Echoes from the Past: DITA, Help, Single-Sourcing Tools — Looking from the 60s to Today

The historian of technical communications, R. John Brockmann, researched efforts to document products going back centuries. He finds that some of today’s hottest new documentation ideas were present in the work of those creating, documenting, and selling the technology of manufacturing just after the revolutionary war.

Ng, Daniel. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>History

Examples of Companies Integrating Podcasts into their Mix of Technical Communication Deliverables?

Podcasts aren't very good at delivering step-by-step technical information. Concepts are where podcasts excel.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2007). Articles>Multimedia>Audio>Podcasting

How Much Time Do You Spend in Web 2.0--Interesting Article from the Read/Write Web

Everyone has time to do what they want in Web 2.0; it's just a matter of priorities. I would say that I spend about 5-10 hours a week writing blog posts and producing podcasts. For people who have second jobs or who work 70 hrs a week, dedicating a lot of spare time to Web 2.0 is unlikely. Just curious about your thoughts. Do you feel you spend too much time in Web 2.0 activities? What would you like to be doing with your life instead?

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Internet>Audience Analysis

How to Get Your Blog Mentioned in the Society for Technical Communication's Intercom: Include the Word "Technical Communicator"

The keywords that set off the Intercom editor's Google Alert no doubt included technical communicator, technical writer, technical communication, and Society for Technical Communication.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Publishing>Online>Blogging

The Kind of Documentation Users Really Want

Have you ever asked your users what kind of training materials they want, or how they prefer to learn software? This kind of information is critical to figuring out what help deliverables to produce. But really when it comes down to it, there are only so many options — printed manuals, short guides, interactive flash guides, videos, online help, live training, reference cards, context-sensitive help, workbooks and exercises, or, usually the favorite, someone to stand by their computer and answer questions whenever they need help.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Documentation>Usability>User Centered Design

The Question No One Asked Me at the Career Advice Panel, Thank Goodness

Tonight I participated on a career panel for technical writing majors at Utah State University. In preparation, I tried to think of answers to questions they might ask. The one question that I was sure some student would ask is this: 'If you were to do it over again, would you choose technical writing as your career?'

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Careers>Writing>Technical Writing

Quick Reference Guides: The Poetry of Technical Writing

How many times have you written a 75+ page guide and heard the customer say, This is great, but can you give us a condensed version? After the third or fourth time I’d heard this, I decided to actually try it.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Academic>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing

Systems That Get Better the More People Use Them

In Publishing 2.0, Tim O'Reilly says Web 2.0 is 'any network effect that makes a system better the more people use it.' Web 2.0 isn’t just user-generated content; it’s harnessing the collective intelligence of your users to make your system better.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Documentation>Web Design>Social Networking

Too Connected: Utopias and Dystopias of Communication

The more you blog, the more people you attract through Google. The more search-engine-optimized your posts are, the more people find you. The more tweets you send, the more people follow you. The more social networks you join, the more people add themselves to your page. The better posts you write, the more people subscribe to your RSS feed. The more content you generate – in whatever form and media – the more trackbacks and links people generate about you. The more you produce, the more emails and questions you get. You become like a content cloud – attracting Google searches.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Communication>Ubiquitous Computing>Online

Using WordPress to Build Websites Instead of Blogs

One of the things I like about WordPress is its versatility. WordPress isn’t just blogging software. With the right theme, you can build a website that doesn’t resemble a blog at all. Essentially, writers who become familiar with WordPress become empowered as web designers as well.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Content Management>Software

Why Software Applications Need Product Blogs, and Why They Don't Get Them

I'm convinced that even internal software, which never sees the light of WWW, still needs a blog as much or more than products sold online. Even so, numerous corporate restrictions, standards, and culture will present seemingly insurmountable barriers to blogs.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Documentation>Software>Blogging

With All This Fuss About Tools, Three Best Practice Attitudes

Although tools seem to play a significant role in technical authoring, some people disagree. Embrace tool learning. Recognize that the 'best tool' is relative. Expose knowledge gaps.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>TC>Advice>Software

WordPress’ Biggest Mistake

For a company that recently secured $29 million in funding, has grown from nonexistence to worldwide popularity in just four years, and which has the reputation of being the platform for serious bloggers, it’s kind of bold for me to call attention to its biggest mistake in a post. But I’m convinced that it’s a huge miscalculation on the part of Automattic (the company that leads WordPress). The Automattic team, led by Matt Mullenweg, has about 25 engineers and …. not one technical writer.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>WordPress

WordPress as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Application

I'm amazed at how easily people can make sites look both professional and functional in a short period of time using WordPress. Clyde Parson, the STC-Suncoast chapter in Tampa, just redid the Suncoast STC with a new WordPress theme. It looks pretty cool.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Content Management>Blogging>WordPress

Fourteen Widespread Myths about Technical Writing

In addition to common myths about technical writing as a sellout and fallback career, I can think of at least ten other commonly held myths surrounding the field of technical communication.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing

Users Read Help Manuals Like an Encyclopedia, Not a Novel

Users turn to help to look for a specific question, just as someone consults an encyclopedia for a specific question. No one reads the entire encyclopedia/manual, nor is anyone expected to. Well-written encyclopedias allow users to find information through indexes, tables of contents, alphabetical organization, and search fields.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Help

Search Engine Optimize Your Blog Posts to Increase Your Readership

When you search-engine-optimize your blog posts, you can increase your blog’s subscribers in a long-term way. You don’t have to stiffen your prose to apply search engine optimization — you just have to apply keywords in the right places.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Publishing>Search Engine Optimization>Blogging

How I Create Video Tutorials

Creating video tutorials is no trivial task. When you sit down to create 20+ video tutorials for a project, you’re faced with dozens of questions. What screen size should the videos be, what recording tool should you use, what microphone is best, how long should the videos be, what file size is acceptable? Should you use voice or captions? Where will you create the recording? You can create video tutorials using dozens of different methods. There are no official steps to create videos, because situations and audiences vary so widely.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Documentation>Multimedia>Video

How Much Should You Document? Everything? Strategies for an Agile Environment

Some agile environments move so fast, you have to triage what you document because there’s no time to document everything.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Documentation>Agile

FLOSSmanuals.net: A New Wiki Help Authoring/Publishing Tool Hybrid

Flossmanuals.net is a new wiki help authoring/publishing tool hybrid that, as far as I know, is completely unique. The site is more than a wiki. It allows groups of authors to create specific chapters independently. You can then remix the chapters into any arrangement and selection you want through a drag-and-drop interface.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Documentation>Help>Wikis

Transitioning from Literary Studies to Technical Communication

A 250 page manual for a complicated product may be more difficult to write than a master’s thesis. It may require a massive amount of deductive and inductive logic, as you try to figure out how the product works. You may spend months interviewing subject matter experts, asking them hundreds of questions about how the product functions, and then hundreds more to clarify their cryptic answers.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Careers>TC>Advice

My Tip for Productivity: Tear Up the To-Do List

We all lead extremely busy lives. We have goals, commitments, and an almost endless amount of tasks to complete. Are there any productivity tips that work for you?

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Project Management>Workflow

Does Design Matter in Comparison to Content?

Few people have ever commented about my blog’s design at all. The same goes with the music intros for my podcasts. I can change the music each time, and no one ever responds. In contrast, if a post has good content, I see a steady stream of comments. My experience leads me to conclude that content is about 90% important, and design is 10% important.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric>Writing