Video – Being a Technical Writer at Google

Life at Google has just published a nice video that looks at the Technical Writers who work at Google. “Technical Writers at Google are a key link between engineers, marketing associates, developer advocates, as well as all the external users and developers, tying together many vital but disparate parts of the Google ecosystem.” Here’s the video:… Read more »

The need for empathy in technical communication

One of the subjects Doug Kim covered in his TCUK14 presentation, on the changes to Microsoft’s user documentation, was how Microsoft now normally begins its Help topics with an empathetic statement. The writers seek to understand the user at the moment they’re reading the content. For example, if someone is reading the topic on auto save,… 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 “Google or Death?” choice for technical authors

July’s edition of Science magazine includes a study that shows scientific researchers are now more inclined to get their information from the Web (specifically, “quick and dirty” searches in Google) than from specialist scientific resources. If scientists are focusing on only a tiny bit of research – the bits served up by Google – what are typical users… Read more »

So who wants a job as a technical author?

We’ve had a number of new vacancies for technical authors come in within the last few days – in the UK and mainland Europe. You can see them on our Technical Author Vacancies page.