http://tc.eserver.org/publisher/WritersUA A listing of works published by WritersUA in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/WritersUA http://tc.eserver.org/34912.html http://tc.eserver.org/34912.html This article describes the process of capturing screens and reviews some of the leading capture tools available. It is revised annually to take account of new releases, and was last updated in February 2009. http://tc.eserver.org/33809.html http://tc.eserver.org/33809.html A central element of any job we hold is the compensation we receive. While compensation is only one factor in our descision to accept a position, it's how many of us keep score and the way all of us pay the bills. The WritersUA Salary Survey provides you with detailed and comprehensive information about compensation for user assistance professionals. Our 2009 Salary Survey results were viewed on our web site by over 21,000 visitors. We hope you find these new survey results useful in gauging where you stand amongst your peers. http://tc.eserver.org/33730.html http://tc.eserver.org/33730.html DITA is an architecture for creating topic-oriented, information-typed content that can be reused and single-sourced in a variety of ways. It is also an architecture for creating new information types and describing new information domains, allowing groups to create very specific, targeted document type definitions using a process called specialization, while at the same time reusing common output transforms and design rules. We discuss several methods that can be used to extend DITA's basic topic types. http://tc.eserver.org/33623.html http://tc.eserver.org/33623.html There is no question that the software development world offers a lot of excitement and challenging work. In the area of software user assistance we are particularly challenged by having to master a wide range of disciplines. From foundation skills like writing and editing—to the coding of content—to usability testing and user interface design, we find ourselves in a profession that is difficult to define. What is it that we really do? The objective of this survey is to take a snapshot of our collective professional life in an attempt to identify what we value in our daily work as user assistance professionals. http://tc.eserver.org/32036.html http://tc.eserver.org/32036.html Much has been said about the creation of modular documentation - from content management systems, to information architecture, to delivery forms, to the usability of modular content (content being easier to use, easier to understand, and easier to find), and so on. However, not much has been said about the editing of that content, and what the editor's role is in such an environment. http://tc.eserver.org/28775.html http://tc.eserver.org/28775.html Having learned that two of these database companies already used single-source files for their error messages, BMC Software integrated the information about the error messages from the database companies. We accomplished our goal by negotiating with our partner companies for the source files of the error message information. This session discusses how we took those source files and modified them to create simple XML files, then transformed them into HTML using XSL transforms within a BMC Software product. http://tc.eserver.org/28263.html http://tc.eserver.org/28263.html Content reuse enables technical communicators to create multiple deliverables from a single set of source documents. A key component of reuse is identifying which information belongs in which deliverable. Some customization is feasible with build tags (RoboHelp), conditional text (FrameMaker), topic reuse (FrameMaker and AuthorIT), and similar features. http://tc.eserver.org/27673.html http://tc.eserver.org/27673.html This is the first part of a two-part article describing a detailed methodology for migrating HTML files to the structure and flexibility of XHTML and/or XML. By using XHTML to add structure and separate content from presentation, you'll be better positioned for a move to XML. Even if you never move to XML, your XHTML files will be easier to create and maintain, and will be more accessible. http://tc.eserver.org/27672.html http://tc.eserver.org/27672.html This article is a review of the Exchanger XML Editor version 3.2 from the Cladonia company. Being such a broad field, the XML Editor category is necessarily far-reaching, and can cover both database management systems and authoring tools. For this reason, this review narrows the scope by looking at the suitability of Exchanger for use by technical communicators and Help authors to create and edit manuals, user guides and Help systems. Much of the focus of this article is therefore on the software's suitability for DocBook or DITA authoring, and its appropriateness for users without coding skills. http://tc.eserver.org/27671.html http://tc.eserver.org/27671.html A central element of any job we hold is the compensation we receive. While compensation is only one factor in our descision to accept a position, it's how many of us keep score and the way all of us pay the bills. The WritersUA Salary Survey provides you with detailed and comprehensive information about compensation for user assistance professionals. http://tc.eserver.org/27658.html http://tc.eserver.org/27658.html The web allows us to easily provide updated documentation to our users, but why stop there? There is more to making users successful quickly than just providing documentation. By creating a complete 'Answer Station' that is accessible from the application or product, we can not only direct users to that updated documentation, but we can also provide information about technical support, consulting, training, sales, etc. This article discusses writing a proposal for an Answer Station, determining content, working with other departments to gather information, designing the site, making that design work with an existing corporate website, dealing with tool issues, and finally, going live. http://tc.eserver.org/27649.html http://tc.eserver.org/27649.html Discusses several methods for making Web-based Help systems 'smart,' by using conditional content to customize the appearance and behavior of your pages to the users' needs. http://tc.eserver.org/27651.html http://tc.eserver.org/27651.html Online help systems have evolved over the past 20 years to meet the needs of our users. Designers must consider the content, format, presentation, navigation, and access methods of online help systems. A series of design checklists based on the past 20 years of research are presented in this paper, which summarizes a journal article currently being considered for publication. The latest trend in online help system design is embedded user assistance, which includes integrating information into the interface and including an embedded help pane within that interface to display a context-sensitive online help system. http://tc.eserver.org/27653.html http://tc.eserver.org/27653.html A vast majority of documents (I consider print and online as documentation) often works to define the optimized error-free method of performing a task and provides a user with a straightforward solution. However, the user expects documentation to help solve problems and address errors. Thus, attention must be paid to potential problems users can have and how to correct them. Errors have different causes; the information designer should understand the potential types of errors since properly addressing each type requires a different approach in the design and documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/27645.html http://tc.eserver.org/27645.html The availability of powerful yet easy-to-use multimedia tools enables technical writers to consider a powerful new form of embedded user assistance: show-me help. This paper provides an overview of who is currently using show-me help--some current research, some history, and some definitions. It offers some guidance in choosing tools, designing show-me help, and deciding when to include then, concentrating on consideration of your users, potential topics, subsequent releases, and translation. It also suggests how show-me helps can be reused as part of product education and single-sourced into user assistance from the Web. http://tc.eserver.org/27656.html http://tc.eserver.org/27656.html At the 2004 WritersUA and STC Conferences, structured FrameMaker and XML were among the more popular session topics. There is obviously significant interest in the user assistance community about authoring XML documents with structured FrameMaker. This is not surprising, as many organizations are struggling with the problems of creating and delivering increasing amounts of user assistance in multiple formats, and managing their content in a way that maximizes their capabilities to reuse content across multiple publications. http://tc.eserver.org/27641.html http://tc.eserver.org/27641.html A recent article in the Society for Technical Communications' Intercom magazine proclaimed that indexing is on the rise (Seth Maislin, "The Indexing Revival," February, 2005), and that there is a renaissance of work in the field. But at the WritersUA March Conference, Microsoft's Longhorn features session declared that Longhorn's Help system will not contain an index, because "no one uses it." Then, to add to the discussion, at that same conference Apple revealed that their next help engine will include synonym rings and will add a form of indexing back into their display. Who's right? Who's correctly predicting the trends? http://tc.eserver.org/27646.html http://tc.eserver.org/27646.html The RoboHelp help authoring tool is now entering its thirteenth year of existence. That's a remarkably long existence for any software title. In that time period, we have seen an amazing expansion of the software industry throughout the 1990s and an equally amazing retraction due to the bursting of the Internet bubble. Making its start in the tiny offices of Blue Sky Software in LaJolla, California, RoboHelp grew into an extremely profitable product. It is also a market leader—having capturing some two-thirds of all Help authoring tool sales. During the Internet bubble years the company changed its name to eHelp, but RoboHelp continued to be its flagship profit center. In 2003, eHelp (and RoboHelp) were acquired by one of the leading providers of web tools—Macromedia. Now it appears that the end may be approaching for RoboHelp. http://tc.eserver.org/27654.html http://tc.eserver.org/27654.html It's often easy to identify what kinds of error messages don't help users, but it can be tricky to avoid them, and even more of a challenge to create the opposite: error messages that give users a clear indication of the problem, offer information to help them fix it, and provide tips on how to avoid the same situation in the future. This paper details the steps involved in creating understandable, helpful error messages, and suggests ways of communicating the value of good error messages to managers and executives. http://tc.eserver.org/27657.html http://tc.eserver.org/27657.html Online communities have become a very valuable source of assistance for answering questions unique to our industry. This article provides an introduction to online communities and describes how to access a few of the most useful sites. http://tc.eserver.org/27643.html http://tc.eserver.org/27643.html This paper discusses some of the aspects that should be considered when evaluating the required resources and total cost of offshoring documentation development. As consultants to the documentation industry, The Integrity Group is committed to recommending the overall best solution for each business need. We have, therefore, drawn some conclusions from our research and made recommendations for those who are considering offshoring. http://tc.eserver.org/27642.html http://tc.eserver.org/27642.html The largest problem our participants had in using the help system wasn't in processing the procedural information in the help, but rather finding the correct help topic, a topic generally unaddressed in the literature on how to write a help system. Specifically, participants had difficulty in searching for topics because their terminology differed from the terminology used by the help system, and they became lost in the unclear structure of the system. http://tc.eserver.org/27655.html http://tc.eserver.org/27655.html By becoming more technical, you can interact more efficiently with software developers and qualify for a greater variety of software documentation projects. This article outlines ways to learn more about three prevalent technologies: programming languages, databases, and Web server technologies. http://tc.eserver.org/27644.html http://tc.eserver.org/27644.html Describes the important attributes of a capture tool and examines and compares the features of five popular products. http://tc.eserver.org/27648.html http://tc.eserver.org/27648.html Tools like Captivate, Camtasia, and TurboDemo make it possible for teachers and communicators to create effective software simulations--without programming. Even simple presentation tools, such as PowerPoint can create truly interactive simulations. http://tc.eserver.org/27652.html http://tc.eserver.org/27652.html RoboHelp now offers a rich set of features for delivering multiple customized outputs out of a single project. This article by Matthew Ellison provides some guidelines and tips on using the key single-sourcing features. http://tc.eserver.org/27650.html http://tc.eserver.org/27650.html This article provides an overview of the latest trends in software user assistance based on surveys, interviews, and observations by the author and other experienced user assistance professionals. The article defines the key terminology, highlights the most important issues and elements, and offers both short and long-term predictions for the field. The article will appear in four installments. The next installment will be in February. http://tc.eserver.org/27647.html http://tc.eserver.org/27647.html To create a specific deliverable, you collect all of the relevant topics and wrap information around them. A printed book, for instance, contains topics grouped into chapters along with front and back matter. http://tc.eserver.org/27639.html http://tc.eserver.org/27639.html This is the second part of a two-part article describing a detailed methodology for migrating HTML files to the structure and flexibility of XHTML and/or XML. http://tc.eserver.org/27640.html http://tc.eserver.org/27640.html DITA is an architecture for creating topic-oriented, information-typed content that can be reused and single-sourced in a variety of ways. It is also an architecture for creating new information types and describing new information domains, allowing groups to create very specific, targeted document type definitions using a process called specialization, while at the same time reusing common output transforms and design rules. We discuss several methods that can be used to extend DITA's basic topic types. http://tc.eserver.org/21040.html http://tc.eserver.org/21040.html Microsoft’s specification for 'Longhorn' Help represents a major revolution in user assistance development for the Windows platform. Instead of simply refining the technical infrastructure of Help (windowing, links, search, etc.), Microsoft has given a good deal of thought to the needs of both Help authors and end-users. http://tc.eserver.org/20886.html http://tc.eserver.org/20886.html The following general resources are Web sites of interest to Help authors, technical communicators, and programmers. http://tc.eserver.org/20033.html http://tc.eserver.org/20033.html This is the first in a series of articles that builds into a personal review of RoboHelp Office 2002. This first article introduces the new release and discusses Topic Templates, Headers and Footers, and the new MS Word Import capability. http://tc.eserver.org/19649.html http://tc.eserver.org/19649.html One of the areas the 2001 ITAA survey looks at is supply and demand. Of the estimated 258,332 jobs that IT hiring managers predict they will add this year, only 1,799, or less than 1%, are for tech writers. This is down a whopping 91% from the year 2000 where the 20,773 available tech writer jobs accounted for almost 5% of the total. The news may not be as bad as it sounds. On the supply side, there is an expected shortfall of 1,008 qualified candidates in filling the open tech writer jobs. http://tc.eserver.org/14083.html http://tc.eserver.org/14083.html A PowerPoint slide show about using FrameMaker for single-source document creation and management. http://tc.eserver.org/13775.html http://tc.eserver.org/13775.html This article discusses a feature called User Annotations, whereby users can add their own custom notes to Help topics, and presents a method for implementing it in web pages or in HTML Help topics. http://tc.eserver.org/13773.html http://tc.eserver.org/13773.html One of the exciting aspects of XML is the number of ways it is being used to provide new means of communicating and gathering new information. One such use is VoiceXML, an emerging W3C standard that brings voice to the Web or the Web to the phone. http://tc.eserver.org/13774.html http://tc.eserver.org/13774.html Recently, WinWriters used the web-based registration process for its annual Online Help Conference as a case study to test several models of user assistance for the Web. We conducted a series of usability tests to: find out how what sort of questions and problems users have as they complete a web-based transaction; discover how users respond to various forms of user assistance available within a web-based task; define the registration process for future conferences. The tests provided some clear conclusions as to user preferences. We have described the tests and summarized the findings here. http://tc.eserver.org/13776.html http://tc.eserver.org/13776.html This comprehensive, up-to-date list is your one-stop link to the brightest and best resources in the Help world—all the tools, contacts, and information you'll need to develop thorough, effective, polished Help projects. http://tc.eserver.org/10157.html http://tc.eserver.org/10157.html WinWriters specializes in providing quality training and publications for the community of online Help developers. Our clients represent a diverse group of technical writers, software developers, contractors, and consultants—all of whom share a common interest in online Help. WinWriters is the premier source for world-class, world-wide Help development conferences and seminars. The annual WinWriters Online Help Conference draws hundreds of participants to hear the latest news, techniques, and technologies in the Windows Help arena. Our Help training seminars are held in high regard throughout the U.S. and the world.