Analysis of Tools Used in the UK by Technical Communicators

During March and April 2003, Cherryleaf carried out an online survey into the current trends in technical communication. One of the questions we asked was: Which software tools do you personally use to do your job? The respondents were able to select more than one tool from the list provided. We filtered our results to find the most popular software tools used by technical communicators in the UK.

Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>Research>Software>United Kingdom

Applying "Mass Customisation" Manufacturing Principles to Solve Technical Communication Problems

This article discusses how organisations can resolve the conflict between the need to produce bespoke, customer-specific, technical communication and the need to re-use as much information as possible. It begins with a description of the conflict and resulting trade-off and then compares it to the field of manufacturing, which has found ways to deal with a similar issue. Universal information modules are introduced as the solution - these allow the manufacturing principle of mass customization to be applied to technical communication. The article ends by outlining the requirements needed for supporting tools in order to adopt this solution.

Rombauts, Yves. Cherryleaf (2005). Articles>Content Management

Applying Web 2.0 Technologies to Technical Documentation

This article is based on my presentation at the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators' annual conference in October, 2006. Every now and then, there is a change in the value of what technical authors deliver. These are moments when organisations pay attention to technical documentation. This is because they recognise that these changes mean they can create something that will be of real value to the business and to their customers. In recent years, there have been three "waves of interestingness". The first wave was the introduction of Windows Help (WinHelp). The second major wave was the introduction of the Internet and intranets. This was a time when organisations looked at how they could transfer large amounts of information from paper to online. They were faced with issues such as how users could access and understand all this information easily - issues that technical communicators deal with on a day-to-day basis. I believe we're just about to approach the new wave, which we have called "Tech Writing 2.0".

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2006). Articles>Web Design>Documentation>Technical Writing

Benefits of Using a Professional to Write User Documentation

Studies have shown organisations value the following benefits: overall organisation, the sales team, and documentation meets the customer's requirements.

Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>Writing>Professionalism>Documentation

Cherryleaf News and Information

Contains news and information on software and documentation issues, reports on survey into the current trends in technical communication, the future of Help / trends in user assistance, which Help authoring tool to buy, an introduction to single-sourcing, career advice, etc.

Cherryleaf. Resources>Documentation>Regional>United Kingdom

Cherryleaf Survey: Uptake of New Help Trends

During March and April 2003, Cherryleaf carried out an online survey into the current trends in technical communication. One of the questions we asked was: Do the online user assistance documents produced by your organization contain the following advanced capabilities?

Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online

Cherryleaf Survey: Use of Single-Sourcing Solutions

During March and April 2003, Cherryleaf carried out an online survey into the current trends in technical communication. One of the questions we asked was: Do the people directly involved with user assistance development at your organization use a single sourcing authoring solution? Our findings are summarised in the article

Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Reports

Cherryleaf Technical Authors' Blog

A blog about the experiences of technical authors.

Cherryleaf. Resources>Writing>Technical Writing>Blogs

Context-Sensitive Help: What Programmers and Technical Authors Need to Know

Context-sensitive Help is assistance that is appropriate to where the user is in the software application, and what they are trying to do. Carol Johnston's article describes what programmers and technical authors need to know about Context-sensitive Help.

Johnston, Carol. Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>User Interface>Help>Documentation

The Death of the Technical Author?

Technical Authors do not have high prominence in the workplace, and they don't have the best of images (as can be seen by the movie 'The Technical Writer'). Today, there are a number of Technical Authors struggling to find new employment in the current IT sector, and one can find messages on Internet newsgroups questioning the future employment prospects for Technical Authors in North America and Europe. Some wonder whether the role of the Technical Author will disappear, like other careers have in the past. In this article we look at the problems faced by Technical Authors in defining their role, and make some recommendations for the future.

Birn, William. Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>Writing>Professionalism>Technical Writing

A Document Management Case Study: QLD Dept of Housing  

How a new spin on document management software helped revolutionise customer service at the Queensland Department of Housing.

Hambly, Natalie. Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>Documentation>Software>Government

A Guide for Software Project Managers - Planning User Documentation

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)–2000 Edition is the main sourcebook in the project management field. Whilst it covers Project Communications Management, it doesn't extend to user documentation. This article seeks to provide guidance for project managers as to how the user documentation process fits in with the overall project planning. It examines: the traditional way documentation is approached and how it impinges on project planning the effects of making changes to this traditional approach.

Johnston, Carol. Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>Documentation>Management>Technical Writing

The Marketing of Technical Authors

In May 2004, I did a presentation to the London group of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators on the future for technical authors. This article expands one of the topics discussed - how to promote and market technical authors.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2004). Careers>Writing>Marketing>Technical Writing

Nine Little-Known Secrets About Creating Great User Information

Outlining and structuring the manual are the most important major steps in creating a manual. Indeed, professional writers spend up to 50% of the total time on this task.

Cherryleaf (2007). Articles>Documentation

Reducing Translation and Localisation Costs

These days, staff in localisation departments spend their time essentially on project management, translation and quality assurance. However, by using one of the emerging systems that integrate content creation, localisation and content management into an efficient system, many of these activities can be automated or avoided all together. We are now seeing the emergence of technical content control systems that can be used to improve the turn-around time, translation costs and the quality of the translations themselves. In recent projects, where these systems have been implemented, organisations have seen substantial savings in localisation costs, with word count reductions and translation costs of around 30%.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2004). Articles>Language>Localization

Single Sourcing: An Introduction

Many documentation departments produce detailed and well-designed paper documentation. Increasingly, however, one paper manual is not enough. Pressure is growing to deliver your information online, perhaps on several different user platforms. You may need to reuse the information in your manuals for quick reference guides, training courses and marketing publications. This can mean that you find yourself re-creating virtually identical content over and over again. Duplicating your material for multiple media, multiple uses and multiple audiences is time-consuming and costly.

Darley, Justin. Cherryleaf (2002). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

The Six Biggest Mistakes Project Managers Make with Documentation and How to Avoid Them

Professional business writers, such as technical authors, typically break a document down into small, discrete units of information, organised around a skeleton of topic headings. If you use this 'component' or 'modular' approach, you can plan and structure the document using the heading 'labels' that describe each section.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2007). Articles>Documentation>Planning>Project Management

A Solution to Writing Winning Sales Proposals and Other Sales Documents

This article explains how we built a solution to producing sales proposals and other sales literature for our own company using an affordable content management solution.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Single Sourcing>Documentation

Survey Into Trends in Technical Communication: How Many Technical Writers Should We Have in Our Organisation?

We were asked recently if we knew of any research on 'standard' ratios between developers and technical authors. We decided to carry out some research and this article covers our preliminary findings.

Cherryleaf (2003). Careers>Project Management>Standards>Surveys

Tech Writing 2.0: Special Report on New Trends in User Documentation

This report outlines the developments in what many are calling "Web 2.0" and the impact that these developments may have on technical and user documentation. We've called these trends "Tech Writing 2.0". Tech Writing 2.0 promises a new means of communication that business can use to promote and support their products and services. This means that the nature of technical communication will change.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>User Centered Design

Word Tips and Tricks: Movies for Authors

These flash movies can be redistributed freely on your Web site or intranet, on condition that they are not altered or amended in any way. If you view them on this Web site, they will open in second window.

Cherryleaf (2003). Resources>Tutorials>Software>Microsoft Word

Your Documentation Problems Solved in Five Easy Steps

It is important you know the key purpose of your document: Who is your audience? What do you want to happen as a result of someone reading it?

Cherryleaf (2007). Articles>Documentation

Confessions of a Technical Author: What Can Technical Communicators Learn from David Ogilvy?

David Ogilvy was an advertising genius who distilled his successful concepts and techniques into a bestselling book I've just finished reading, called "Confessions of an Advertising Man". I wanted to read his book, because I often find it useful to look at other professions and ask whether their ideas could be applied to the world of technical authoring.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2008). Articles>TC>Writing>Technical Writing

Zen and the Art of Help Files

I would argue that 'Presentation Zen' contains ideas that are also relevant to technical communication.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2008). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

The Return on Investment of Documentation and Support

The benefits of user documentation (reduced support calls, increase in the perceived value of the product, happier customers, better customer retention, increase product usage etc) can be identified, but it can be hard to measure them and accurately quantify the Return on Investment.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2008). Articles>Documentation>Management