We’re planning to carry out a number of videoed interviews with a range of Technical Authors this week. This is to help promote the profession. We’ll be asking questions such as what their role is inside their companies, and how they became a Technical Author. The videos will be uploaded to the YouTube Channel for the Institute of… Read more »
Tag: Technical Authors
Writing troubleshooting topics
It’s a fair bet that the introduction of the new Troubleshooting information type into the DITA 1.3 technical authoring standard will affect how all Technical Authors write troubleshooting topics, regardless of whether they use DITA or not. That’s because the proposed elements for troubleshooting topics make good sense, and it offers a standardised approach to writing… Read more »
The big questions in technical communication
David Farbey wrote a semi-existentialist post on the challenges for technical communicators yesterday. I’d like to look at the issue in a different way, by looking at the big questions in technical communication today. The answers to these questions (which may be decided by people outside of the profession) are likely to affect the future… Read more »
Changing times in technical communication 3 – The long form Help topic
One of the most recent developments in web page design has been the introduction of “long form” web pages. Will we also see the long form approach used in Help, or perhaps start to influence the way some Help pages are designed?
What Technical Authors can learn from pole dancers
The conversation in a meeting yesterday went somewhat “off-topic” when someone commented on the difference between accountants and pole dancers. Their comparison might apply between Technical Authors and pole dancers, as well: that pole dancers probably do a boring job (i.e twirling around a pole day after day) that’s seen as interesting, whereas Technical Authors… Read more »