Posts Tagged ‘Technical Writing’
How to Write an "Architectural and Engineering Specifications (A&E)" Document
If you think A&E stands for “Arts and Entertainment” TV channel you’re correct. But it also stands for a frequently used technical document: “Architectural and Engineering Specifications (A&E)“. The adjective “architectural” here of course has nothing to do with buildings. It denotes the way something is designed and structured. It’s used in the generic sense…
Read MorePostmortem Analysis of a Technical Writing Project
© Ugur Akinci A postmortem analysis of any technical writing project is a crucial part of the whole project. It’s the closure that reveals the strengths and weaknesses. After we finish a project we should make a habit of analyzing what went wrong during the project and what didn’t, and how we can improve our…
Read MoreHow to Write a "Read Me" file
© Ugur Akinci A “Read Me” file is a part of almost every software product, whether it’s released on a CD (and marketed in a box) or downloaded from the Internet. It traditionally has the file name ReadMe.txt or Read_Me.txt and consists of an unformatted plain text file. The idea is to make sure it…
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…
Read MoreHow to Write a Service Level Agreement (SLA)
A “Service Level Agreement” (SLA) is one of the dozens of document types created regularly by technical communicators, usually under the supervision of the corporate legal departments. An SLA is typically issued by a technology service company to regulate its business relationship with the customer, or end-user. Web-hosting companies and SAS (Software as a Service)…
Read More4 Levels of Editing in Technical Writing
Writing is re-writing; that is, editing. Technical editing is a crucial part of all technical writing projects. But we have to remember there are multiple levels of technical editing which makes the task all the more challenging. LEVEL 1 EDITING Spec Editing. Does the document satisfy all the macro requirements specified in the Documentation Plan?…
Read MoreProportional- and Fixed-Length Spaces in Adobe FrameMaker
There used to be a time when writers were very fond of double-spaces after a period, or as many spaces as they liked. There are those who argue that the habit started with those U.S. government workers using IBM Selectric typewriters (yes, once upon a time writers used to bang on the keys of clumsy…
Read MoreHow to Create an Adobe FrameMaker Custom Document
When you begin to create a new document in Adobe FrameMaker, FM offers 3 format options: Portrait Landscape Custom The first two FrameMaker format options are self-explanatory. In this post we’ll study the third option by creating a Custom Document. 1) Select File > New from the menu (or click the Document option under the…
Read MoreMS Windows Productivity Tip — Remove Read-Only Property of Multiple Files
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Whether you are working with a set of Adobe FrameMaker or MS Word files, it doesn’t matter: if your files are read-only, you won’t be able to save your changes. Your machine will give an error and remind you that since your files are Read-Only, you cannot save the changes you’ve…
Read MoreMS Word – How to Draw a Venn Diagram
Use a Venn Diagram (named after John Venn of 1881) to illustrate the overlap between different sets of data or concept. Each data set or concept is represented by a separate circle. What is a Venn Diagram? The Venn diagram is a diagram that shows all the possible logical relations between different sets. It is…
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