferred tool for taking screenshots.
Cindy Curry (STC President) points out that the recession left the STC with a “loss of about $400,000 USD in principal and interest from our investments, which have traditionally been used to provide support for activities that have as yet no revenue source, such as the Body of Knowledge and other key committee work.”
Gordon McLean asks: do you plan to review your plan? This is in relation to the Documentation Plan (aka Information Development Plan) that most technical writers prepare in advance of starting a major project. Granted, on smaller projects you can get away with this if you know the product, have the resources and the deliverables […]