New: Live and online version of Advanced Technical Writing Techniques

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Cherryleaf logoWe’ve been asked by a number of people if we could offer our Trends in Technical Communication Workshop – Advanced Technical Writing Techniques course to delegates outside of Europe. We would love to deliver classroom courses overseas, but the practicalities of visa restrictions and the logistics of organising a public course mean it’s very difficult to do.

As a way of delivering the course to delegates in the USA and elsewhere, we’ve decided to offer this course, in a “live and online” format over the Web. Using Google+ Hangouts, the one day course will be spread over three days (3 x 2 hours):

  • 1st July 10am EST -12 PM EST, followed by
  • 2nd July 10am EST-12 PM EST, followed by
  • 3rd July 10am EST-12 PM EST

EST = Eastern Standard Time. (3pm-5pm UK time). The course is live, not recorded, with delegates completing exercises and able to ask questions during the course.

The first course is limited to just 5  delegates, and it is for non-UK based delegates only.

For details, including how to book on this course, see Trends in Technical Communication Workshop – Advanced Technical Writing Techniques course.

Write and own your content, or someone will write and own it for you

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Don't ignore your customers. flickr image by Ron PloofAdrian Baniak has written an article (3 Ways to Engage with Today’s Empowered Consumer) about how brands can “cut through the clutter” and communicate with their customers and prospect. He states one of the key ways to do this is “Write Your Own Tale, Or Someone Else Will Do It First”.

This mantra was originally made by Lisa Shalett, a partner at Goldman Sachs, and the global head of brand marketing and digital strategy. Continue reading →

Google adds conversational search-by-voice to Chrome’s Help

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Chrome Help Search window with microphone optionGoogle has updated Chrome in build 27 to include conversational voice search, and this feature extends to the Help pages.

According to TechCrunch, it transcribes your queries in real time. It also lets you use natural language, asking Google straightforward questions and getting straightforward answers, both read back to you by dictation and in actual Google search results.

Based on a few initial tests, for South East English accents, it works really well.

Where are all the technical writers?

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Editor’s Note: Introducing a new guest blogger to Cherryleaf’s blog: Dr. Tony Self of HyperWrite.

Where are all the technical writers?

Lionel Richie Hello posterI have often wondered why there are so few technical writers in the world.

In my country, Australia, the Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates there are over 2,000 technical writers within the total workforce of 11.65 million people. The Australian Government groups technical writers into a category called ”Journalists and Other Writers”. That category of writer has shown little growth over the last decade, and in 2011 represented just 21,400 people.

In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that there were about 50,000 American technical writers in 2010.

We are living in the information age, yet the numbers of technical writers in countries like Australia and the US are not skyrocketing. Why not? Continue reading →

Cherryleaf joins Wired Sussex

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Wired Sussex logoCherryleaf has joined Wired Sussex, a Brighton-based membership organisation for companies operating in the digital, media and technology sector in Sussex, UK.

Wired Sussex works to help members to create, innovate and grow.

Campus LondonCherryleaf is also a member (but not a resident) of Campus London, a co-working space in the heart of East London’s Tech City that’s supported and powered by Google.

We’re happy to talk to start-ups about supporting users on a shoestring, as well as new and emerging ways to support users. Contact us if you’d like to talk.

Towards an Agile authoring methodology – webinar recording

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You can now watch the recording of our webinar on “Towards an Agile authoring methodology”, via Adobe’s website.

Agile development is a way of managing IT development teams and projects that creates new challenges for those involved in providing User Assistance for those products.

See:

Towards an Agile authoring methodology webinar recording

 

Will the next version of Microsoft Word make EPUB publishing a lot easier (or a lot worse)?

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NookThere are reports on various technology websites that Microsoft is rumoured to purchasing the owners of the Nook e-book readers and tablets. There are also rumours that the next release of Microsoft Office (codename “Gemini”) will have a “publish to Nook” option.

These potential actions would help Microsoft compete with Amazon and Apple in the digital publishing market; Microsoft would be able to offer writers a feature-rich authoring tool, a publishing platform and a publishing environment, all from the same vendor. The promise is, you could write your book in Word, and be able to start selling it, in just a few clicks.

What is unclear at this moment is whether “publish to Nook” means “publish EPUB documents that will display their content nicely on other ebook readers”. Will the underlying code in the EPUB files be “clean” and not “bloated”? Let’s hope that’s the case.

Let us know what you think.

Advanced technical writing techniques training: Next classroom course (and potential online course)

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Do let us know if you’d be interested in us scheduling another public course for our Trends in Technical Communication – Advanced technical writing techniques course. We need just a couple more people for us to schedule a course date for June. Do let us know if you’d be interested in attending this course.

Interested in an online version of the course?

For writers based outside of the UK, we’re also considering offering this course in a “live and online” format over the Web. Using Google+ Hangouts, the course would be spread over a number of days, rather than delivered as a full day’s worth of training. The price of the course would be the same. The first course would be limited to just 5 or 6 delegates. Do let us know if you’d be interested in attending this course.

About the course

In this course, you’ll find out how Technical Authors in leading companies are now applying techniques from other disciplines (such as psychology, copywriting, usability and elearning) into the information they create.

Using examples of Help pages from a number of applications (including from vendors such as Apple, Facebook, Google, HTC and Mozilla), you’ll learn how to spot where these techniques have been used, and you’ll have the opportunity to practise these in the workshop.

Do let us know if you’d be interested in attending this course.

Planning and running a documentation sprint

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Atlassian’s Sarah Maddox has posted her slides from her STC Summit 13 presentation “Doc sprints: The ultimate in collaborative document development”. It’s a useful description of a documentation sprint and its benefits:



Contact Cherryleaf if you’d like help and assistance in managing a documentation sprint.