Is this a golden age for permanent technical authors and technical writers? It may well be, even if it doesn’t feel it today. We are probably at the point in the UK where the jobs market is *just* to the advantage of job-seekers, though salary rates have not been affected. Most likely, we’re also at… Read more »

We aim to reflect the trends in new technologies and tools in the training courses that we offer. We recently introduced a training course on DITA Darwin Information Typing Architecture, and today we’ve announced a training course for Madcap Software’s Flare. Flare is a new Help authoring tool from the former developers of RoboHelp. We’ll… Read more »

What will have the greatest impact on technical communication in the future? Vista Help, DITA XML, single sourcing perhaps? More likely, it will be the application of Web 2.0 technologies to the task of supporting users – affecting both technical support and user documentation. Given the nature of these things, we’re likely to see its… Read more »

Cherryleaf has launched a course for anyone wanting to understand the key concepts behind DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). DITA is an open source XML-based framework for designing and delivering well-structured content efficiently and consistently in a single-sourcing environment. It provides a standard approach for creating task-oriented information and assembling topics into books or other… Read more »

The BBC has reported that Barclays Bank is moving away from “the arcane language that has be-devilled bank customers for generations”. The bank said it wants to move away from confusing acronyms and jargon, using “more colloquial” terms instead. Jim Hytner, Barclays’ marketing director, said: “We will be using language that everyone knows and understands”…. Read more »