Improve Your Technical Writing in 3 Steps

June 15, 2011

In technical writing, aim for clarity, not style. Don’t annoy the reader with useless information that clogs up the user guide and obstructs them from finding the answers they’re seeking. Get to the point. Fast. Here are three…

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Documentation Plan: Which Technical Documents should I write first?

June 14, 2011

Documentation plans – where to start? Which technical document should you first write when starting to a new tech docs project? KB emailed me this question. When starting as a technical writer, it can be hard to know where to…

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Are your technical documents colorblind?

June 13, 2011

What impact does color have on your technical documents? Rhonda Bracey, on CyberText, outlines seven ways that color communicates meaning.

Technical Documents & Influence of Color

Actually, she credits these seven to Rob Mills, who wrote an article…

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Recover Text From Any Corrupted MS Word Document

June 11, 2011

Even if your MS Word documents gets corrupted, you can still repair it in Word. Here’s how. If a Word document will not open and you need to get a copy of the text within the document, try the following…

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Google Plus One Error Messages – How to Improve

June 11, 2011

What’s wrong with this error message from Google Plus One? I got this today when I tried to Plus One a blog post. Let’s look at this error message and see how we can improve it.

Google Plus

…

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Fixing Corrupt MS Word Documents

June 10, 2011

How do you fix a corrupted MS Word document? There are several techniques you can use to correct a corrupted document. Choose the method that relates to the nature and severity of the corruption and the nature of the behavior…

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How to Identify Corrupt MS Word Documents

June 9, 2011

So, how do you identify a corrupt MS Word document? Corrupted documents often show behavior that is not part of the program’s design such as infinite repagination, incorrect document layout and formatting, unreadable characters on the screen, error messages during…

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Technical Writer’s Block: 3 Ways To Get Past It

June 9, 2011

Have you ever hit the Technical Writer’s Block? That’s when you sit down to write your next user guide or operations manual and… nothing happens. You don’t know where to start and end up staring at the screen…

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Guide to Fixing Corrupt MS Word Documents

June 8, 2011

How can you tell if your MS Word document is corrupt? For technical writers, discovering that your user guide has become corrupt is not good news. The effort you spent writing, editing and producing the document is now…

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7 Ways To Position Yourself as a Technical Writing Expert Online

April 19, 2011

Can you make real money as a Technical Writer on the Internet? Let’s say you want to make more money as a Technical Writer (especially online) but don’t know where to start. You have the expertise and experience…

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Adobe RoboHelp 9 Review

March 4, 2011

RoboHelp 9, the latest version to be released by Adobe Systems, is being heralded as a major version, so what does it include?

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4 Ways to Turn Microsoft Word into an XML Editor

March 1, 2011

Want to use Microsoft Word as an XML Editor? XML (Extensible Markup Language) is made up of a number of user defined tags which are used to store and transport data. When it comes to writing XML most people would open their favourite XML editor or a text editor but have would not have considered using Microsoft Word.

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How to Find Technical Writing Jobs On Twitter

February 22, 2011

Looking for a Technical Writing job? I’ve started to use Twitter to find leads and other opportunities to develop my career as a technical writer. To use Twitter to find jobs, you need to understand how it works, how to connect, and how to lead prospects from your twitter stream back to your technical writing website.

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Using Fear To Motivate Technical Writers

December 8, 2010

I want you to think back to the best – and worse – boss you’ve ever had. Describe them in three words. Now, I want you to think of how his/her boss thought of this person. See any difference? One of the tricks on office politics is that what works for you is not acceptable for others. I’m mentoring some Technical Writers right now and each has their own style. But I have a problem. The best team leader is also the most obnoxious.

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9 Ways Freelancer Technical Writers Can Increase Rates

December 2, 2010

I moved into contracting when I moved to the US so I could juggle different projects at the same time. Sometimes I was working – and billing – three clients in the same week. This was at the height of the dotcom boom when freelancing made you big bucks. Oddly enough, now that the economy is tanking, many Technical Writer are moving into freelancing to supplement their incomes. Here are some ways to determine you daily rates if you decide to go freelance.

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