Issuu – A Web-based pdf viewer for technical authors?

Issuu is a Web site that allows you to upload magazines or newsletters and then view them as interactive, magazine-style online publications in your Web browser. It’s a free service and has been described as a YouTube for magazines. There are a few manuals on it already. The Issuu document is presented in a way… Read more »

Zen and the art of Help files

I’ve finally received my copy of Garr Reynolds’ excellent book, “Presentation Zen“. This book is about creating better, clearer presentations in a Zen-like frame of mind. If you have seen any of my presentations, then you’ll know I prefer his photo-image style to the bullet point style that is more commonly used. I would argue… Read more »

Poor documentation helps land Microsoft with a $1.35bn fine

Arjuna Krishna Das posted a link to an Information Week article on Microsoft’s fine from the European Union. http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206900497 “Specifically, the EC ruled that Microsoft was overcharging rivals for the documentation they need to make their server products interoperable with Windows-based PCs and servers. The decision was upheld last year by Europe’s second highest court…. Read more »

Is the “working on screen culture” changing our brains?

The IET’s “Engineering & Technology” magazine always contains articles that catch my attention. In the current issue, it includes a piece on Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield’s research on how the “working on screen culture” will change the way our brains think. She argues this is because “our standards of satisfaction and fulfillment may be different”…. Read more »

Could technical authors help you get closer to your customers?

BBC Four is currently running a series on advertising called “Selling Power”, which is followed by the rather good “Mad Men” drama about advertising people in the 1960s. In “Selling Power”, someone (I can’t remember who) argued one of the benefits of modern day, Web-savvy, advertising is it enables companies get closer to their customers…. Read more »