TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: What do you do when there's nothing to do? From:"Edgar D' Souza" <edgar -dot- b -dot- dsouza -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"Sarah L Blake" <sarah -dot- blake -at- exony -dot- com> Date:Fri, 7 Mar 2008 22:48:18 +0530
On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 8:57 PM, Sarah L Blake <sarah -dot- blake -at- exony -dot- com> wrote:
> I'm sure it's happened to us all at some point. That moment when the
> hectic work for the last release is just a distant memory, and the next
> release is just a sparkle in R&D's eye. You've updated all the
> documentation according to the spec, done that re-indexing you were
> always intending to get around to, created a new version of the training
> course, read the more useful or interesting of the books and manuals
> lying around...
>
> What do you do next?
freshnews.org
dilbert.com
userfriendly.org
and lots of other stuff on the Net.
Unfortunately, I no longer get as much free time as I used to have, so
visits to these sites are more of a hurried, furtive, "thank you,
ma'am" kind of affair. Still catching up on UF or Dilbert (or lotsa
other comics like GPF-comics, xkcd etc.) over the weekend is quite a
bit of fun...
When I'm tired of that, a post-mortem of the project that has just
expired (heh ;-) ) is in order. Could I have done anything in that
project a little smarter? Could I salvage some of the bits and pieces
for a future project, in the form of templates, etc.? Could I have
(the dream of every wannabe geek) automated a large portion of the
drudgery I had to undergo? If so, how? What do I need to do that?
OF course, just as I get onto a promising line of enquiry, along comes
ANOTHER darn project, derailing research, ideas, future hopes... and
I'm back into that morass of deadlines and impossible amounts of
work... is this some exquisite sort of irony, or is it merely life?
Cheers (you, not me - I'm already several sheets to the wind, and am
not in the doldrums!)
Ed.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-