A day in a tech writer’s life

In a typical day of my working life, writing takes a backseat to collaboration and communications. – This article first appeared as an “A day in the life” column in ISTC’s Communicator in the Spring 2011 issue, page 58. I really enjoy the “A day in the life” pieces, because they’re like chatting with fellow tech [...]

A pattern library for user assistance

Rob Houser is working on a Pattern Library for User Assistance (UA): At WritersUA, he proposed to collect examples for patterns in (embedded) user assistance to help teams and managers with whom UA professionals collaborate to better understand the benefits and value of UA. Among UA experts, it can help to establish and exchange standards [...]

15 things I learned at WritersUA

WritersUA brought many small epiphanies, quick bursts of insight, that I’d like to share. From each session I attended, I present a tasty morsel that whets the appetite, that’s meant to be shared. It also gives you an idea of the breadth – and occasional overload – of information at the conference. (Of course, the [...]

Top 5 things I like about WritersUA

WritersUA is a very stimulating and inspiring conference! This year’s 19th annual conference draws 360 attendees (speakers included) which makes it the largest tech comm conference I’ve attended so far. Kudos and compliments to Joe Welinske and his whole team who simply “get it right”. Here are the top 5 things I like about WritersUA: [...]

MadCap roadshow in Long Beach

MadCap kicked of the 2011 season of roadshows on March 13 in Long Beach, CA, to coincide with the workshop day of the WritersUA conference. A full-day program offered primers on topic-based authoring and single sourcing, best (and less recommended) practices of collaborative authoring, and a passionate introduction to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Shorter breakout [...]

Recommended video: What’s new in MadCap Flare 7

Here’s a timed summary of the “MadCap Flare V7 – What’s New Demo” and more resources that review the latest Flare release. The 55-minute video is by Mike Hamilton, VP Product Management of MadCap Software, recorded on March 3. The audio is not spectacular, but other than that it’s a lively, engaging demo. You’ll find [...]

Top 5 reasons to attend a tech comm conference

The benefits of attending a tech writing conference go way beyond learning about methods and tools. That’s why I really look forward to Writers UA next week! Most reasons are kinda obvious really. But put them all together, and they create a serious pre-conference buzz, almost like when you follow a band on tour or [...]

Recommended read: Degree helps tech writers

Here’s an example of how graduates of a tech comm program put their skills to use in a high tech company. Specifically, National Instruments at Austin contributes two guest posts to the Texas Tech STC Student Chapter blog. Yes, these are recruiting posts, but they do ring true. I think they reflect well how a [...]