#23699
Abundance and Joy through Job Enrichment 
With the economic crunch affecting the workplace, many of us are being asked to perform additional tasks while facing the same tight deadlines. Dealing with this stress sometimes makes me feel bogged down and stuck in a cycle of drudgery.
Azis, Denise. MetroVoice (2002). Careers>TC
#23693
Several weeks ago, a supercilious colleague informed me that spell checkers and grammar checkers had rendered editors and proofreaders obsolete. When I attempted to explain that electronic grammar and spelling checkers are not reliable because they yield false negatives and false positives, she disagreed strongly. I went on to further explain that language is more complex than any computer can fathom, and that until artificial intelligence truly arrives, the best grammar checking program will continue to live between our ears. I am sorry to say that my colleague arrogantly declared that I was mistaken. I wrote the verse below in her honor.
Kasper, Rosa. MetroVoice (2002). Articles>Language>Word Processing
#23682
Blogging as a trend has gained enormous popularity with the simplification of automated self-publishing systems, such as Blogger at www.blogger.com, or MT at www.moveabletype.org. Blogging as a way of life is also gathering adherents at a rapid pace.
Young, Lisa. MetroVoice (2003). Articles>Publishing>Online>Blogging
#23702
Breaking into Technical Writing
I'm not ashamed to admit it: the reason I became a technical writer is because 'Technical' comes after 'Teacher' in the help-wanted ads.
Johnson, Carol Siri. MetroVoice (2002). Careers>Writing>Technical Writing
#23687
Direct Engagements: How Contractors Can Take Advantage
Many STC members work independently as freelancers, temps, or consultants. In some recent presentations I’ve given to STC members, many independent workers have asked me about ways to get more money and satisfaction out of their contracting careers. Almost invariably, my advice is to explore the possibilities of engaging clients directly, rather than using a staffing or consulting company.
Zaino, Gene. MetroVoice (2003). Careers>Freelance
#23694
Most technical writers use much more care in choosing words than in presenting numbers. The writer who presents numbers poorly loses credibility. Poorly presented numbers also cause reader misunderstanding that leads to poor decisions.
Robbins, Naomi B. MetroVoice (2002). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Charts and Graphs
#23679
Don't Fool with Graphs, Part II
Using evenly spaced tick marks to represent different time intervals is a common error which has been repeated several times in recent STC publications and presentations.
Robbins, Naomi B. MetroVoice (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Charts and Graphs
#23672
Effective Writing, or Tips on How to Write English 'Gooder' 
Some quick tips toward a clearer, more lucid, meaningful,…well, you know what I mean.
Perez De Tagle, Robert. MetroVoice (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Minimalism
#23688
Essential Pharmaceutical URLs and Organizations
Systems and network engineers, developers, project managers, and technical staff have been hit hard since the technology bubble burst. Since Y2K there has been an influx of competitive workers on H1B visas who have stayed and now have green cards. Now there is also outsourcing to India, Bulgaria, Russia, Ireland, the Philippines etc.
Marie, Cecile. MetroVoice (2003). Careers>Scientific Communication>Biomedical
#23701
Writing spots were becoming fewer and farther between, and it was clear that I'd have to make a career change. I used to pick up temporary secretarial spots during lulls, but with the downswing in the economy and the proliferation of PCs, the demand for word processing gurus had dwindled considerably. Most of the writing jobs that did come my way over the last three years were dreadful. Job satisfaction had reached an all-time low.
Lookabaugh, Nancy K. MetroVoice (2002). Careers>Writing>Legal
#23700
Helping Each Other into the Future
About 50 NY Metro chapter members and friends gathered at the Parsippany Hilton on Thursday, April 11, to glimpse the immediate future in the world of Web development and online help. The result was a lively meeting with five simultaneous conversations on different aspects of help.
Parker, Anne Kennison. MetroVoice (2002). Articles>TC>Planning
#23675
How To Generate A Table Of Contents in Word
Using heading levels and styles in Microsoft Word, you can automatically generate a table of contents. It is useful when doing a long document that needs a table of contents and generating a table of contents is much faster than doing one manually.
Austria, Arden Paul. MetroVoice (2003). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#23686
If You Build It…: A Social Services Agency Website Gets A Facelift
A case study of the 2002 redesign of the website for Catholic Community Services in Newark.
Crovetto, Christina. MetroVoice (2003). Design>Web Design>Redesign>Case Studies
#23684
Interesting Times, Interesting Measures
We've been living in 'interesting' times, as the saying goes, and many of us feel that we've had about as much interest as we can tolerate, thank you very much. Chapter meeting attendance has been down and the popularity of technical presentations has decreased, while the popularity of career cafes and career management days has increased. In any conversation between three technical communicators, at least one is unemployed, about to be unemployed, or thinking about a career change.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. MetroVoice (2003). Careers>TC>Planning
#23668
The Issue of Archiving and Obsolescence
We can be almost certain that CDs will be obsolete in about five years. But what should we do about it?
Pinkham, Gordon. MetroVoice (2004). Articles>TC>Technology>Standards
#23689
Review: Medical Writing in Drug Development: A Practical Guide for Pharmaceutical Research
When I first saw this book, I was surprised that it was so slim. When you think of medical texts, you immediately imagine a volume of 600 pages or more. But Robert Bonk has been able to distill his information into a readable volume. All of the information is right there, easy to access, with no jargon cluttering the way.
Bonk, Robert J. MetroVoice (2003). Resources>Reviews>Scientific Communication>Biomedical
#23697
Many chapters have membership drives in the Fall. Not a big deal, something we’ve always done. However, today membership drives can play an important role in sustaining STC.
Baker, Jonathan W. MetroVoice (2002). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#23674
The Need for Technical Communication in IT Departments
Although many would not believe such to be true, there is a vast amount of communication that must be done in the IT world. This is even truer when the IT organization is involved with a regulated industry (e.g., pharmaceutical). In general, procedures and practices that went into the development, installation, and use/maintenance of a system require documentation and the communication of outages to the user community are also important. Among the more specific areas are help documentation, user instructions, code comments, installation instructions, and maintenance procedures/schedules. When a problem arises, it is often necessary for the IT professional to explain exactly what happened and provide the resolution in a coherent, layman-termed method, whether it be verbal or written (or both). Unfortunately, not all IT professionals are capable of doing this.
Mardekian, Beth. MetroVoice (2004). Articles>TC>Technology>Collaboration
#23673
An Overview of the STC Transformation Initiative
because technical information is ever changing, we accept the fact that our work will be continually various, constantly in flux. It's just the nature of the beast. This is the essence of the purpose of the STC national organization's transformation initiative: Keeping up with the changing times.
MetroVoice (2004). Articles>TC>Planning>STC
#23703
Reinvent Yourself: Applying Marketing's Textbook Rules
What happened to the days where we didn't have to put in any effort to look for a job, recruiters were calling nonstop, and offers were being thrown at us on what seemed a regular basis? What happened to 10 jobs for every resume? What happened to big sign-on bonuses, large paychecks, and the feeling of being wanted? Have the tables turned?
Dorfman, Susan. MetroVoice (2002). Careers>TC
#23685
RoboHelp Office v.3x: the Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent
Overall, in my experience, writers and programmers prefer to use RoboHelp to create and maintain Help systems because the application has fewer issues with the Internet and programming platforms. In fact, for this latest version Of RoboHelp, I have only one minor complaint. Here is a summary of my findings.
Hewitt, Sally. MetroVoice (2003). Articles>Documentation>Software>Adobe RoboHelp
#23671
Single Sourcing: Friend or Foe?
Single sourcing sounds good, but can you justify it in your organization? Reducing the need to maintain multiple versions of content produces real savings and improves return on investment (ROI). On the other hand, implementing single sourcing can be expensive and slow, and information developers will be on the spot to continue delivering content through every stage of the process.
Hawkins, John. MetroVoice (2004). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing
#23670
Outlaw spam? I think it's best just to ignore it.
Danbom, Dan. MetroVoice (2004). Humor>Computing>Email
#23676
STC Recognition Helps Build Community
The best benefit of my STC membership and leadership volunteerism is that the STC name recognition helped me get the jobs I wanted.
Byron, Barrie. MetroVoice (2003). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#23681
The Technical Writer – The Movie
Why would someone make a movie and call it The Technical Writer? I did a quick rundown of similar titles from a movie web site, but I couldn't detect much of a pattern.
Kyle, Charlie. MetroVoice (2003). Articles>Multimedia>Video
