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In this posting, look for the following ...
* EVENT: Information Design and Management 2005 Conference (NEW)
* STORY: Act Before Dec 31! Two SnagIt for $60! (NEW)
* CONFERENCE: Early Discount Deadline Approaching for
WritersUA Conference (NEW)
* ANNOUNCE: WebWorks ePublishing Webinars:
The Fast Track to Advanced Skills
* ANNOUNCE: Shorten Your Writing Time by Learning the
Information Mapping Method
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EVENT: Information Design and Management 2005 Conference
Saul Carliner, assistant professor of educational technology at Concordia
University, is the Keynote Speaker for the annual technical communications
conference sponsored by the James River Chapter, STC. Joing him are Kay
Ethier, Bernard Aschwanden, Ann-Marie Grissino, Mary Archer, Mel Lester,
Richard T. Evans, Mark Wallis, Jennifer Raisig, Yvonne Earnshaw, Robert
Meyer, and Ellyn Hassell.
Topics presented include:
* Introduction to DITA
* e-Learning in Online Help Systems
* Developing an Element Definition Document
* Communicating Technical Ideas Persuasively
* Template Development: Best Practices
* Choosing and Using a Digital Camera
* How to Create "Search Engine?Friendly" Web Content, Information
Architecture?Content Reuse
* Making Procedure Manuals Meaningful-and Interactive
* Editing Indexes for Quality and Usability.
Ms. Kay Ethier and Mr. Bernard Aschwanden will host workshops on January
16 on XML and FrameMaker and Word and FrameMaker template development.
The Conference will be held in the Four Points by Sheraton hotel in
Williamsburg on January 15, 2005 from 8:30 A.M.?5:00 P.M. Register online
at www.stc-jamesriver.org. Contact Don White at IDMconf2005 -at- comcast -dot- net
for further information.
Dan the technical writer's coworkers hailed him as he walked past. "Dan -
come in here! We're telling our new year's resolutions!"
"Great!" Dan said. "I resolve to eat better, work out more, and help
people see how SnagIt SolvesIt."
"Excuse me?" Kelly said, thinking she misheard him.
"SnagIt SolvesIt! SnagIt is the award-winning screen capture program
that's not just for technical writers - you can save your online receipts,
send errors to the help desk, make short videos, create perfect
presentations ... it's a solution for anyone with a computer," Dan said
earnestly.
"So ... your resolution is to teach people about it?" Kelly asked,
gesturing to the rest of the group.
"Yes!" Dan said. "And it looks like I'm already well ahead of the game -
it's only December!"
He opened his bag of chips and made his way to his desk for some serious
sitting.
"Ah well," he thought, "one out of three resolutions isn't bad."
WORKSHOP: "FrameMaker and XML: Advanced Techniques"
taught by Lynne Price
Title: FrameMaker and XML: Advanced Techniques
Date: February 15, 2005
Location: Research Triangle Park, NC area
Fee: $259
Instructor: Lynne A. Price
Maintaining your documents in both FrameMaker and XML lets you make the
most of both FrameMaker, with its intuitive interface for editing
structured documents and its rich capability for formatting long
documents, and XML, with its ever-growing set of tools. Bright Path
Solutions and Text Structure Consulting, Inc. are pleased to bring you a
workshop on strategies for building effective document publishing
environments in structured FrameMaker. Unlike a course that teaches
FrameMaker's native XML capabilities, this workshop focuses on practical
matters such as which features to use in particular situations.
In this workshop, you will learn:
-How to apply software development techniques to build maintainable EDDs
and read/write rules
-What import/export problems can be solved with read/write rules and
when to augment your XML applications with the Frame Developer Kit
(FDK), FrameScript, XSLT or FrameSLT
-How to write structured read/write rules
-When to define different structures in your EDD and DTD
-How to create EDD fragments that can be reused in multiple EDDs
**You are encouraged to bring your own FrameMaker XML applications and
apply the learned techniques during the seminar. You will have the
opportunity to ask questions about your application.**
About the Instructor:
Instructor Lynne A. Price is an independent consultant specializing in
applications of structured FrameMaker. Before founding Text Structure
Consulting, Inc. in 1996, Lynne was a software developer at Frame
Technology Corporation and then Adobe. She was part of the team that
added the structure capability to FrameMaker. Lynne has been active in
the SGML community since 1985 and participates in US and International
SGML standards work. Her interest in structured documentation began in
graduate school. She completed a Ph.D. in computer sciences at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1978. Her dissertation was titled
"Representing Text Structure for Automatic Processing."
Registration:
SEATING IS LIMITED. You are encouraged to sign up right away to avoid
missing this unique training opportunity. Visit the Bright Path
Solutions website at http://www.travelthepath.com/readwriterulesplus5.html for more
information and to download a registration form. Call Kay Ethier at
1.919.244.8559 if you have any questions or with to sign up a group.
CONFERENCE: Early Discount Deadline Approaching for WritersUA Conference
Save $200 on your registration fee if you book your space by December 31
for
the 13th Annual WritersUA Conference for Software User Assistance. The
conference will be held in Las Vegas at the Tropicana Hotel March 20-23,
2005. Early registrants receive a complimentary admission to one of two
great Vegas shows in residence at the Tropicana. The conference focus, as
always, is on user assistance Tools, Technologies, and Content
Development.
Over 60 informative sessions will be presented by 45 expert speakers. All
the details about the event are available on the conference web site. http://www.winwriters.com/ohc05/index.html
ANNOUNCE: WebWorks ePublishing Webinars:
The Fast Track to Advanced Skills
WebWorks Services has made accelerating your learning curve easy
and convenient with live 90-minute online training sessions. Here
are our upcoming Webinar topics for November:
* Getting Started with WebWorks Publisher Professional
November 8, 9:30 a.m. PST (12:30 p.m. EST)
* Delivering Localized Content with WebWorks Publisher
November 10, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT)
* Delivering 508-Compliant Content with WebWorks Publisher
November 16, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT)
* WebWorks Template Design and Maintenance
November 18, 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST)
* WebWorks Publisher Functions: Advancing Beyond the Basics
November 30, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT)
These interactive classes are conducted via WebEx, so you can get
the most out of your investment in WebWorks Publisher -- without
leaving your desk. To sign up or for more information, visit us
at www.webworks.com/techwr-l/webinars or call WebWorks Services at
512-719-3399 ext.503.
ANNOUNCE: Shorten Your Writing Time by Learning the
Information Mapping Method
Learn Information Mapping's method today and:
* Start writing more easily
* Reduce your writing time
* Get better results from your documentation
* Decrease your document revision time, and
* Increase your productivity.
One technical writing department using the Information Mapping method
survived a merger by convincing the new company of their value through a
usability study. This study showed how the Information Mapping method:
* Added value to the company
* Saved the company money
* Saved readers' time, and
* Reduced the errors encountered by readers.
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