MadCap Software has asked me to present, as a webinar, one of my conference presentations from the MadWorld 2014 conference – Bust a Move: From Technical Communication to Content Strategy. In this webinar, we’ll look at how technical communicators can get more involved in corporate content strategy. We’ll look at why they might want to do… Read more »
Cherryleaf Blog
Technical communication as a brand
One of the tea break discussions at the Congility conference I spoke at last month was over the need to improve the awareness of technical communicators and technical communication as a profession. I suggested the profession would benefit from having (and promoting) a simple positioning statement that explains the profession as if it were a brand. This… Read more »
What would life be like if there were no instruction manuals you could read?
Illiteracy is, sadly, something that can greatly affect people’s lives. According to The Literacy Trust, less than one per cent of adults in England can be described as completely illiterate and approximately 16 per cent as “functionally illiterate”. There are various articles on the Web that indicate how people live with their illiteracy: They depend on… Read more »
Writing troubleshooting topics
It’s a fair bet that the introduction of the new Troubleshooting information type into the DITA 1.3 technical authoring standard will affect how all Technical Authors write troubleshooting topics, regardless of whether they use DITA or not. That’s because the proposed elements for troubleshooting topics make good sense, and it offers a standardised approach to writing… Read more »
Why you probably shouldn’t use Word to create your policy documents
Imagine you are an IT manager for an organisation that has been implementing new IT systems. You have now reached the point where you need to create and document the new IT policies and procedures. The organisation already has some general policies for IT in its staff handbook, but you need to provide more detailed… Read more »