Writing For The Web: Improving Search Engine Optimization and Enhancing The User Experience

April 30, 2007 Blog No Comments

Clients sometimes make the mistake of writing long, editorial-style text for the web. We’ve found that even perfectly competent writers – professionals, like marketing communications pros and publishers of various types – often do not understand how writing for the web is different than writing for print-based media. Basically, most people don’t “read” on the web, not at least, in the sense of reading a book, or magazine or even a piece of marketing collateral. Instead, people come to the web in hopes it can help them “to do” something: …

Decentralized By Design: How UNICEF Manages Its Global Web Sites

April 27, 2007 Blog No Comments

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries. Its programs emphasize developing community-level services to promote the health and well-being of children. Its field offices currently support 51 country Web sites and the organization adds one additional country Web site each month on average. UNICEF achieved this goal without any formalized “Web globalization” budget or global top-down mandate. Instead, UNICEF’s web content globalization success is due to its people— the support staff at headquarters and a group of highly …

Skype Gurus Proclaim Their Love For Adobe FrameMaker

April 27, 2007 Blog No Comments

While reading Skype: The Definitive Guide, we discovered an interesting—albeit strangely placed—proclamation of love for a popular technical writer’s tool: Adobe FrameMaker. In the the book’s preface, the authors, Harry Max and Taylor Ray, thank all the usual people—staff, friends, family. Then, they write: “Last, we want to recognize Adobe Systems for supporting Adobe FrameMaker, the best professional word-processing software available, period.” No details are provided by the authors about the proclamation. Our guess: They used FrameMaker to write the book.

CMS and Change: Between Optimism and Pessimism is Realism

April 26, 2007 Blog 2 Comments

Emma Hamer of eHamer Associates provides a brief and informative article on change and content management in the April issue of the Content Management Professionals newsletter. Hamer identifies the importance of training, workshops, peer mentoring, one-on-one coaching, and other strategies that can help abate change-related problems.

The Globalization Industry Primer: Get Your Copy Today

April 25, 2007 Blog No Comments

Interested in localization but don’t know where to start? Get a copy of the Globalization Industry Primer, a free, downloadable overview of best practices in the globalization industry. It’s loaded with useful information about the standards, companies, and technologies that make globalization of content possible. Whether you are new to globalization or experienced, this quick read booklet will provide you with the big picture needed to understand this vital area of today’s global economy. The Primer includes information about: Localization Internationalization Planning for Globalization Global Business Priorities Strategic and Maintenance …

Web Site Makeover: Legacy Retrieval Tools Save Time For Users

April 24, 2007 Blog No Comments

By Jean Graef, Founder of the Montague Institute, special to TheContentWrangler.com In the pre-Internet days, users relied on indexes, tables of contents, databases, card catalogs, and annotated bibliographies to find information. These “legacy retrieval tools” worked reasonably well in the orderly system created by editors, publishers, and librarians. With the World Wide Web came a new kind of system: a giant electronic warehouse with no shelves, no labels, no maps, and even no lights. Into this virtual warehouse, we dumped a huge pile of content — much of it lacking …

Pipes: Leveraging The XML Publish Subscribe Model

April 24, 2007 Blog No Comments

In the past few years, there’s been a lot of chatter about the power of XML and how it will change the way we create, manage, and deliver information. There’s no doubt that this is indeed happening. The rise of structured authoring, the increasing importance of content reuse, and emergence of Content Component Management are all made possible by XML. If you’ve been paying attention to the XML discussions, you probably know about the ten goals of XML. You might also know about the ten predictions for XML in 2007. …

Documentation and Training East: Moving Your Career Forward (October 16-19, 2007)

April 23, 2007 Blog No Comments

Held in the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, Lowell, Massachusetts (a quick shuttle ride from Boston’s Logan International Airport), the theme of the 8th Bi-Annual Documentation & Training Conference is Advancing Your Career. No, you won’t see any resume writing or online portfolio workshops at this event. And no, they’ll be no advanced Microsoft Word Tips and Tricks classes either. Instead, you’ll be exposed to new tools, technologies, and standards that can help you improve your value as a communication professional. And, you’ll be challenged to think differently about …

DocTrain UX Roundup: Salim Ismail Makes Attendees “Think Differently”

April 22, 2007 Blog No Comments

What a show! Documentation and Training: The User Experience (April 18-21, 2007) was a big success. Several hundred technical communication, information management, training, and user experience professionals converged on beautiful Vancouver, BC. While there is much to report about the first DocTrain conference held on the west coast of North America (we’re gathering up our thoughts and will publish them soon), this post will focus on the featured speaker, Salim Ismail, head honcho at The Brickhouse, a technology innovation incubator from Yahoo! During his keynote address (and in a subsequent …

Using Technical Communication Skills in User Experience

April 21, 2007 Blog No Comments

In Using Technical Communication Skills in User Experience (Boxes and Arrows), user experience maven Teresa Putkey explores the relationship between technical communication professionals and usability. She offers not only well-written and interesting prose, but also provides sound advice for technical communicators interested in making a move to the user experience field. “It started with the small stuff,” Putkey writes. “I sweated it all: field labels, button positions, lining up the label and the field, ensuring the icon was understandable. After 2 1/2 years of correcting designs, the heavens opened: the …