New updated DITA ecourse released (finally)

Tomorrow (or possibly tonight) we'll be releasing the updated version of our popular ecourse "An Introduction to DITA".

Updated to reflect the changes in the DITA standard

Updated to reflect the changes in the DITA Open Toolkit from version 1.3 to 1.4.2.1

Updated to reflect the changes in the downloading processes for installing the various tools associated with DITA.

New audio to improve the quality of the voiceovers

DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is certainly the most talked-about development in the field of user documentation. If you are involved in writing documents such as user manuals, procedures or online Help, DITA promises you a framework for designing and delivering well-structured content efficiently and consistently in a single-sourcing environment.

See An Introduction to DITA.

Our DITA XML training course - Update

Carol is in the studio today, recording the audio track for the new, updated, version of our self-teach online course on DITA XML. She has to record 140(!) audio segments, which will take some time to complete. The development team will then match (within Abobe Captivate) these segments with the visuals and slides, ready, I think, for the final fettling and publishing stage.

New technical author vacancies

We've posted three new technical author vacancies today - both contract and permanent.

We've also added a new self teach training course - RoboHelp X5 training. We'll be introducing a training course in RoboHelp 6 shortly.

Linking Secondlife to technical communication

I've been wondering for a while how/if Secondlife could be used as a medium for technical communicators. Yesterday I received an email that illustrated one way of using it. It said:

"DITA User Meeting at Secondlife. Join us today at the DITA Chat-Meeting in Secondlife. Today Tuesday again at
9:00 - 10:00 am PT/PDT
12:00 - 1:00 pm ET/EDT
6:00 - 7:00 pm CET/CEDT

SIM Address at Secondlife: Addicted to Reality 13, 27, 24
Explore the new way of meetings."

I suppose it makes a change from a traditional conference call.

There are a number of organisations I know that are using Secondlife to market/advertise there services. Could it also, I wonder, be used to deliver training seminars?

Using MadCap Flare Training

This course will be delivered later this month by Cherryleaf's Carol Johnston, who is now a MadCap Flare accredited instructor. There's 8 delegates - some familiar faces, plus a few people we've never trained before.

DITA XML training course

Our DITA XML training course went live late this afternoon.

You'll get 80mb of course notes, presentations, exercises and examples, so you'll need a broadband connection to download the course. The course takes approximately half a day to complete, although, of course, you can go through it at your own pace.

We have clients who have paid over £900 for us to deliver the classroom version of this course to their writers. By modifying this course to online format we've been able to slash the cost, to make it affordable to individual technical writers who see training as vital to their career. The cost of the course is, currently, £74 ex VAT ($146) per delegate, although we may revise this upwards in the future.

Accurate estimating and reporting for technical publications projects

We've added "Estimating time budget for software documentation projects - An e-learning training course" to our Web site today.


It's an online training presentation that looks at methods for accurately estimating the development days and associated costs for software documentation projects. The material is based on research principles and experience of what works. It provides clear and practical advice.

It is for anyone who needs to estimate the time needed to complete a software documentation project.

Live STC Web Seminar on 11th April

Dr. Sivasailam Thiagarajan will be presenting "Increasing Interactivity in Webinars" at the STC's next live web seminar on 11th April, 2007, 1:00 pm (EST). It costs $50.00 for STC/SIG members and $65.00 for non-STC members.

The announcement states, "Everyone agrees that an interactive teaching environment is important -- and most expensive tools all too often fall short of their technological promises. So in contrast, Thiagi will share a set of principles and procedures that increase and improve interactivity – affordably!"

See http://stcidlsig.org/webinar for details

DITA XML Training Course

Just a quick update on our An Introduction to DITA XML - An e-learning training course. We're now in the user acceptance phase. The course, exercises and installation notes have been completed and a guinea pig will be completing the course to check we haven't missed anything. So we're almost there.

New - DVD on writing a book

Weve added the first DVD to our online shop - a home study writing course, call WriteNow! This workshop is presented by Mindy Gibbins-Klein, the "Book Midwife". Mindy is an expert in helping people publish the book inside them. Cherryleaf has worked with her on "BusinessWise", a book which will be released in March 2007.

Learn everything you need to know about writing and publishing a successful book and actually start your book in the right way today. You can now access all of the essential information and motivation from this DVD.

FrameMaker Training courses

This week , we've also added some new FrameMaker training courses (for the UK only, I'm afraid). These include: FrameMaker Basic/Intermediate, FrameMaker Advanced, Structured FrameMaker,Creating EDDs and Importing and Exporting SGML/XML.

MadCap Flare Training courses

Today, we've updated details on our MadCap flare training courses. These are offered as either a Web-based or classroom based course. Ginny and Carol will be attending the upcoming course being run by Madcap's Mike Hamilton, as part of their MadCap Flare Instructor certification.

New AuthorIT Training courses

We've added two new AuthorIT training courses this week. These are self-paced courses that allow you to master AuthorIT at your own pace. One course is AuthorIT training for users, the other is AuthorIT training for Administrators.