CMS Channel invites those who use a content management system to manage a European website to enter its annual CMS Awards. But, you have to act quickly. The deadline for entry is September 30, 2007. Enter today!
In his book, The User is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas on the Web, Steve Mulder takes you through each step of persona creation, and provides time-tested techniques for developing and using personas to help deliver the right information, to the right people, at the right time, in the right format. Tips include advice on conducting qualitative user research, suggestions for applying quantitative research (such as surveys) to persona creation, and techniques for making personas realistic. To learn more about the book and about using Read the full article…
Scott Abel will present his wildly popular presentation, Web 2.0 and Its Impact on Technical Communication at LavaCon, New Orleans, October 27–30, 2007. This is the first year Abel has presented at LavaCon, a technical communication event that targets documentation managers. The event promises to help managers better understand best practices in the fields of technical communication and technical communication management, including strategies for choosing technology platforms, migrating to XML and content management, reducing training and translation costs, and more. The Big Easy is not just home to LavaCon 2007, Read the full article…
Read our exclusive interviews with RJ Jacquez, product evangelist at Adobe Systems about the launch of their new Technical Communication Suite, an end-to-end solution for technical communicators and instructional designers. The solution includes an integrated suite of techcomm tools including FrameMaker 8, RoboHelp 7 (the new version), Captivate 3 and Acrobat 3D 8.
Following the success of its Creative Suite, Adobe Systems has announced an innovative new software product offering. It’s called the Adobe Technical Communication Suite, a tightly integrated collection of software tools designed for authoring, managing, and publishing technical information and training content across multiple formats and languages. The Adobe TechComm Suite provides technical communication and instructional design professionals with access to four powerful software applications—FrameMaker 8.0, RoboHelp 7.0 (a brand new version), Acrobat 3D 8.0, and Captivate 3.0—integrated to work together, and sold in one box. Take a look at Read the full article…
TCW: RJ, thanks for agreeing to speak with us today. For our readers who don’t know who you are, please tell us a little about yourself and what you do at Adobe Systems. RJ: Scott, thank you. I started using FrameMaker pretty much since day one when Frame Technology owned it and have spent most of my career in Product Management for various companies, including Quadralay Corporation, eHelp Corporation, Macromedia and close to two years ago, I joined Adobe Systems, where I have one of the most exciting jobs as Read the full article…
The September/October 2007 issue of TCWorld, the magazine for international information management, includes a thought-provoking article by Scott Abel and Diane Wieland of TheContentWrangler.com entitled “Improved Content Quality Through More Effective Content Management”. The article addresses the importance of using software to effectively manage both your content and the human resources involved in the content creation process. Download the magazine (PDF file; see page 14).
By managing approved terminology and sharing it across the organization with all content creators, a company can produce consistent and accurate information with less effort. This results in markets being reached faster, which encourages faster local market adoption, as well as removing unnecessary burdens on the Support organization. Terminology plays a critical role for every department in an organization, and the importance of a common vocabulary is discussed in-depth in this new white paper. Highlights include: Terminology management across the content lifecycle How terminology can drive the faster delivery of Read the full article…
Sip. Buy. Repeat. That’s the mantra coming from Apple, whose latest deal with gourmet coffee giant Starbucks, involves moving the purchasing process of musical content to the grande, non-fat, no-whip, mocha point-of-sale. Here’s the idea: Say you’re standing in line at Starbucks and you hear a really great song you haven’t heard for years. You start humming along, tapping your toes to the beat. Now, the tune is stuck in your head. You have to have it. Now! With the tap of your index finger on the iTunes button on Read the full article…
David Pogue is a popular columnist for The New York Times, responsible for the Technology Beat. Pogue is not only a writer, he’s also a creator of a growing library of instructional videos. Frustrated with reviewing what seemed to be an endless stream of digital video devices and describing their features, Pogue decided what readers really wanted was real-world examples of how to use technology to do everyday things. So he set up a weekend family art project that would demonstrate one useful thing that you can do with a Read the full article…
Recently, we been talking a lot about Web 2.0 and the new breed of web-based tools that are helping folks with little or no special web programming skills produce, manage, and deliver content to those who need it. Most often, readers ask us about wikis, web-based authoring tools that support collaboration among groups. One of our favorite wiki tools is PBWiki, an easy-to-use and inexpensive wiki that offers three versions—personal, education, and business—designed to meet the needs of members of each audience group. The Content Wrangler has been using the Read the full article…
The Palm Beaches Chapter (Florida) of the Society for Technical Communication held their local chapter meeting, Wednesday night, September 19, featuring a speaker who was located over 1000 miles away. Scott Abel (The Content Wrangler) delivered a 60-minute presentation to an audience in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida from his office in Indianapolis, Indiana. The meeting was made possible using GoToMeeting remote presentation software, a web-based application that allows presenters to share their PC screens with others over the internet. The service also offers a conference call capability, which allows the speaker Read the full article…
Because screen sizes and display resolutions vary from device-to-device, the usability of web maps relies heavily on successful interface design. In the the first issue of the new online International Journal of Design, researchers Manlai You, Chun-wen Chen, Hantsai Liu, and Hsuan Linto, explore the usability improvements needed to encourage widespread adoption and usage of web map zoom and pan features. An interactive demonstration is provided. While the Journal is written in English, some components of the map demonstrations (audio files) are in Chinese. Read A Usability Evaluation of Web Read the full article…
“Scenarios are most effectively used during vendor demonstrations,” says James Robertson of StepTwo Designs in a recent article entitled, Using Scenarios To Select A CMS. Scenarios help “provide a ‘script’ for vendors to follow. This ensures that the vendor shows how the product will work in practice, meeting the specific needs of the organization,” Robertson adds. The article outlines the role scenarios play, includes a sample scenario, as well as advice on creating scenarios and ensuring vendors follow them.
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