Archive for 2014
How to Create a List of Tables in MS Word
Follow these steps in MS Word: (1) Give all your tables a title. Create a “Table Title” style and assign that style to all your table titles. (2) Click your cursor at where you’d like to place your List of Tables. Its traditional location in a technical document is right after the Table of Contents…
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Writing for Mobile Platforms
Introduction Writing for mobile platforms like smartphones and pads is an important specialization for technical writers. The trend is already picking up speed. One “mobile writing guru” is Joe Welinske of WritersUA who has done a lot to advance our understanding of the new challenges facing us in the mobile frontier. In a webinar organized by…
Read More3 Disadvantages of Writing Documents with DITA and Structured Authoring
It’s no secret that DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) and structured authoring represent the way large organizations will handle their legacy documents in the future for various reasons. Ease of updating and freedom in selecting publication platforms are two of the reasons that come to mind. Lower production costs is another, in the long run.…
Read More10 Job Agencies for Technical Writers
12 Places to Work as a Technical Writer
How to use the Odd-Page and Even-Page Breaks in MS Word
You are using MS Word. Imagine you need to flow your story only on the odd-numbered pages of your document and reserve the even-numbered pages only for images that go with the relevant odd-number page. The document you have in mind is one when opened the reader would see the image on the left and…
Read MoreHow to Write the Perfect Travel Articles for Fun and Profit
Writing travel articles and travel writing is a great way both to travel around the world and make money while doing it. Imagine having fun, staying at the best hotels, spending time on golden beaches and heavenly mountains, and getting paid for it? You can finance such pursuits by specializing in travel writing. Of course,…
Read More4-U Method for Power Headers in DIRECT MAIL COPY
© Ugur Akinci The header or the leading sentence of a sales letter, a brochure, flier, or a classified ad is probably 80% of the message. Headers are important even in news business. That’s why some newspapers have full-time “title editors.” Their job is to make sure people will read the headlines because that’s only what…
Read MoreHow to Create a Sense of Urgency in Your Commercial Copy
Creating a sense of urgency in your commercial copy is important for success in direct mail campaigns. When you encourage prospects to act now instead of later, response rates increase. You can follow one the following three methods to create a sense of urgency in your copy: 1) One way to do this is to put a deadline on your…
Read MoreHow to Write a Headline for a News Article
How to Write a Headline for a News Article is half art and half science. “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written the headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar . If you haven’t done some selling in your…
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