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.
Does anybody do anything fun at work? I'm preparing a number of
learning corners about tasks related to our techdocs. I don't know how
these might help your thought process...
Documentation: A place for everything or everything all over the place?
When I started, the tech docs senior had a straightforward process for
reviewing customer documentation. However, I've found the problem at
our company is the lack of a consistent process on the development
side. Many methods makes internal documentation difficult to find and
use, and updates to the customer side even more difficult.
It figures a system engineer had the same idea, so we developed a
workflow and a series of templates to standardize the content and
location of development docs. He researched the type of content to put
in the templates, and I provided the structure and best practice laws
for documentation success. Plus, I had fun hacking the Word Ribbon UI
to add a bunch of helpful macros.
This talk will address the existing problem (everyone does their own
thing), the benefit of a unified content strategy (thanks Rockley
Group!), and how to have fun with my macros.
We've already received kudos on the improved structure of the testing
document from our operations team.
Screencasting for fun and profit:
When I learned the new Faststone Capture now captures mouse actions
and screencasts, I finally upgraded my freebie to the professional
version ($20). The premise is, if a picture is worth a thousand words,
then a video is a thousand times better!
Stupid TWiki tricks:
As a web guy, I took great pride in upgrading our TWiki. I added a
number of plugins to make life fun. I'd share the benefits of working
with this new TWiki that they may have already figured out (it's been
running since October!) But I still have people asking questions like:
- Using the new WYSIWYG editor
- Using the TWikiDraw plugin
- How do I insert attachments?
- How do I replace attachments?
- What can I do to format pictures better?
- To TWiki markup and back again
- Preserving code snippets
- Playing with variables - search, form creation, comments
I suppose one could probably do the same for MediaWiki.
Some non-work related learning corners by members of our software team
have been:
- The AeroSnap plugin to give Windows 7 "snap" to XP
- Managing a shared iTunes library (how you organize your music will
show your documentation capabilities)
- New tools being trialed: what works, what doesn't
- New trends being discussed
- Resources - we have free libraries in town, Stanford released their
iPhone development course on iTunes, and MIT shares their courses as
well
Have fun!
--
Tony Chung: Creative Communications
Cell: +1-604-710-5164
Email: tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca * Web: http://tonychung.ca
Skype: tonychung.ca * GTalk/MSN: tonychung -dot- ca -at- gmail -dot- com
Twitter: @techcom * Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tonychung.ca
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Use Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word, or HTML and
produce desktop, Web, or print deliverables. Just write (or import)
and Doc-To-Help does the rest. Free trial: http://www.doctohelp.com
- Use this space to communicate with TECHWR-L readers -
- Contact admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com for more information -
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
