Posts Tagged ‘Technical Writing’
Things 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 MoreA FrameMaker Shortcut to Scroll from one Document TAB to Another
Adobe FrameMaker nicely opens all your documents side by side in tabs. Whether they are parts of a book or not, if you have three open FrameMaker documents in your editing window, for example, then you’d have 3 tabs displayed at the top of your screen: Here is an easy way to scroll and navigate…
Read More6 Different Ways to Distribute Large Technical Documents
© 2011 Ugur Akinci Large files have always been a distribution headache for technical writers. PDF files, book files of all kinds, PPT files need to be planned and generated always with an eye towards their distribution. If your files are too big to send around, review and approval processes will be jeopardized. Here are…
Read More6 Future Career Paths for Technical Communicators
There are not one but multiple future career paths for technical communicators. Technical communication is changing rapidly like any other thing in our world. Report by The Writers Block A new report by The Writers Block, “Technical Communication Landscape Survey Report (Bangalore, Karnataka, India)”, lists the following future specializations for technical communicators: Technical writing Instructional…
Read MoreTECHNICAL BOOK REVIEW: “Survey of Technical Communication Landscape in India” by TWB
“Survey of Technical Communication Landscape in India, 1st Biennial Report (2011-12)” by The Writers Block (TWB), one of India’s outstanding technical communication training and outsourcing companies, is an authoritative reference volume that all technical communicators should read. Despite its cover price ($499 or 22,797 Rupee), this 158-page report succeeds in giving a detailed snapshot of…
Read MoreHow to Name Files in a Technical Documentation Project
© 2011 Ugur Akinci Naming files — it sounds like something easy to do, doesn’t it? But I know from experience: it can actually become a very complicated and tangled-up affair with productivity-killing consequences. The root of the problem lies in the fact that the name should make sense not only for the creator, the…
Read MoreHow to Configure Column and Header Layout for a FrameMaker Document
You can create FrameMaker documents with complex column and header layouts. I’d like to show some of those possibilities on this sample one-column document: (Click on all images to enlarge them) As you can see, this document does not have any sidebars and a sidebar is always a nice layout feature to have in a…
Read MoreFrameMaker – How to Draw Lines by Default Above or Below any Header
Imagine every time you use a certain paragraph tag in FrameMaker, you’d like to draw automatically lines (single, double, etc.) above and/or below that header or piece of text. You can do that easily by using the ADVANCED tab in PARAGRAPH DESIGNER. Follow these steps: (1) Open your FrameMaker document: Let’s imagine you’d like to…
Read MoreThe Value of Judging Technical Documents as a Juror at STC Competition
© 2010 Ugur Akinci I love to be a judge at STC’s annual technical documentation competitions. This year is the fourth time I’m serving as a judge in my local chapter’s (Wash DC) annual technical document competition. Twice I had the honor to serve my local chapter as a Lead Judge. In other two times…
Read More7 Great Tips to Edit Your Own Document
It’s best to have a colleague or an outside reviewer to read and edit your technical or business documents. But sometimes you might now have that luxury and you may be all alone. So how should you edit your own stuff? I can only give you a few tips that worked for me in the…
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