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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Posts Tagged ‘tips’
September, 2011 § in Lounge
Writing Tips
October, 2010 § in WriteRight
7 Ways to Avoid Misunderstandings When Writing for an International Audience
– Ugur Akinci, Ph.D.
Technical communicators are increasingly catering to an international audience due to the expansion of the global market place. Such a development requires a new vigilance when writing technical documents in order to minimize inadvertent cross-cultural misunderstandings[...]
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August, 2010 § in TechTools
Five Adobe Captivate Tips
– Smitha V.
Five simple Adobe Captivate tips that help you design, develop, and review your projects quickly.
Create ‘stencils’ for your slides
Master Slide is a new feature in Adobe Captivate 5 that adds ‘stencils’ to your project. If you have common elements that you want to insert[...]
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August, 2010 § in WriteRight
The Myth of the Holy Cow
– Anindita Basu
In my life as a technical writer, I have been handed out quite a few myths. Some of these myths came disguised as commandments resounding with a Thou Shalt Not. The intention, I suspect, is to lull me to passive obedience. In this article, I will mention some of these m[...]
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June, 2010 § in TechTools
Five RoboHelp tips
– Nandini Gupta and Samartha Vashishtha
In this second article in the technical communication tools series, we bring you five RoboHelp tips that will help you optimize your Help projects and generate better output.
Track the status of each topic from within RoboHelp
The Status tab of topic[...]
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April, 2010 § in TechTools
DITA Writing Tips
– Anindita Basu
DITA is about semantic tags. This means all content must be placed within tags that explain the purpose of the content. Thus, for example, a UI element is tagged with the <uicontrol> tag (and not with <b> as we’re wont to do in HTML) and a directory loca[...]
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April, 2010 § in WriteRight
Document Review
– Sharada Palagummi
This article is meant for writers who are just trying to find their feet in the technical writing field. I will take a couple of excerpts from some user documentation, and will discuss them. Some points might be not acceptable and many might be missing. My purpose is [...]
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April, 2010 § in TechTools
The FrameMaker Five
- Samartha Vashishtha
If you’re always looking for quicker ways to accomplish tasks, these FrameMaker tips are just for you!
1. Find is not just for text…
You can use the Find/Change feature in FrameMaker to look for many different kinds of objects across a book or in a document. In p[...]
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April, 2010 § in WriteManager
Dealing With It!
– Manoj Bokil
All of us deal with a lot of situations in life, some good, and some not so good. Peaks and valleys, crests and troughs, ebbs and flows… get the gist? Good! In my technical communication career, I have seen many Information Development departments (just like any other de[...]
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