Technical Writing
How to Apply Multilevel Numbering to MS Word Tables
© Ugur Akinci Imagine you have the following document: You would like to insert TABLES to this text but number them starting with the multilevel number of the section they are in. For example, you want the tables placed in section number “2” as “Table 2-a”, “Table 2-b”, “Table 2-c” and not simply as…
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How to Manage Signal Versus Noise in Technical Documents
Introduction Signal versus noise is an interesting and important issue in technical communication. Here is an uncomfortable fact of technical document management: as much as we’d like to base our decisions on hard evidence and numbers, we still make a number of judgment calls that rest on nothing more than a seat-of-the-pants “this feels okay,”…
Read MoreTCC Selected "Top 100 Influencer" in Technical Communications for 2013 by MindTouch
© Ugur Akinci Folks, I’m happy to announce that this web site was selected one of the “Top 100 Influencers” in the technical communications field (the 56th, to be exact) in an annual survey conducted by MindTouch.com. We toil long hours every day both to keep up with the latest in our dynamic field and to bring…
Read MoreTechnical Writing is Technical Training
“Technical Writing is Technical Training” is probably the summary of my technical communication career. I know my trainer friends will object to this statement but I’ll say it again all the same: “Technical writing is technical training.” Then I’ll add: “It’s the training of a special type.” Or at least it should be. If by…
Read MoreHow Long Should the Appendices of a Technical Document Be?
How long should the appendix or the appendices of a technical document be? This is an interesting question that I haven’t seen discussed earlier anywhere. The question is especially pertinent when the document suffers from “mission creep“, that is, when additional documentation goals get added gradually to the original documentation plan. In such cases, the…
Read MoreHow to AutoRecover Unsaved Files in MS Word
To autorecover unsaved files in MS Word is a bit different than in MS Word 2010. It’s a bit more difficult, but not that difficult, really. Follow these steps: 1) Click the Office button and select Word Options to display the Word Options screen. Click Save from the left navigation bar. Make sure “Save Autorecover…
Read More6 Enterprise PDF Productivity Tools by Adobe Acrobat
Here are five non-free tools offered by Adobe Acrobat that may increase your productivity significantly if you have an enterprise-level office that churns out a lot of large-size technical documents, PDFs, forms, invoices, surveys, reports, etc. on a regular basis. Even though they are not free, they may prove to be cost efficient if you’re going to…
Read MoreHow to Use Acrobat.com for Shared Review of Your Technical Documents
If you have not yet used Acrobat.com for your technical document (PDF) reviews you probably don’t know what you’re missing. The traditional process goes something like this: You send your document to each reviewer individually. Reviewers respond to you individually. Then you try to sift out and incorporate the feedback into the original document while…
Read MoreTop 10 Trends Driving Technical Communication Industry Forward Today
© Ugur Akinci Here are top 10 trends identified by Christian Gravelle, Senior Technical Analyst, and reported by Maxwell Hoffman in an Adobe blog: Trend #1: Adoption of Structured Documents Trend #2: Shift Towards Single Source Publishing Trend #3: Added Complexity in Multi-Format/Multi-Channel Delivery Trend #4: Providing for Mobile Delivery Trend #5: Increased Demand for…
Read MoreHow to Insert a Screenshot or Image Properly in Between Two Steps in an Ordered MS Word List
© Ugur Akinci PROBLEM: You’d like to insert a screenshot or an image in between two consecutive steps in an ordered MS Word list WITHOUT automatically assigning a step number to the image itself. Here is what typically happens: Let’s assume you have the following ordered list: If you hit the ENTER key on your…
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