TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
This week’s update is supported by Platinum sponsor Madcap & Flare 7 |
goo.gl/pg2HQ
Another Friday, another TechWhirler Recap. Our recap is so hot that …
[waiting]
[ok fine] how hot is it?
We can roast marshmallows on it.
It’s been quite a week for the USA. First, Congress and the President end
months long arguments over the debt to finally conclude – uh, sure, go ahead
and raise it – but only by a couple trillion – geez, let’s not get
crazy. Other
activities included continued management of TechWhirl’s seemingly never
ending search for a vendor to help us update the website, and our Special
Writers Unit wrote some pretty good articles on collaboration.
The gang here at TechWhirl is happy that the debt deal is done, and we’d
love to use it as our excuse for delaying Connie’s piece on building an NDA
compliant portfolio, but we can’t. So, in the spirit of Congressional back
pedaling, we promised to make the first of August an honorary part of July,
but have pushed that change to August 8 in hopes of blaming the next
Congress for all our problems. Sorry August 1 but you still got to be the
special day for a pinch and a punch.
Our search for a vendor to help us spiffy (really Word, you ding my wife’s
first name which has a pretty common spelling but you let spiffy get
through?) up the magazine seems to be finally coming to a close. We have
discussions occurring over the weekend with some really interesting folks,
and hope to have someone in place by next week. From there, development and
our replatforming (ah, that’s more like it Word) to Wordpress will commence.
Interested in following all the action? You can do so by joining our new
newsletter http://goo.gl/yRxu1. We’ll share some sneak peaks of the new UI
and some of our future development plans it.
Week one of Collaboration Tools, Techniques and Strategies for Better
Technical Writing (could we make this month’s title any longer?) with
Jacquie Samuels article on “Introduction to Content Management Systems” (
goo.gl/lJL6U), our poll question asking about what systems are being used to
manage tech comm content (techwhirl.com), and finally our classic article
“Getting Contractors Up to Speed Quickly” by Micki Magyar
(goo.gl/SL47t). Next
week, it’s – ahem – Creating an NDA-compliant Portfolio, a look at how a
high school teacher prepares one for Technical Writing (by the SWU’s Fraser
Hannah), and finally a classic article from – he really should have been in
broadcasting but he’s a pretty darn good writer - Geoff Hart.
So stay cool chaps - until next week,
The Friendly Folks @ TechWhirl
*Social Media and the Chance to Follow TechWhirl*:
Will you be our Friend? Please, you know you want to click | http://goo.gl/tDrW7
Want all this TechWhirl goodness 140 - 1 characters @ a time | http://goo.gl/itjDg
Inside TechWhirl newsletter (all about our work) | http://goo.gl/yRxu1
What You’re Talking About
o Thanks to Francis Anthony for starting a great discussion on “Optimizing
Online Help for Mobile Viewing.” We’re learning a lot, and it’s definitely
worth checking the thread and the resources the posters have suggested.
o Matt Moore is looking for answers to “Wiki for Customer Facing
documentation?” A great thread to start our month on collaboration, with
some fascinating debate on organizing and maintaining wikis which leads to
more questions on the best contexts to use a wiki solution.
In Case You Missed it: This Week @ TechWhirl
· “Introduction to Content Management Systems” by Jacquie Samuels |
goo.gl/lJL6U
· Classic: “Getting Contractors Up to Speed Quickly” by Micki Magyar |
goo.gl/SL47t
· Poll question: What kind of system do you use to manage technical
communications content?| techwhirl.com
Upcoming Events & Articles
· New: “Can You Create an NDA-Compliant Portfolio?” by Connie Giordano
· New: “Skills Transfer - How High School Teaching Prepares You for
Tech Comm” by Fraser Hannah
· Classic: “The Needs of Many” by Geoff Hart
· Poll question: What’s the most challenging tech comm task to handle
collaboratively?
SPONSOR-Luv
We want to send a very special “thank you” to sponsors. Without them, our
balance sheet would look more like Congress’s.
*Platinum*: Adobe, ComponentOne, Madcap
*Gold*: EC Software, Society for Technical Communication (STC)
*Silver*: Vancouver Island University
> The greatest marshmallow - ever. Often considered art.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days. http://www.doctohelp.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
