Structured Authoring
AuthorIt SaaS Cloud Enterprise-Level Technical Writing Platform – Selected Features
© Ugur Akinci Here are a few really cool AuthorIt features that caught my eye during a recent webinar demonstration by the company founder and CEO Paul Trotter. Searching for Content AuthorIt is a powerful structured-authoring editor that allows you to use the same chunk of content many times over. So searching for reusable content…
Read MoreHigh Entry Threshold for New DITA Writers
High Entry Threshold for New DITA Writers is a rarely admitted issue for technical communicators. I receive reader letters about DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) these days that more or less ask the same question: how difficult is it for a technical writer to specialize in single-sourcing and structured authoring? Should they learn DITA? And…
Read More5 Things That Will Never Change Despite Technological Changes in Technical Writing
© Ugur Akinci The technology of technical writing is changing really fast. But the thing is we don’t really need to keep up with all of it, depending on where we stand in the overall landscape of technical communications. Or let me put it this way: there are things that will never change as long…
Read More4 Book Components to Disappear from Technical Documents in the Long Run
Here are four book components that I think we won’t come across too frequently in the future when we read a single-sourced technical document: 1) Headers and Footers 2) Chapters 3) Page Numbers 4) TOC Headers and footers have been inseparable components of the traditional book metaphor, the “codex” as it’s also known, for over…
Read MoreTechnical Book Review: THE STATE OF STRUCTURED AUTHORING by Alan S. Pringle and Sarah S. O’Keefe
“Structured authoring” and “single sourcing” have been hot buzz phrases for quite a few years now. If you’re a technical writer, I’m sure you’re either applying these documentation methods in your daily work, getting ready to implement them, or learning about them. I personally am in the last two categories, both still learning ins and…
Read MoreTECHNICAL BOOK REVIEW: "Practical DITA" – A Nuts-and-Bolts Guide to Structured Technical Writing
Julio Vazquez has written a great book: Practical DITA. It’s a tightly-written thin volume (only 100 pages including the Index) that has a lot of nuts-and-bolts type of practical how-to information on DITA — Darwin Information Typing Architecture. The distinguishing characteristic of this short but comprehensive volume is the way it takes you by the…
Read MoreA Source of Potential Component Conflict when Multiple Authors Work in Structured Authoring Environment
Multiple authors writing “components” instead of “pages” is the future of technical communications (if not technical training and e-learning). When it comes to documentation, it really makes sense to “write once and publish multiple times”, as the saying goes. And that’s only possible if we all get used to writing “components” (sometimes also referred to…
Read MoreThings to Avoid in Modular Component Writing for Structured Authoring and Single-Sourcing
In true “structured authoring” the “components” you create (write, draw, etc.) are saved in the database of a Content Management System (CMS). The negative side of this type of “writing” is that you lose the local context and formatting. What you’re creating is not “only” an X-type of document but a “component” (let’s say, a…
Read MoreAdobe TCS3 is here with new XML and Social Media features!
© 2011 Ugur Akinci I’m excited to hear that Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite 3 is introduced with exciting built-in DITA/XML and social media/networking features. I understand both FrameMaker 10 and Robohelp 9 are being shipped as we speak. Here is a great intro by Adobe Senior Product Evangelist RJ Jacquez. It looks like this version…
Read MoreHow to Become a "Software Development Kit" (SDK) Technical Writer
© 2010 Ugur Akinci SDK (Software Development Kit) (a.k.a. “devkit”) writing is a highly specialized hi-tech niche within the technical communication field. The pay and the benefits are good but the entry threshold is high. This well-paying technical writing specialty is not for the beginner-level tech writers or those who do not have a good…
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