http://tc.eserver.org/authors/Unwalla,_Mike A bibliography of works by Unwalla, Mike 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/Unwalla,_Mike http://tc.eserver.org/33821.html http://tc.eserver.org/33821.html Machine translation often gives humorous translations or incorrect translations. Usually, a bad translation is because the source text is not clear in a way that a machine can 'understand'. If text is optimised for machine translation, machine translation gives excellent results. There are two sets of texts. The first set is written in standard English. The second set is equivalent to the standard English text, but it is optimised for machine translation. Google Translate was used to translate the texts into Bulgarian and into Spanish. http://tc.eserver.org/33526.html http://tc.eserver.org/33526.html Many good style guides exist. Why do technical writers need another style guide? Unlike other style guides, this book covers grammatical structures, not only particular terms. The book has more than 200 pages of text (plus 4 appendices) that give detailed explanations of both good practice and bad practice. http://tc.eserver.org/33329.html http://tc.eserver.org/33329.html According to Plain English Campaign (www.plainenglish.co.uk), plain English is "… something that the intended audience can read, understand and act upon the first time they read it. Plain English takes into account design and layout as well as language." Many organisations have found that plain English brings commercial advantages. http://tc.eserver.org/33331.html http://tc.eserver.org/33331.html A glossary is an alphabetically arranged list of terms, with a definition or an explanation of each term. A term can be a single word or many words. Typically, in a printed document, the glossary is at the end of the document. Usually, in online help, each term in a topic, or the first instance of a term, has a popup that explains the term. http://tc.eserver.org/33332.html http://tc.eserver.org/33332.html Technical writers (technical authors) produce technical literature such as standard operating procedures (SOP), user guides, reference manuals and white papers. Copywriters produce advertising copy and publicity copy (also known as marketing communications or marcomms). Typically, that means product brochures, poster advertisements, advertorials, leaflets, and mailshots. http://tc.eserver.org/33333.html http://tc.eserver.org/33333.html Plain English is good for increasing the quality of written documents. Unfortunately, it has limits in many technical situations. We need a special form of language, known as a controlled language, to overcome those limits. One particular controlled language is ASD Simplified Technical English. http://tc.eserver.org/33335.html http://tc.eserver.org/33335.html Software documentation such as Help systems and user guides may be the best method of helping your customers to use your software effectively. However, one or more of these alternatives may be a better solution. http://tc.eserver.org/33336.html http://tc.eserver.org/33336.html Documentation sometimes contains a section titled, 'Frequently asked questions' or 'FAQs'. The TechScribe website used to have a page of FAQs, but better options exist, and therefore, we removed the FAQs. http://tc.eserver.org/33338.html http://tc.eserver.org/33338.html Information Mapping is a proprietary method for the analysis, organisation, and presentation of information. It is based on the needs of the users and their purpose in using the documentation. Information Mapping has three parts: analysis, organisation, presentation. http://tc.eserver.org/33339.html http://tc.eserver.org/33339.html This article explains the relative merits of paper and online documentation from a usability perspective. First, we look at the different types of user. Then we look at typical paper documentation and online documentation with respect to these user types. Finally, we present the relative merits of paper and online documentation for different user types. http://tc.eserver.org/32739.html http://tc.eserver.org/32739.html Mike Unwalla reports on the presentations that he attended at the ISTC conference in Liverpool, UK, 2-4 October 2007. http://tc.eserver.org/31670.html http://tc.eserver.org/31670.html High-value goods and services are not impulse purchases. Both the purchaser and vendor may need to invest significant time in the purchasing process. When I first started working for myself, I wasted much time. Now I make the process as efficient as possible, both for myself, and for enquirers. http://tc.eserver.org/31028.html http://tc.eserver.org/31028.html Triangle is a systems integrator in the UK with about 150 employees. It extended the functionality of the InfoGenesis point of sale software onto hand-held terminals. To turn this into a commercial off-the-shelf product, Triangle needed clear documentation for resellers and for staff managers at customer sites. Triangle lacked the expertise needed to produce effective documentation, so it outsourced the documentation development. The new documentation enables Triangle to roll out the software internationally using resellers, and keeps Triangle's support costs to a minimum. http://tc.eserver.org/30788.html http://tc.eserver.org/30788.html ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English (formerly AECMA Simplified English) is a specification for writing aircraft documentation. The principles can be applied to all industry sectors. ASD-STE100 provides a set of writing rules and a dictionary of words and their meanings. It has a limited number of words; a limited number of clearly defined meanings for each word; a limited number of parts of speech for each word; a set of rules for writing text. This article outlines the standard, and shows how it helps to prevent ambiguity in text. http://tc.eserver.org/30786.html http://tc.eserver.org/30786.html This article explains how to create coloured hyperlinks in an index in a PDF file, using Microsoft Word as the source document for the PDF file. Many authors create PDF files using Word as the source document. Most Word-to-PDF converters create a hyperlink in the PDF file if a hyperlink exists in the Word document. Unfortunately, Word does not create hyperlinked cross-references in an index, so no PDF creation tool can directly generate a hyperlinked index. The Sonar Bookends Activate plug-in for Acrobat creates hyperlinks for page numbers in indexes in PDF files. The plug-in does not change the colour of new hyperlinks, and it does not create visible rectangles for the hyperlinks. This article explains how to colour the hyperlinks in the Word source document using macro. http://tc.eserver.org/30785.html http://tc.eserver.org/30785.html LaTeX is a powerful typesetting system that is used for producing scientific and mathematical documents of high typographic quality. Unlike WYSIWYG tools such as FrameMaker and Word, it uses plain text files that contain formatting commands. It is big, open source, and used by many technical publishing companies. This article overviews LaTeX, and directs you to sources of information. http://tc.eserver.org/30790.html http://tc.eserver.org/30790.html The three disciplines of usability, testing, and documentation are important to the success of hi-tech products. These three areas are often overlooked, but they have a profound affect on the end user's experience of a software product. As customers become more perceptive about IT, their expectations rise. Since customers now have more choice than ever, to be successful, a software product needs to stand out from the crowd. This article explains why the three disciplines are important to the overall success of a software solution. It concludes with recommendations for obtaining the best return on investment. http://tc.eserver.org/30789.html http://tc.eserver.org/30789.html At a user group meeting in 2007, TechScribe researched users' experiences of the software documentation that they receive. Do they prefer online or printed documentation? Do they read the manual, or do they call the help desk? How important is background information? Which is more useful, a 'how to' user guide or a reference manual? Do people prefer explanations using visuals, descriptions, or a combination? Read the survey to find the answers (we obtained 29 responses from 64 attendees). http://tc.eserver.org/30787.html http://tc.eserver.org/30787.html HTML Indexer is a commercial stand-alone indexing tool that is designed solely for the indexing of web sites. This article shows how to extend the functionality of HTML Indexer by including special codes in the entries, then post-processing the generated HTML to obtain final HTML. http://tc.eserver.org/25876.html http://tc.eserver.org/25876.html You can increase your efficiency and at the same time, improve the appearance of your Microsoft® Word documents by using styles. http://tc.eserver.org/22365.html http://tc.eserver.org/22365.html This style guide is designed to help software developers with the language aspects of screen design. It is not comprehensive, but it does cover the most common problems. For comprehensive style guidelines for documentation see the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications. TechScribe is based in the UK, and although we produce documentation for both the US and the UK markets, we have used British English in this guide. The document can be printed on both US Letter and A4 size paper. http://tc.eserver.org/22366.html http://tc.eserver.org/22366.html These tips will help you to avoid receiving junk email. They also give you some guidelines to ensure that you don't help its spread. http://tc.eserver.org/21385.html http://tc.eserver.org/21385.html This article lists the basic differences between WinHelp version 4, Microsoft compiled HTML help, WebHelp and pure HTML help. Samples are available. http://tc.eserver.org/21389.html http://tc.eserver.org/21389.html Using an extended example, this article shows how it is possible to reduce the number of words in a text and at the same time increase readability. http://tc.eserver.org/21387.html http://tc.eserver.org/21387.html This article first describes the basic types of user. It then lists the advantages and disadvantages of typical paper and online documents and relates these to the various user types. Finally, there is a comparison of the paper and online formats with respect to usability criteria. http://tc.eserver.org/21383.html http://tc.eserver.org/21383.html Experts from around the World are working on a new ISO standard for software documentation (Guidelines for the design and preparation of user documentation for application software). This article outlines how the standard is being produced, its current status and what it contains. http://tc.eserver.org/21388.html http://tc.eserver.org/21388.html This article compares the costs of development, production and maintenance for paper and online documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/21384.html http://tc.eserver.org/21384.html This article outlines how you can ensure that your software documentation conforms to the new accessibility legislation in the US. http://tc.eserver.org/21382.html http://tc.eserver.org/21382.html This article shows how a user-centred approach to software design can reduce the requirement for documentation. It lists Jakob Nielsen's usability heuristics, and for each one, shows how following the heuristic can reduce the requirement for user documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/21381.html http://tc.eserver.org/21381.html This article looks at web design issues from a technical writing perspective. It highlights aspects of poor design that can prevent your intended audience from receiving your message. http://tc.eserver.org/21386.html http://tc.eserver.org/21386.html This article lists some basic metrics for determining whether documentation is useful or not. Users' needs and issues of accessibility are highlighted. http://tc.eserver.org/21298.html http://tc.eserver.org/21298.html Have you ever tried to create an index in Word? Were you dissatisfied with the options available in the dialogs? There are other features available that can provide you with a higher level of control over the structure of the index. This article gives you an overview of advanced indexing techniques; see Word’s online help for details. The menu sequences are for Word 2000; there are slight differences in Word 2002. http://tc.eserver.org/21308.html http://tc.eserver.org/21308.html These workshop notes list many of the things that you will need to consider if you intend to become a freelance technical communicator in the UK. The main topics are: your motivation; getting help with your business; legal and administrative issues; business infrastructure; working practices; advertising and publicity; office environment. The workshop was presented at the ISTC Conference, Bosworth, 2002. http://tc.eserver.org/21302.html http://tc.eserver.org/21302.html For practical purposes, we may say that a tender is 'an offer to do work.' This article discusses quotations for work, standard terms and conditions and letters of agreement. The article is written within the context of UK legislation. It originally appeared in Communicator 7:1, Spring 2001. http://tc.eserver.org/21301.html http://tc.eserver.org/21301.html How do you write an effective email that your recipient finds clear and easy to understand? There's more to it than just typing a few words and clicking the Send button. These notes give you some guidelines on the following: technical issues, document structure, the importance of knowing your audience, language issues and layout and visual design. http://tc.eserver.org/21299.html http://tc.eserver.org/21299.html These guidelines are written primarily for people who are not technical writers. If you are new to technical writing, you will probably find these instructions useful.