Join TheContentWrangler.com Community!

September 30, 2006 Blog No Comments

Become a member of TheContentWrangler.com community. It’s free. And, it’s valuable! Members receive: The Content Roundup, our monthly email newsletter Special discounts on training, conferences, books, and more Access to a large and influential network of content professionals Invitations to participate in industry surveys and access to survey results Content placement consideration on TheContentWrangler.com That’s not all! Only members can take advantage of our ask The Content Wrangler service, a helpful advice service designed to help you find answers to your most pressing content questions. If we don’t know the Read the full article…

Transitional Text: Do We Really Need All that Glue?

September 29, 2006 Blog No Comments

There’s an interesting discussion about the importance of transitional text going on at dita.xml.org, the online home of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). In Do We Really Need All that Glue?, JoAnn Hackos explores the debate over the need for “glue text” in technical manuals. Glue text is defined as “transitional information intended to inform readers of what has come before or comes after a particular procedure, description, or explanation.” “In topic-oriented authoring, which forms the basis for the DITA Model, transitional text has become problematic,” Hackos writes. “If Read the full article…

Major Study of White Paper Writers Released

September 28, 2006 Blog No Comments

The findings of the industry’s first major study of white paper writers are revealed in a new report titled White Paper Writer Industry Survey.” Sponsored by WhitePaperSource.com, the report provides pivotal insight into how white papers are written, distributed, structured and billed. Three key findings include: White papers are used most often to demonstrate thought leadership, technical white papers are less common than business-focused papers and the most experienced white paper writers are independent writers.

Sarah O’Keefe on DITA and Adobe FrameMaker

September 27, 2006 Blog No Comments

In Illuminations, FrameMaker guru Sarah O’Keefe takes a peek at the Adobe FrameMaker DITA Application Pack. O’Keefe writes: “Not all features are working in this beta release…Before the application pack, getting DITA to mesh well with FrameMaker was a difficult task. FrameMaker was not a good choice for authoring in DITA–but that will probably change thanks to a strong showing by the application pack beta. Adobe is releasing this application pack in the spirit of open source tools; the expectation is that some people will test and push the new Read the full article…

Tech Writing Voices: The Content Wrangler Podcast

September 27, 2006 Blog No Comments

In this September 24, 2006 podcast, Tom Johnson of Tech Writing Voices interviews Scott Abel of The Content Wrangler on content management. The two communication pros discuss how content management can help technical writers, editors, and documentation managers automate manual tasks, reduce risks, control versions, identify bottlenecks, and track and expose human inefficiencies. Abel explores content management systems, open source software, blogs, and commercial CMS products and talks about the history and role of Content Management Professionals (CM Pros) and provides an overview of the upcoming CM Pros Summit, Content Read the full article…

S1000D and DITA: Is Either Ready for Prime Time?

September 26, 2006 Blog No Comments

In S1000D or DITA – Which One Works For Me?; And is Either One Ready For Prime Time?, the folks at Data Conversion Laboratory examine typical scenarios facing publications managers by exploring how S1000D and DITA might be used by a fictional firm, Big Holes, Inc. The article compares the pros and cons of S1000D and DITA and examines the application of the standards under varying circumstances. Practical examples are included to illustrate the concepts involved and to help readers understand the changes required when adopting either standard. Topical authoring Read the full article…

A Get A Free Simplified Technical English Book from Tedopres

September 26, 2006 Blog 1 Comment

Tedopres is offering a free 112-page booklet to those interested in understanding Simplified Technical English (STE). To help readers grasp the STE approach the authors provide real-world “before and after” documentation examples as well as case studies from various industries. The publication aims to demonstrate how proper use of STE can: increase the quality of documentation standardize documentation reduce safety risks, errors and misunderstandings dramatically lower documentation and translation costs Request your copy today!

Archived DITA Webinar: Why VP’s Fear Documentation (with JoAnn Hackos)

September 25, 2006 Blog No Comments

Your company’s new product is ready to ship – but where is the documentation? If you are like most managers, you can’t scale your staff to match aggressive release dates, nor do you have mechanisms in place to handle obstacles like seamless translation into multiple languages. And, you and your VP are painfully aware that every day the product doesn’t ship is a loss of revenue! Join Astoria, NCR Teradata, and Dr. JoAnn Hackos for an on-demand presentation of Why VP’s Fear Documentation, a free one-hour archived webinar that will Read the full article…

How People Make Choices: Jared Spool Interviews Barry Schwartz

September 24, 2006 Blog No Comments

In An Interview with Barry Schwartz usability guru Jared Spool talks with Schwartz about his research into consumers and choice. Schwartz says: “The challenge and the achievement in the last generation of digital technology was getting information to people. It was a massive achievement, it’s just extraordinary. But now the task is filtering the information for people. People are completely overloaded with information, and the prod, the brass ring is going to go to whoever figures out the best way to provide filters.”

Podcast: Controlled Vocabularies

September 23, 2006 Blog No Comments

The Comwell Group has created a podcast series called CommTalk. The September 2006 installment is part one in a three-part series on controlled vocabularies. It features an interview with John Smart of Smart Communications about Controlled English, Simplified English, Plain English and the differences between each. Smart provides some good examples that illuminate the need for controlled vocabularies using real-world disasters, business and scientific snafus, and everyday cultural differences to demonstrate the value of a controlled approach. He also discusses the impediments to controlled vocabulary development, what you’ll need to Read the full article…

RSS and AJAX: A Simple News Reader

September 22, 2006 Blog No Comments

In RSS and AJAX: A Simple News ReaderPaul Sobocinski (XML.com) explores how Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and Asynchronous JavaScript And XML (AJAX) can be used to create a news reader. The article is a bit technical, but provides excellent links to useful resources to help beginners understand the technologies involved.

Information Architect Becomes Seattle’s “Wayfinder”

September 21, 2006 Blog 1 Comment

An interesting post to the Information Architecture Institute listserv asks: “When we move from two-dimensional virtual spaces to three-dimensional spaces, are we still information architects, or are we just architects? Is there a difference? When we move from rich interfaces in the virtual world to rich interfaces in the physical world, what’s that?” We at TheContentWrangler.com are not sure what the answers to these thought-provoking questions are, but we’re really intrigued by the recent work of Lynne Faulk, an information architect/experience designer who has morphed herself into a professional Wayfinder. Read the full article…

Get Ready For The DITA Machine Industry Subcommittee

September 20, 2006 Blog No Comments

The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) has announced the creation of the DITA Machine Industry Subcommittee to “help to galvanize the role of DITA specializations across industries that have common issues for hardware-related description.” According to OASIS, the group plans to: Develop a design for structured, intent-based authoring of content tailored to the needs in the machine industry (e.g., hazard statements, special task types for preventive, corrective, predictive and condition based maintenance) Establish guidelines that promote best practices for applying standard DITA approaches to the needs Read the full article…

What You Should Know About S1000D

September 19, 2006 Blog No Comments

The folks at Continental DataGraphics have prepared a white paper of interest to technical communication pros entitled: What You Should Know About S1000D: The Background And Benefits Of This Revolutionary Standard. The paper does a good job of providing a basic, high level overview of the technical documentation standard S1000D and contains minimal marketing blabber.