I Heart Tech Docs, Ivan Walsh, Technical Writer

Writing for the web is different that writing for a magazine, newspaper or business journal. Before writing web content, spend some time looking at how information architecture and navigation systems work.
Web Writing Tips
1. On the web, write in small digestible chucks, which fit into the information hierarchy. To create your hierarchy, outline the website as [...]

Information is a Task

Process Design Tutorial #5 | What do I need to capture in my business processes?

The public website or intranet that keeps screaming for
attention with useless images and vain content will get little
from the impatient and sceptical customer.

How many swim lanes should I add to the process design diagrams?Another part of the process design package is the flowchart diagrams. One area where I’m getting a little stuck is deciding how many swim lanes to add to the Visio diagrams. To get things rolling I have created three Visio diagrams with 2, 3 and 4 swim lanes. Take a look here.The question is: which one will be business analysts use the most?Regards,IvanTwitter @ivanwalsh
Another part of the process design package is the flowchart diagrams. One area where I’m getting a little stuck is deciding how many swim lanes to add to the Visio diagrams. To get things rolling I have created three Visio diagrams with 2, 3 and 4 swim lanes. Take a look here.

Admit you have a problem: The first step to recovery is to admit that you are organization-centric. Say it: “We’re organization-centric.”

Your Website is for Your Most Important Customers

Snagit has an eye dropper tool that makes it easy to match colors in your capture. Here’s how to use it

Follow Friday – News and Views June 3rd 2009. Here’s a roundup of some of this week’s news. Next week, I’ll add more info on upcoming XML authoring software releases and the new Google Wave platform.

Mark Poston, Senior Technical Consultant, at Mekon Ltd, describes how deploying DITA tools is not only possible, but can greatly improve the efficiency of your business.  For years organizations have wanted to get Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) creating Business Documentation in XML so it can be single-sourced and reused in various scenarios. DITA XML [...]

This case study describes how Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) significantly streamlined its delivery of documentation and training materials with MadCap Flare.

A recent survey by Scriptorium Publishing found that most technical writers will be working in a structured authoring environment by 2010. Structured authoring is a publishing workflow that defines and automatically enforces consistent organization of information. Implementations are generally based on Extensible Markup Language (XML).

Adobe has released its Technical Communication Suite v1.3, a suite of tools for authoring, managing, and publishing interactive technical documentation with . The suite includes Adobe Captivate 3, Adobe FrameMaker 8, RoboHelp 7 and now the latest version of Acrobat – Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, replacing Acrobat 3D with the highest version of Acrobat software available.