When the Technical Writer Fails…

It happens. Sometimes technical writers don't do the job they are supposed to do. Failure can come from many different directions. Sometimes it is because a technical writer doesn't have the right background. There is a whole debate, for example, about how technical a technical writer has to be. From my experience, the main limitation is not really the technical writer's background so much as the technical writer's ability to gather information and translate it to the user's…

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Is Editing a Document Enough?

I can't tell you how many times a company has come to me and said they have an editing job for us. The content is there, they explain, it's just a matter of editing it. Last week, a client came with this exact comment. Now, there are times when the client genuinely means this. Editing IS enough. Perhaps it is an internal document - one that will be passed around within the company. The expected audience knows the…

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The Table of Contents – Getting it Right

This is part of the Help Authoring Tips series. The problem with many help systems is that some help authors are still thinking in a linear world. A user manual is a linear offering. While we all know that readers don't start on page 1 and read to page 200, they do start on page 16 and turn to page 17 before reading pages 18 and then 19. Linear movement. If they seem to have dropped into the middle of…

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Video Documentation with Camtasia and Captivate

Video Documentation with Camtasia and Captivate June 17, 19 and/or 20, 2012  10:00 AM-4:30 PM 2-day course NIS1800+VAT 3-day course NIS 2300+VAT YouTube is becoming the new Google search and videos are becoming an increasingly important way to communicate information. Video tutorials, also called video documentation or screencasts, are edited video recordings of actions on a computer screen. Learn how to make video tutorials to quickly produce quality screen recordings to tutor, demonstrate and market your product or…

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