Archive for January 2012
How to Locate and Display AutoCorrect Options in MS Word
AutoCorrect options are not displayed by default on MS Word ribbon. And when you search for them, they’re not intuitively easy to find either. Here’s how to locate and display the AutoCorrect options and add a link to your QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR for easy future access: 1) Click File > Options to display the Word Options screen. 2) Click and…
Read MoreHow to Express Opposing Forces Visually in a Word Technical Document
“Opposing Forces” is a fairly common idea both in life and in technical communication. Hope and Fear oppose each other. They may overlap to a certain extent but their effect is very different. In the technical field, assuring backward compatibility and keeping the code length to a minimum, for example, cannot be done at the…
Read MoreBOOK REVIEW: Excellent Project Guide for Commercial Designers and Technical Illustrators who Draw Graphs
© Ugur Akinci If you’re a beginner or amateur illustrator or designer Adobe Illustrator CS2 @work: Projects You Can Use on the Job is not for you since it does not address the nuts-and-bolts aspects of Adobe Illustrator. This how-to volume assumes that you already know the basics of using the Illustrator. What the author…
Read More"Should I use an Index for my help file or technical document?"
You should always use an index for all long documents and help files, especially if they are in print format. “How long?” There are no hard and fast rules for that. It’s up to your personal judgment and/or what your client/manager asks for. It depends on the “document specs” or “documentation plan” as well as…
Read MoreDavid Farbey – A Technical Communication Interview
© Ugur Akinci David Farbey is a senior technical communicator selected the 8th most influential technical communicator on MindTouch’s list of 400 Most Influential Technical Communicators. David’s blog “Marginal Notes” is at www.farbey.co.uk, and you can follow him on Twitter as @dfarb. QUESTION (1): How long you’ve been a technical communicator? Where do you work right now? How…
Read MoreHow to Express a Continuous Cycle Visually in a Word Technical Document
“Continuous Cycle” is a fairly common idea both in life and in technical communication. Seasons form a continuous cycle that never ends: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring, etc. In technical writing the process of writing, editing, reviewing, releasing also forms a process that never ends. It’s a continuous cycle that repeats itself. You can…
Read More"Do you have any tips or advice for those interested in breaking into technical writing?"
My top advice would be to develop a personal portfolio to break into tech writing. Nothing speaks louder for your skills than a finished work or two at hand. One thing I recommend to my readers and students is to write a user’s manual for a freely available software like OpenOffice. It does not need…
Read MoreHow to Add the Path Name to a Word Document File
Sometimes you don’t need to know where a document is on your hard drive because it’s obvious; you have a big folder for that project and all files are neatly saved in that hard-to-miss folder. But other times you might have a miscellaneous document, perhaps a single sheet, that needs to be updated from time…
Read MoreTechnical versus Content Writing
Technical versus content writing — are they the same or different? The answer is YES and NO. It is similar to content or article writing in the sense that you need to create prose that is easily understood, logically consistent, and conveys useful information. Where it separates from regular non-fiction writing is in its procedural…
Read MoreCatherine Hibbard – A Technical Communication Interview
We’re kicking off the new year with a new series of interviews with veteran technical writers and communicators. Our first guest for this column in 2012 is Catherine Hibbard of Cypress Media, a veteran writer and trainer who offers Technical Writing Training and Writing Effective Policies and Procedures Training. In January 2012, she is selected…
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