Any user guide, as long as it’s black

At last week’s UAEurope conference (and in this season’s Communicator magazine), Dr. Tony Self suggested how car manufacture can be an allegory for the technical communication profession. Henry Ford revolutionised car manufacture when his production line replaced the method where cars were hand-made by artisans. Famously, Henry Ford offered the Model T in “any colour…… Read more »

What links spy scandals to technical writing?

Answer: Context. Someone recently said “content is king, but context is queen”. This is true when it comes to actions as diverse as spying and writing technical documentation. We can illustrate this using scenes from the World War II film “Went the day well?”. It’s a story about spies and “fifth columnists”. The importance of… Read more »

Technical writing company creates single source cost reduction calculator

We’ve added a further simple online calculator to the Cherryleaf Web site. This one is for calculating the potential savings in support costs derived from a single sourcing content management system. See our Single Source Cost Reduction Calculator page. We’re also developing a more comprehensive spreadsheet to help you measure the value of documentation. Contact… Read more »

The “Beyond Documentation” Webinar videos

Scriptorium Inc has uploaded the “Beyond Documentation” Webinar Ellis delivered back in August 2009. In this session he looked at the future of technical writing and likely changes to the ways in which user assistance is delivered. We asked: Are we moving beyond documents? If so, what does this mean for technical communicators? Part 1:… Read more »