http://tc.eserver.org/authors/Byfield,_Bruce A bibliography of works by Byfield, Bruce in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Byfield,_Bruce http://tc.eserver.org/32043.html http://tc.eserver.org/32043.html Prescriptive grammar is useful for teaching English as a second language, but it has little value for the practicing writer. Clinging to it may provide emotional security, but only at the expense of making writing harder than it needs to be. The culture-wide devotion to it will not be changed in a moment. But conscientious writers can at least change their own habits, and make life easier for themselves. http://tc.eserver.org/31967.html http://tc.eserver.org/31967.html I had considered putting my makeshift portfolio on floppy disk. Lack of disk space and a widely-used viewing format made the idea impractical, but technology had moved on in six years, and neither problem existed now. Why not put my portfolio on CD? http://tc.eserver.org/31965.html http://tc.eserver.org/31965.html Most contractors can't afford the time or money to advertise. If they can, there probably aren't many places where an ad would reach potential clients anyway. By default, then, your reputation as a contractor rests on your behavior at each job. Leave a happy client behind at the end of each job, and you'll soon start a word-of-mouth campaign that will keep you employed the rest of your working life. http://tc.eserver.org/26615.html http://tc.eserver.org/26615.html Many tech writers do not see grammar as a set of conventions to help them write clearly. Instead, to judge by the wording of the questions and responses, they see grammar as a set of unchanging rules that can provide definitive answers in every situation. http://tc.eserver.org/26113.html http://tc.eserver.org/26113.html When you first switch to Writer, this claim that Writer beats Word may seem hard to swallow. And no wonder; you're too busy learning the new menus to get beyond the fact that everything's only half-familiar. And if you're an unsophisticated user who has yet to learn (to steal the title of Robin Williams' book) that the PC is not a typewriter, you might never notice. However, if you're an advanced user for whom style, structured text and long documents are all part of word processing, then the claim soon becomes self-evident. http://tc.eserver.org/26112.html http://tc.eserver.org/26112.html If the success of an open source project can be measured by the number of third-party books about it, then OpenOffice.org is thriving. Not only is OpenOffice.org represented by a dozen books and pieces of training material on Amazon.com, but interest in OpenOffice.org is widespread enough that each of the books is geared to a slightly different audience. This article gives an overview of four of the current OpenOffice.org books, ending with a suggestion of which to buy for your own needs. http://tc.eserver.org/26116.html http://tc.eserver.org/26116.html All of the contents in an OpenOffice.org Writer document is one of three things: text characters, fields or objects. Objects is a large category that includes formulas, drawing objects and so-called OLE Objects, but it is represented most often by graphics. All objects are added to Writer using a frame, and most of the time, it is the frame that you are editing. The object itself sits sublimely above your changes, its appearance in the document altering but not the object itself. http://tc.eserver.org/26101.html http://tc.eserver.org/26101.html When OpenOffice.org (www.openoffice.org) reached version 1.0 in May 2002, I did my journalistic duty and had a look. It wasn't what I expected. At times, the duplication of MS Word in OpenOffice.org seemed to extend to the faults, but the first impression is misleading. While MS Word users can be comfortable in OpenOffice.org within minutes, OpenOffice.org's interface is by far the tidier. More importantly, OpenOffice.org not only matches MS Word almost feature for feature, but often exceeds it, and provides working versions of features that have been broken or overdue for overhaul in MS Word for several releases. http://tc.eserver.org/26072.html http://tc.eserver.org/26072.html Even if you're the most dedicated OpenOffice.org (OOo) user in the world, sooner or later you'll be asked to share files with someone using Microsoft Office. Some free software advocates refuse outright, or suggest outputting to HTML, PDF, or RTF formats, but these aren't always options -- especially if your boss is the one doing the asking. However, with a few preparations and a sense of what works and what doesn't, you can usually share files with Microsoft Office users with a minimum of headaches on both sides. Here's how. http://tc.eserver.org/25985.html http://tc.eserver.org/25985.html OOo Writer scores most of its victories in features that make the creation and maintenance of highly formatted or long documents easier. This pattern is not accidental. According to Elizabeth Mathias of Sun Microsystems, the documentation of OpenOffice.org has a long history of being written in Writer itself. As a result, the program's developers had the incentive to include the tools they needed. This legacy continues to give Writer advantages over competitors like Word. http://tc.eserver.org/25698.html http://tc.eserver.org/25698.html Replace Adobe FrameMaker with OpenOffice.org Writer? Most people's first reaction is amused disbelief. 'FrameMaker is a hugely capable publishing product,' my editor admonished me. 'OOo is a marginally competent word processor.' However, a functional comparison of several important desktop publishing features in both products shows that the products are more comparable than you might think. http://tc.eserver.org/24077.html http://tc.eserver.org/24077.html Like any word processor, OpenOffice.org's Writer automatically adds numbers and bullets to paragraphs for you. Unlike typical word processors, however, Writer does not make lists a part of paragraph styles. Instead, lists have styles of their own. These styles are called numbering styles. Separating list styles from paragraph styles gives list options more room for custom settings without burying them deep in the menus. http://tc.eserver.org/19528.html http://tc.eserver.org/19528.html When OpenOffice reached version 1.0 in May 2002, I did my journalistic duty and had a look. It wasn't what I expected. Aside from a few minor disappointments, I liked what I saw. I quickly became convinced that OpenOffice.org's Writer (OOo Writer) is a practical alternative to MS Word. Thirteen months of use has only cemented that impression. Four minor releases have been made since I started using OpenOffice.org, and, with each one, the program has become quicker and more stable. http://tc.eserver.org/14808.html http://tc.eserver.org/14808.html If you're expecting to be lost in the interstellar darkness of the command line, you're in for a surprise. Although Linux includes some handy command line tools, today most of Linux's install programs, desktops, and programs now boast graphical windows. The desktops and the windows look a little different from the ones you see in other operating systems, but they're recognizable for what they are. As you'll see in this article, you have to look deeper to see the differences: They lie not only in the performance, but also in a design philosophy that favors small tools over monolithic ones, customization over standardization, and a hands-on approach over hidden complexity. Once you adjust to the novelties, even the command line is not the empty vacuum you expected, but a teeming ecology that in many ways is more powerful--and empowering--than the GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces). If Linux is somewhat rougher in patches than Windows, many people feel that this design philosophy more than compensates. After all, one day in the next few years, Linux is going to have the GUI sophistication, too. http://tc.eserver.org/13957.html http://tc.eserver.org/13957.html Is Linux in your technical writing future? The possibility is becoming too strong to ignore. Companies like Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse First Boston are using Linux now, and countries ranging from Germany and France to Pakistan and Venezuela are adapting it and other open source software for government business. In high-tech, IBM reports that over one thousand of its business partners became Linux-certified in 2001, and the Linux applications listed in the IBM Global Solutions Directory rose from 2300 to 2800 in the six months between June 2001 and January 2002. In a little less than three years, Linux has captured over a third of the server market, and, while its share of the desktop market seems stalled at four percent, growing concerns about security, the cost of commercial software, and restrictive licensing practices are starting to change that. http://tc.eserver.org/12963.html http://tc.eserver.org/12963.html The idea behind Open Source is simple: everyone should have the freedom to copy, distribute, and change source code. The implications, however, overturn the conventional high-tech business model. When software is no longer intellectual property, everything changes. Development is quicker because more people are involved. Bugs are caught more quickly. Instead of being passive consumers, customers can become partners in development. Instead of selling software, companies sell hardware, services, or added value. Internally, companies become more interactive and more loosely structured. If Open Source continues to gather speed, high-tech workers will discover that it is not just a development model, but also a new model for corporate life. For writers, the approach of Open Source could be especially important. How documentation is viewed and used, how writers interact with developers, and what tools are used--all of these and more could be affected by the Open Source movement.