The #VATMoss and #VATMess hashtags have been trending on Twitter for most of December. The hashtags relate to changes to VAT that are coming into effect on 1st January 2015. These changes may affect the online products Cherryleaf sells.
Category: Technical Author
The four words that account for 19 minutes of a typical Technical Communicator’s day
Peter Norvig has some interesting statistics on word frequency in the English language. It turns out that four words – the, of, and, to – account for 16.94% of the words we write. In field of technical communication, Technical Authors typically spend 50% of their time writing and the rest on researching, planning etc. If… Read more »
The need for empathy in technical communication
One of the subjects Doug Kim covered in his TCUK14 presentation, on the changes to Microsoft’s user documentation, was how Microsoft now normally begins its Help topics with an empathetic statement. The writers seek to understand the user at the moment they’re reading the content. For example, if someone is reading the topic on auto save,… Read more »
Not so cool tools for Technical Authors – speech recognition software
Our method for creating online courses involves making an audio recording of the presenter, transcribing it, editing the script and then recording the final, video presentation. We’ve tried using speech recognition software to create the transcribed script, and it has been a deeply frustrating experience. While speech recognition is proving successful for searching and issuing… Read more »
Cool tools for Technical Authors – travel equipment
We’re sharing some of the tools we use at Cherryleaf. This time we’ll look at travel equipment. The role of consulting technical communicator can involve travel to exotic places, such as San Diego, Cologne and Swindon. Your travelling experience can be affected by what equipment you have on your travels, so it make sense to take the right… Read more »