#26602
Local Input Critical for Global Web Content Success 
A successful web site puts its customers first. The first question your customers ask when they visit your web site is, 'So, what do you have for me today?' Let’s face it. People on the web are only out for themselves. They come to your site, and you have a time window of less than 30 seconds to convince them to stay.
TECHWR-L (2005). Design>Web Design
#26955
Look Out Hollywood? Here Come the Technical Writers
Have you heard it said that technical writing quashes your ability to be a creative writer? Do you ever think that you've trained yourself to do your day job so well that you can no longer produce something in an artistic vein in your spare time? If so, you might want to consider trying your hand at screenwriting! There are many reasons why someone who excels at technical writing might find screenwriting to be a good creative outlet.
Bronson, Lisa M. TECHWR-L (2005). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Screenwriting
#12951
Making FrameMaker Help Usable and Searchable
You can convert FrameMaker's help files to a PDF file, thus making them fully searchable and far more usable than the originals. These instructions are Windows-centric, but can be adapted to work on all systems with Frame. (Directory/folder names are the only real difference.)
Forrest, Stephen and Scott Abel. TECHWR-L. Design>Documentation>Help>Adobe FrameMaker
#22453
Review: Managing Enterprise Contact
By the time I finished reading Managing Enterprise Content, I was excited! For me, the book answered questions about a unified content strategy on two levels: Not only did it address unified content strategy as a strategic business objective; it also unified the strategic directions that the umbrella of technical communication and training professions have been moving towards over the past decade: single-sourcing, corporate branding implementation, critical involvement in software or system development life cycle (SDLC) methodologies, and even implementation of ISO9000 compliance.
Hannigan, Mark. TECHWR-L (2003). Articles>Reviews>Content Management>Content Strategy
#28361
This chapter ventures deeply into Microsoft heresy. A heretic is someone who preaches heterodoxy, or mixed doctrines. Unlike a lot of official MS and MVP speak, this topic advocates the usage of a certain feature that can be said to be generally considered as broken - Master Documents, or Masters. As so little information is forthcoming on this subject from other sources, yet many writers use them regularly because there is no other choice, it is fully covered here.
Hudson, Steve. TECHWR-L. Articles>Software>Style Guides>Word Processing
#31964
Networking Your Way to Success
You don't have to spend hours making cold calls or squander money on invisible advertisements in order to find new clients. In fact, savvy businesspeople--technical writers included--know the best way to expand your client base is by leveraging the resources you already have. You might ask, "What resources?" Well, pull out your personal address book. This database of contacts--friends, relatives, and co-workers--is a gold mine when prospecting for business. By knowing how and who to ask, you can soon have as much business as you can handle!
Chroust Ehmann, Lain. TECHWR-L (2008). Articles>TC>Community Building>Collaboration
#10798
In an effort to improve productivity by reducing the amount of time wasted by writers arguing over various issues from tools to punctuation, the following Guidelines take effect immediately.
#12941
Nobody Reads Manuals, Do They?
We technical writers have a mantra that we mutter quietly whenever someone asks an obvious question about how to use our software: 'RTFM.' But though Reading The (ahem) 'Fine' Manual would often solve the problem--assuming the purchaser actually received one of those increasingly rare printed manuals with the software--only technical writers seeking inspiration on how to do their own jobs better can be relied upon to read product documentation. To make matters worse, many of us admit that we'd rather play with a product, hoping to figure out what to do, than use the documentation.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2000). Articles>Documentation>Usability
#14938
Nostradamus the Technical Writer
Sue Gallagher, a longtime technical writer, once posed the following riddle: 'How are science fiction writers like technical writers?' The answer, of course, is that both professions write about things we imagine will happen in the future, but that often don't--as anyone who's documented software or hardware for a startup company can confirm. With the new year arriving soon, I find my thoughts turning to a different form of science fiction: Eschatology, the art of predicting the future. It occurs to me that the role of technical writer as prognosticator has a proud history, and one that dates back to the days of Nostradamus the Prophet, one of the most famous eschatologists.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2003). Articles>TC
#13829
Given Microsoft's track record, it would seem awfully foolish for me to bet against them and those who will follow their lead, and the idea does seem superficially reasonable. But despite this, I predict that the ASP aspects of .Net won't work nearly so well as Microsoft hopes and may even fail outright. The problem with Microsoft's ASP approach? The strategy is driven more strongly by economics and a fear of competition from smaller, more nimble ASPs than by customer needs and habits.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2001). Design>User Interface>Software
#19528
Opening Up to OpenOffice: Finding an Alternative to Microsoft Word
When OpenOffice reached version 1.0 in May 2002, I did my journalistic duty and had a look. It wasn't what I expected. Aside from a few minor disappointments, I liked what I saw. I quickly became convinced that OpenOffice.org's Writer (OOo Writer) is a practical alternative to MS Word. Thirteen months of use has only cemented that impression. Four minor releases have been made since I started using OpenOffice.org, and, with each one, the program has become quicker and more stable.
Byfield, Bruce. TECHWR-L (2003). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#26101
Opening Up to OpenOffice.org: Finding an Alternative to Microsoft Word
When OpenOffice.org (www.openoffice.org) reached version 1.0 in May 2002, I did my journalistic duty and had a look. It wasn't what I expected. At times, the duplication of MS Word in OpenOffice.org seemed to extend to the faults, but the first impression is misleading. While MS Word users can be comfortable in OpenOffice.org within minutes, OpenOffice.org's interface is by far the tidier. More importantly, OpenOffice.org not only matches MS Word almost feature for feature, but often exceeds it, and provides working versions of features that have been broken or overdue for overhaul in MS Word for several releases.
Byfield, Bruce. TECHWR-L (2003). Articles>Word Processing>Software>OpenOffice
#12950
A PageMaker to PDF: Converting Your PageMaker Files 
A three-page manual for creating Acrobat PDF files from page-layout files.
Carpenter, Amy. TECHWR-L (2009). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker
#13957
Is Linux in your technical writing future? The possibility is becoming too strong to ignore. Companies like Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse First Boston are using Linux now, and countries ranging from Germany and France to Pakistan and Venezuela are adapting it and other open source software for government business. In high-tech, IBM reports that over one thousand of its business partners became Linux-certified in 2001, and the Linux applications listed in the IBM Global Solutions Directory rose from 2300 to 2800 in the six months between June 2001 and January 2002. In a little less than three years, Linux has captured over a third of the server market, and, while its share of the desktop market seems stalled at four percent, growing concerns about security, the cost of commercial software, and restrictive licensing practices are starting to change that.
Byfield, Bruce. TECHWR-L (2002). Articles>Software>Open Source>Linux
#14808
If you're expecting to be lost in the interstellar darkness of the command line, you're in for a surprise. Although Linux includes some handy command line tools, today most of Linux's install programs, desktops, and programs now boast graphical windows. The desktops and the windows look a little different from the ones you see in other operating systems, but they're recognizable for what they are. As you'll see in this article, you have to look deeper to see the differences: They lie not only in the performance, but also in a design philosophy that favors small tools over monolithic ones, customization over standardization, and a hands-on approach over hidden complexity. Once you adjust to the novelties, even the command line is not the empty vacuum you expected, but a teeming ecology that in many ways is more powerful--and empowering--than the GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces). If Linux is somewhat rougher in patches than Windows, many people feel that this design philosophy more than compensates. After all, one day in the next few years, Linux is going to have the GUI sophistication, too.
Byfield, Bruce. TECHWR-L (2002). Articles>Software>Operating Systems>Linux
#12971
PDF as an Online Document Format
In January (2000), I asked about TechWhirlers' experiences as users of PDF documents online. The specific questions were: Do you notice a difference between reading PDF online and reading HTML online? Do you have a preference either way? If so, which one? Here's the summary or responses and a synopsis of further information I've been tracking down. I'm sorry it's taken so long: like many an unplanned project it got way out of hand. I've tried to restrict this message to issues of interest to the list; if I've failed please accept my apologies.
Charker, Sandra. TECHWR-L (2000). Design>Publishing>Online>Adobe Acrobat
#12937
Placing Copyright Notices In Documentation
There's no legal reason not to include a copyright notice on every page of a printed manual, every slide of a PowerPoint presentation, or every page of a Web site. But, of course, too many copyright notices can become unruly and unattractive, so the practical question is whether there is a legal reason why copyright notices should be printed on every page of a document.
Isenberg, Doug. TECHWR-L (2000). Articles>Intellectual Property>Copyright
#26125
Prescriptive Audience Analysis: Moving Beyond the Purely Descriptive
Editing and writing both require an understanding of our audience, because without that knowledge, we can't shape our words to help them easily grasp difficult concepts. To understand our audience, we do what all writers and editors do, whether consciously or unconsciously: We create an image of our audience that guides our choice of words, images, and metaphors. This image is variously known as a 'stereotype' (e.g., Schriver 1997) or a 'persona' (e.g., Graham 2001). Keeping that image in mind as we work helps us satisfy the reader's needs, but if we're not careful, it can also cause us to waste valuable time collecting information that doesn't really help us communicate.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2005). Articles>Usability>Audience Analysis>Tropes
#20542
"Prescriptive" Audience Analysis: Moving Beyond the Purely Descriptive
Editing and writing both require an understanding of our audience, because without that knowledge, we can't shape our words to help them easily grasp difficult concepts. To understand our audience, we do what all writers and editors do, whether consciously or unconsciously: We create an image of our audience that guides our choice of words, images, and metaphors. This image is variously known as a 'stereotype' or a 'persona'. Keeping that image in mind as we work helps us satisfy the reader's needs, but if we're not careful, it can also cause us to waste valuable time collecting information that doesn't really help us communicate.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2003). Articles>Writing>Editing>Rhetoric
#13488
Privacy Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry
For those of us who regularly visit certain Web sites, the value of identifying ourselves to those sites grows quickly and painfully obvious: Accepting cookies from a Web site could potentially eliminate endlessly retyping our personal information, memorizing yet another login password, repeatedly re-customizing how a site responds to us, and enduring irrelevant information such as untargeted banner ads. But even those of us who appreciate the value of sharing personal information with Web sites and their designers have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the potential for abuse inherent in having confidential information about our identities and preferences broadly available. Even if a site isn't cracked and our private information stolen--always a risk on the Web--the site owner is bound to sell the information to commercial mailing lists, thereby guaranteeing us a lifetime supply of junk mail. Worst of all, we won't even be able to burn that junk on cold winter nights to stay warm.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2002). Design>Web Design>Privacy
#14133
In tandem with the theme of usability is the one of how to get (or help) programmers to communicate (to the user, to us...) – and the general tone is that, in effect, programmers really don't care about the end user's 'experience' of the software. If this is true, it occurs to me to wonder, WHY are programmers disinterested in usability?
#14137
A sample project kickoff form, useful to clarify specific issues to particular jobs that might not otherwise become apparent until late in the job itself.
#13826
The Project Kickoff Form: Aid for Launching and Managing New Projects
If you're a writer like me, news of a fresh assignment brings both excitement and anxiety. New assignments offer opportunities to further our knowledge and expand our portfolios, and they may result in a bonus or a more lucrative contract. But new projects can also inspire angst and dread if you have past experience with projects that involved false starts, unrestrained scope creep, misunderstandings between team members, uncommunicative teammates, or unfamiliar technologies.
Russell, Liz. TECHWR-L (2002). Careers>Management
#14135
General tips for proofing: Read it out loud and also silently. Read it backwards to focus on the spelling of words. Read it upside down to focus on typology.
#13365
Providing the right combination of options for each individual member of our audience through a single online document (or online document set) would be tricky indeed, but consider the potential of being able to do so--the potential for providing flexible information. Users could quickly obtain the information needed, in the medium that suits them, with the appropriate level of detail right at their fingertips. An unobtainable utopia? Perhaps not.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2002). Design>Web Design>Personalization
