What’s Wrong with PowerPoint as a Document Authoring Tool?

It is our position that use of PowerPoint for document planning negatively impacts all potential collaborative authoring and review outcomes. Though PowerPoint is commonly used because it is a familiar tool, it is not the most effective tool for managing knowledge either intellectually or financially.

Cuppan, Gregory P. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Project Management>Technical Writing>Microsoft PowerPoint

Too Many Inputs Freak Out the Technical Writer

In such a scenario, this article presents some of the practices that have helped me track and address inputs effectively – regardless of their volume and importance.

Machani, Sridhar. Indus (2009). Articles>Project Management>Writing>Technical Writing

Content Curation: A Manifesto

A Content Curator is someone who continually finds, groups, organizes and shares the best and most relevant content on a specific issue online. I think that professional writers and technical writers should consider a move towards this role. We already search for and find the best content, sift through loads of content, discard poor content, and publish the most worthy content whenever a software release goes out. This description also sounds like something a content strategist would do as part of their analysis of the content.

Gentle, Anne. Just Write Click (2009). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Technical Writing

Does DITA Make You Dumb?

There are at least two broad categories of technology that managers often confuse. The first is technology that replaces a particular skill. For example, the cash register at a McDonalds has technology that relieves cashiers from doing math, so they can hire people who are not skilled in math. The second is technology that allows a skilled practitioner to be more productive. For example, the computer makes it possible to write and edit text much more easily than a typewriter, but it won’t make a bad writer better.

Hamilton, Richard. Managing Writers (2009). Articles>Management>Technical Writing>DITA

How Soon is Now?

One common complaint a lot of technical writers have is that they aren’t included early enough in lifecycle of a project. The downsides are that by the time work hits your desk you don’t have a full picture of who the customer is, why they want whatever it is you are building, and how they want it provided to them. All of which directly impacts the information being created.

McLean, Donna. One Man Writes (2009). Articles>Project Management>Technical Writing>Collaboration

Change Management – An Underestimated Success Factor

Although the creation and translation of technical documents are essential parts of the product lifecycle they still play a subordinate role in most international organizations. Many companies are therefore leaving these tasks to an outsourcing provider. To ensure a smooth collaboration and guarantee high quality technical documents, the outsourcing process needs to be planned and supported thoroughly.

Grosser, Sabine and Rob Heemels. TC World (2008). Articles>Content Management>Outsourcing>Technical Writing

Using Topic-Based Writing to Pull Together a Writing Project

You might find that with projects like that, you write in bits and pieces — a few sentences or paragraphs here and there — and never get anything finished. You have chunks of writing, but can’t really pull them together. But if you look to the world of technical communication, you’ll find a solution to this problem. One of the hottest trends in that wacky world is topic-based writing. And it can help you pull together all those chunks of content that you’ve been pecking out into something tangible.

Nesbitt, Scott. ScottNesbitt.net (2010). Articles>Writing>Content Management>Technical Writing

Teaching Project Management How to Work with Technical Writers

I’ve been asked what the biggest surprise was for me when I went full-time into the field of technical communication following university graduation. Honestly, not a lot surprised me; I knew how to write procedures, gather information, and use Web, print, and graphics tools. I had even worked in a company environment during a short contract period following my freshman year of college. So what was the surprise? Basically that on a significantly sized software development team, no one really knew how to work with a technical writer. So it was up to me to educate them.

Minson, Benjamin. Gryphon Mountain (2010). Articles>Project Management>Writing>Technical Writing