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 »
Category: Technical Communication
Draftback – could it reveal how Technical Authors actually write?
James Somers is releasing an add-on for Google Docs, Draftback, that enables you to play back and analyse the creation of any Google Doc you have permission to edit. It means you can see how a writer created the document, the sections they spent time rewriting and rearranging, the elements that were pasted into the document from… Read more »
Cherryleaf “green screen” videos
We’ve been putting together some short length videos that we can use on the Cherryleaf website. These are “quick and dirty”, three to four minute videos, shot behind in front of a green screen. One explains why technical communication is changing: Another looks at recruiting a Technical Author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJkTohd0qNg&feature=youtu.be Each video takes a couple of hours to… Read more »
Microsoft’s “No more robot speak” in action
Our post about how Microsoft is changing its writing style (Microsoft moves away from “robot speak” in its user documentation) generated a lot of interest, so I thought it might be useful to post some examples of it that we’ve spotted. These examples are from Office 365 Premium Edition.
Reframing technical communication as marketing
We’ve noticed a few slidedecks and blogs recently that have been looking at the value of technical communication in marketing a product successfully. With the trend towards earning revenues over a lifetime (rather than in a single upfront payment), the marketing strategies employed by organisations is changing. Scott Abel has posted a slidedeck called “The Future… Read more »