I Heart Tech Docs, Ivan Walsh, Technical Writer

You can now download DocBook: The Definitive Guide by Norman Walsh.

The release of Author-it 5.3 includes modules for implementing structured authoring, including standards-based content models such as DITA or S1000D.

“Structured Authoring” addresses the issue of inconsistency within an organization’s content and documentation. Inconsistencies negatively affect an organization’s brand, communication and regulatory compliance. The challenge that organizations have faced is the sheer scale and cost of moving to structured authoring. A typical implementation will involve significant migration effort and cost associated with the development of XML schemas and systems integration.

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

What kind to technical documents should I write for Java project?

Vacancy – Senior Technical Writer for Server Products

Snagit Tip – How to create a Mirror edge at the bottom of your screenshots

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.

10 Sites about Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)

For Microsoft®, the nightmare of a younger, nimbler competitor overtaking them is also coming true. The company was so distracted by Sun and Netscape that it failed to notice Google sneaking up on Office and Windows. GMail, Google Docs, and similar applications from a variety of sources are rapidly rendering the underlying operating system irrelevant.

Of all the technical writing tools I’ve used over the years, Epic Editor was probably the most impressive, especially when it came to doing tech documents that involved DocBook and Dita.
It was difficult to learn – no point pretending otherwise – but once I got the hang of it, I used it non-stop for over [...]

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 [...]

I haven’t use a MAC for years but Derek Johnson in London sent this over to me. upCast enables you to use Microsoft Word as an authoring application for XML documents. It lets you write the XML in an MS Word type use user interface of Word (or any other RTF office application for structured [...]

A new case study from MadCap Software, shows how MadCap Flare can improve the quality of documentation for healthcare software users and streamline the technical writing team’s efforts. It highlights how one company in the healthcare software industry was able to build 11 online and print documentation outputs in just two days.

Technical Writers who want to create documents in MS Word and also use Quark will be pleased to read this press release. Quark XML Author 3.0 for Microsoft Word allows users to create XML content easily within Microsoft Word, This XML authoring tool allows non-technical business workers to use Microsoft Word to create intelligent [...]