Knowledge Work

If you respond to RFPs or have any part in the proposal writing process, the Shipley Associates Proposal Guide for Business and Technical Professionals will be worth every penny of the $60 you pay for it (Amazon price as of September 2006.)
It is not a tutorial or a “how to” guide; rather, it’s a reference […]

The Adobe® FrameMaker® 7.2 Application Packs for Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and S1000D enable developers to fully evaluate and enhance the XML authoring and publishing capabilities within FrameMaker using two leading open standards. Both application packs are companion pieces to the already available Adobe FrameMaker Developer Kit (FDK) that provide sample content, tools, applications […]

The last year has seen the first appearance of online word processing applications such as ajaxWrite, ThinkFree Online, Writely, and Zoho Writer. Online office applications are an unproven product in a new market. To see how worthwhile they were, I compared their interfaces, basic and advanced features, and their document export and administration capabilities. The […]

Here’s a terrific, intelligent side-by-side comparison of the two most popular rapid e-learning development tools: Captivate and Camtasia.
Macromedia Captivate by Adobe and TechSmith Camtasia Studio 3.1 are similar software tools with uniquely different strong points. If you’re creating a quick-and-dirty software demo, or a PowerPoint presentation to post to a Web site, Camtasia is a […]

Let me tell you about these fabulous little notebooks I’ve just found.
As a writer (one who works on technical subjects, not the Great American Novel) I make a point to never be without a notebook and a pen (a Pilot G2, please.)
For years, I used cheap spiral-bound reporter’s notebooks and went through them like Sherman […]

Over at the TECHWR-L list, one of the members is getting set to deliver a talk on technical writing as a career to a group of home-schooled high school students, and asked for advice.
After answering the questions, I realized I had just written a pretty good blog post!
1. What students can learn now to […]

I haven’t used a Mac regularly since 1996, but about a month ago I found myself in a techno-trance state, in the Apple Store in SoHo, New York City, swiping my AmEx card to buy one of the new Intel-based MacBooks.

(I was driven screaming back into the arms of Apple by a hauntingly awful experience with a late public beta of Microsoft Vista. I’ve transitioned quickly in the last few weeks to using the MacBook as my primary work machine, and I haven’t looked back.)

My new MacBook 1.83Ghz (512MB RAM, 60GB HD, $1099 at the Apple Store in NYC) arrived ready to go right out of the box. It was unusually well-equipped with pre-loaded software; not just a Web browser (Safari), e-mail client (Mail) and a host of related tools, but a licensed copy of Apple’s powerful and cool iLife multimedia suite, plus 30-day trial versions of iWork and Microsoft Office 2004.

From the time I broke the seal on the box and unpacked the cute little beast, I was up and running in about ten minutes… the first clue that I was in for an experience that was very, very different from my last ten years in the Wintel Wilderness.

That being said, if you are of the geekly inclination, you’re going to want to make some additional tweaks and purchases to optimize your Mac-using experience, especially if you have to continue to collaborate with colleagues who are tethered to their Windows machines. So with that in mind, here’s what I’ve learned in the first month of owning a new Intel-based Mac and fitting it out so that I can still work with my Windows peeps.

How? Talk technical-sounding rubbish. If it works for new-age airheads spouting ignorant garbage about quantum physics, it can work for you, too:
I’ve been to quite a few consultancy presentations where all kinds of jargon and graphs are flashed up on the screen. The consultants will drop terms like “inverted blade-center uptime matrix” into the presentation […]

From the latest issue of New Scientist magazine (subscription required) comes an article entitled “Change the way you see the world” (and it will):
We love our maps. At first glance, people are shocked by them: the shapes look familiar, yet everything is absurdly distorted. Without even thinking, they have learned something about the world they […]

Copyblogger is all about “how to sell with blogs, e-mail and RSS.” It looks like an excellent resource for small businessses and consultancies looking to leverage the power of the Web to market themselves.
Copywriting 101 is a set of articles about persuasive writing for the Web:
Copywriting skills are an essential element to the new conversational […]

An article geared towards tech support staff, but one that most of us who work in technology would do well to read:
You think you’re a good communicator: You keep your users informed and you listen to their problems. So why is it that no one appears to read your e-mails or seems capable of following […]

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based, end-to-end architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. This architecture consists of a set of design principles for creating “information-typed” modules at a topic level and for using that content in delivery modes such as online help and product support portals on the Web. This […]

The information architecture group blog Boxes and Arrows has a great post this week on the basic kinds of information-seeking behaviors by users of a web or intranet site, and how to design for maximum information retrievability.
Most information architects already take “known item” (you know what you’re looking for) and “exploratory” (browsing) searching into account […]

Here’s a classic example of why you need writers and editors who understand the subject matter they’re writing about:
After almost 20 years languishing on the shelf, large companies are beginning to adopt ITIL, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library of IT services best practices guidelines (the British pronounce it “it-ill,” while Americans say “eye-till”). Forrester Research […]

Today I want to talk about the all-out assault on the English language and the role technology plays in that unprovoked and dastardly attack. I especially want to talk about the ways dumbing down the language is not only seen as acceptable, but is tacitly encouraged as the status quo.Any number of my acquaintances excuse […]

The most critical aspect of user-centered design, usability testing breaks down the wall between the designer and user, and allows us to see how real users do real tasks in the real world. There are many benefits of usability testing, including uncovering pitfalls in a current system before a redesign and evaluating the usability of […]

Not too long ago, a senior manager asked me to write a short page of talking points explaining why it was a good idea to have professional communicators–in this case, technical communicators–on staff.  Here’s what I came up with. Maybe you can use it too (or refine it–comments are welcome!)
What do technical communicators do?

Research, […]

Hiding confidential information with black marks works on printed copy, but not with electronic documents, the National Security Agency has warned government officials.
The agency makes the point in a guidance paper on editing documents for release, published last month following several embarrassing incidents in which sensitive data was unintentionally included in computer documents and exposed. […]

Here’s a good overview of how to avoid some all-too-common mistakes when constructing a PowerPoint presentation: 8 mistakes when creating PowerPoint presentations (SympleByte.)

I have long been a fan of O’Reilly Media’s technical books, and a happy subscriber to “Safari Bookshelf,” their online library; in its most basic form, for about $10 a month the Safari plan entitles you to read up to five O’Reilly books on-screen at the same time. It’s a tremendous bargain and […]