How the new Kindles might affect the role of the Technical Author

Here are some initial thoughts on how the new Kindles from Amazon might affect the role of the Technical Author. Yet more diversity in reading platforms Technical Authors know this already – their content needs to work on lots of platforms and across different mediums. It’s more evidence that the layout must not be baked… Read more »

How important is video to Technical Authors?

Internet Psychologist Graham Jones addressed this question in his most recent weekly email. He said: Video is everywhere online. Indeed, YouTube is now the second biggest search engine, according to recent figures. When people can’t find what they want on Google, they turn instead to YouTube to find an answer, before they head off to… Read more »

Will online video replace the written user guide?

TED’s Chris Anderson says the rise of Web video is driving a worldwide phenomenon he calls “Crowd Accelerated Innovation” – a self-fueling cycle of learning that could be as significant as the invention of print. He claims What Gutenberg did for writing, online video can now do for face-to-face communication…Information often can be taken in… Read more »

How the curse of the jilted Technical Author hit Google

Beware the software developer who releases software without adequate user assistance (in plain English: user guides and online Help) for “The curse of the jilted Technical Author” may strike your product. This curse has just hit Google, who last week announced the demise of Google Wave. Google released Google Wave without any online Help or… Read more »

Questions to ask a Documentation Manager

We’re starting to conduct a series of interviews with Documentation Managers; our goal is to provide case studies of best practice and innovative ideas. We’ll be publishing edited versions of these interviews on Cherryleaf’s YouTube channel. So: What questions do you think should we ask? What would you like to know from Documentation Managers? Email… Read more »