Introduction
Times have changed! Most grandparents hardly struggle with cell phones today. Parents are active members of social networking sites and at times, share friends with us. Domestic help asks for a phone reminder to get bread, next morning. Well, life without mobile phones is history!
Long[...]
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Archive for the ‘Lounge’ Category
December, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
Smartphones Smarter with Assistance
December, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
Who should manage a government portal? You!
Rachel
Recently I was asked this question in an interview: ‘Who should manage a government portal; IT people, marketing people or the content team?’
Turf wars have been fought over this ever since the Web first appeared, but the question never goes away. Ownership and management of any large we[...]
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Decoding Science Writing
Manjula Kandula
Dolly, the world’s first cloned sheep was born on 5 July 1996. It was an epoch-making milestone in science and opened the door to understanding creation. Noted science journalist Gina Kolata broke the news nationally in The New York Times and was the first reporter to speak with D[...]
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November, 2011 § in Lounge
Writing Tips
Anindita Basu
Do not repeat the text of the title in the first sentence of your topic.
When your topic gets pulled into search results, what is displayed is the title of the topic (in the form of a link) and the first few words in that topic. If the first sentence of the topic uses the [...][...]
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November, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
When Worlds Collide: Understanding How Documentation and Translation Processes Affect Each Other
By Kit Brown-Hoekstra
Companies that successfully integrate translation into the documentation and product development process reap the financial benefits of simultaneous global releases, high quality products that meet the needs of all their customers, regardless of locale, and improved percep[...]
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September, 2011 § in Lounge
Writing Tips
When you must include specific product names, version numbers, file paths, window names, wizard panes, field-box names etc. that might change during the SDLC, do not hard code them. Use variables. If writing with DITA, use conrefs; if writing with MS Word, use fields; if writing with any other h[...]
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July, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
Technical communication trends: How we can meet the challenges
By Larry Kunz
We are part of a profession that is undergoing rapid change. Several trends, spurred on by advances in technology and by the world economy, affect us. We need to understand what these trends mean to us as professionals, and we need to recognize how we can influence these trends.
The [...]
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July, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
Technical Communicators as Heuristics Reviewers
By Devika Ganapathy
A few years ago, I worked as a usability specialist at a large technology and services company based in Bangalore. The design unit at this company comprised a large team of nearly a 100 people – mainly interaction designers, but also several visual designers, information a[...]
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April, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
Essential skills for Technical Writers in 2011
When I was a science journalist earlier on in my career, a good friend invited me to join a leading software company as a technical editor. I began to weigh the pros and cons of staying or leaving the Fourth Estate.
I reasoned to myself that being part of the Press was challenging and offered me [.[...]
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February, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
Gone in Sixty Seconds?
Anindita Basu
Sixty seconds is what Nicolas Cage got to steal a car. You get less than 60 seconds to steal the attention of your readers and get them on to your help page. The first 10 words on any page take less than 10 seconds to read and understand, and those words are the ones [...][...]
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February, 2011 § in Lounge
Applying the Wideband Delphi Method for Estimating Documentation Effort
Bindu Nayar
Do you feel that estimating the documentation effort required for a project is nothing short of predicting the future? This view is strengthened when the estimates are inaccurate and the project is plagued with variance in scope and delays in delivery.
Any project is controlled by four [...]
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December, 2010 § in Lounge
Listen! Do you want to know a secret?
- Anindita Basu, with inputs from Rachna Ganguli and Anagha Chandratrey
A is for Adobe. The company that left Anindita with the distinct impression that it thinks that that the techcomm world revolves around it. Also see F and R.
B is for [...][...]
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History of Tech-Writing Tools
- Prasanna Bidkar
Technical communication existed in some form as early as the twelfth century, when Muhammad ibn Musa Al’Khowarizmi, a Turkish cleric, developed a writing method designed to achieve a specific goal. However, the last five decades have seen an explosion of technical inventions in [...]
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XML: KISS and Tell
- Vishesh Gupta
The characters:
KISS, The Guru
KISS is an acronym for the design principle “Keep it simple, Stupid!”. The KISS principle states that simplicity should be a key goal in design and that unnecessary complexity should be avoided. The acronym was first coined by Kelly Johnson, le[...]
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August, 2010 § in Lounge
Content: The News Marketing Tool
- M.D.S.PRABU
The rules of marketing undergo significant changes, as time passes by. From a seller-dominated market to a buyer-dominated market, it has come a long way to ultimately crown the consumer. Other ancillary functions like marketing communication and advertising undergo a sea-change. So, [...]
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August, 2010 § in Lounge
Review: The Practical Guide to Information Design
- Prasanna Bidkar
The Practical Guide to Information design, by Ronnie Lipton, presents the concept of information design and the role it plays in your day-to-day life. The author skillfully identifies different examples and convinces you that information design exists in everything you read from s[...]
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June, 2010 § in Lounge
The Canadian Blend
– Sumedh Nene
Since moving to Canada just under a year ago, I must have received at least two dozen inquiries about the country: what I feel about it, why I chose this country, and the cultural differences I see between India and Canada – primarily on the work front. I was also quizzed by [...]
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