Tornados in Birmingham

Luckily, yesterday's tornados were a couple of miles away from our Birmingham office, and we still have a roof.

Photo from our networking event

Peter Swan sent us ths photo which he took at our networking event earlier this month. As you can see, it was so popular that people spilled out onto the road.

We'll be presenting in Cambridge - 7 or 8 September

Justin Darley will be the guest speaker at a meeting arranged by the Society for Technical Communication, arranged on either the evening of Wednesday 7th or Thursday 8th September. The meeting will be held in Cambridge.

Microsoft's "Mark of the Web"

I just spotted this tip on Char James Tanny's "Helpstuff" Web site.

If you develop a Web site or an HTML based Help file, and you add *any* JavaScript you get a warning message when you view the site in Internet Explorer regarding "Active Content".

The warning implies you should change your security zone settings. However, Microsoft has provided a way to disable this message for those pages that you know are safe - The "Mark of the Web"(MOTW).

MOTW is a comment added to the head section that indicates from which Web site the content belongs.The MOTW must follow a specific format, including the number of characters in the string. If this is for a new site, or if the domain is not known, you can use "about:internet" as a valid URL.

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/motw.asp for more information.

ISTC Documentation Awards

Could your user documents be worthy entrants for the ISTC Documentation Awards? These awards are for those who value the opportunity to have their English language documentation recognised as clear, concise and effective. There are two categories - printed documentation and online delivery. Entry for the awards is straightforward and the deadline has been extended to 15th August. Entries must have been issued between April 2004 and July 2005 and ISTC membership is not required. It’s a chance to see how you measure up to your peers!

We'll be presenting at the TICAD conference

We'll be presenting again at the TICAD conference, which this year is at the Hilton Warwick Hotel on 16th November. The probable topic will be: Documentation project planning and metrics - accurate costing and reporting for technical publications projects.

TICAD is an annual business to business event for Technical Publications Managers of large corporations. The conference provides overview of the latest developments in technical information creation and distribution.

STC needs help

Paula Berger of The Society for Technical Communication (STC) is asking for volunteers to help get the new Global STC Web site up and running.

This site is planned to be the clearinghouse for all information related to "Global STC" - articles, notices, suggestions, meeting announcements, comments, a discussion forum -- whatever is of value to the users.

However, they don't have a Project Manager, and they need more volunteers to fill other roles. If you are interested, contact Paula via the STC web site.

We'll be presenting at the tekom conference

Justin Darley will be at the tekom conference in Wiesbaden, Germany (9-11 November 2005). He's been invited to make two presentations at the conference.

There, tekom will be presenting the findings from its survey into the use of content management systems (CMS) by technical communicators. Apparently, of the 717 German companies surveyed, more than half hadn't yet decided to use a CMS and only 20% were currently using one.

"No one in 2005 should be documenting screens"

JoAnn Hackos has started a good debate on the STC Management SIG discussions list by stating:

"No one in 2005 should be documenting screens. The purpose of customer documentation is to support users and help them to reach their goals. That means that we understand the tasks that they need to perform to be successful.

Almost no one, expect developers perhaps, has a goal of filling in a screen. They all want to do real work."

Doc-To-Help 2005 due out in August

ComponentOne will release Doc-To-Help 2005 on the 1st August. New features include the ability to use any HTML editor, import filters for RoboHelp and other HTML Help projects and NetHelp (a Web based Help system à la ForeHelp's NetHelp). The Enterprise edition will include Doc-To-Help Markup Language and FrontPage Integration.

NetHelp is a certainly welcome addition. ComponentOne is clearly targeting RoboHelp users. The question is, will they succeed?

HTML Help no longer works on a LAN

In our July newsletter, we mentioned that Microsoft had released a new version of HTML Help, in order to address a security issue. Unfortunately, the update has major implications for running HTML Help(.CHM) files across a network.

A .CHM file can now only be viewed if it is located on your local hard disk. The CHM file can't be viewed if it is on a network drive.

Unfortunately, Microsoft didn't provide a simple method to allow the Help file to have the security zone rights needed to be accessed on a network . However, a package has been developed by a 3rd party to ease some of the restrictions.

Cherryleaf is happy to assist with consultancy services if you need help to find a way around this issue. For further information please contact Ellis Pratt.

Cherryleaf club moves into Beta

The Cherryleaf club - for exchange, mentoring and training - moved into the user acceptance testing phase today (18 July). We will be inviting our founder members to use and test the system over the forthcoming weeks, and the signing-on instructions should be emailed out towards the end of this week. Members will be initially from the United Kingdom, United States, Benelux, Scandanavia, Australia, India, New Zealand, Canada, Germany and Switzerland.

Last night's networking event

Last night's networking event went very well with 20 people attending and a fair chunk staying the whole evening. In fact, there were still some there as we left to catch our trains at just before 11. We've received lots of positive feedback on the event. People liked the location, helped by the lovely evening, and they liked the idea of networking for technical authors. Somebody even had their camera and took a group photo, which Ginny has asked them to send her. We were pleased with the turn out, quite an interesting mix of individuals, and lots of interesting conversation. We plan to make these monthly events - 3rd Thursday of the month.

UK 'could become hi-tech titan'

The UK could become one of the world's hi-tech titans, according to a report by Deloitte. it says the UK could be a world-beater in technology if it harnessed strengths in basic science, research and finance. However, this chance would disappear without better co-operation between technologists, academics, financiers and government.

Better communication would also help Britain's hi-tech firms promote themselves, said the report.

Beta Positions for AuthorIT Cerebros

AuthorIT Software Corporation is now accepting applications for participation in its beta development project "Cerebros".

This beta is for AuthorIT's new .Net XML Web Service. Web Services allow AuthorIT to interact with the external world through open standards like XML and SOAP. Allowing interaction through the AuthorIT Cerebros portal, external applications can interact with the AuthorIT solution. Applications should be sent to the AuthorIT Labs Beta Team. Applications will close August 15th.

Lecturing in Communication Design

There's a good chance that Justin Darley will lecturing in Communication Design again during 2005/6. Justin taught a Communication Design module with a focus on content management to undergraduates during the 2004/5 academic year, blending theory with practical, real-world, experience of developing user assistance systems.

PTC buys Arbortext

July 6, 2005 - Today PTC announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Arbortext, Inc. developers of the EPIC XML authoring suite. The transaction is expected to close by the end of July 2005, subject to customary conditions including regulatory approval. The transaction has been approved by Arbortext shareholders.

PTC claim they will be "uniquely positioned to enable customers to create, manage and dynamically publish critical information concurrently with the development of related products or services, improving time-to-market, quality, cost and customer satisfaction."

Is this good news? What do you think?

Technical Authors in short supply in India

According to an article published in Cyber India Online Limited (CIOL):
"The demand for tech writers in the Indian IT industry is around 10,000 professionals and only 50 percent of this requirement is met." Salaries are rising by 20% pa as a result. It will be interesting to see if the supply levels can rise to meet the demand.