The right tool for the job

The array of tools (applications/programs) available to us as technical communicators is vast. It can actually get very confusing at times, with the boundaries between what the different tools can do getting increasingly blurred. We can spend a lot of time working out which ones to use for a particular job – it isn’t always as straightforward as choosing the one designed for the purpose. Compromises have to be made, balancing the needs of the writers/editors, the clients and, of course, the readers.

• If I choose this one, am I preventing my clients from updating the documentation themselves?
• Is this one flexible enough to provide outputs in all likely formats, even though my client only wants PDF ‘for now’?
• Do I know other people with enough expertise in this application to be able to pick up the work if I‘m hit by the flu virus tomorrow?
• How expensive are the licences for that one? If everyone at my client’s business needs one, does the cost become prohibitive?

After a lot of head-scratching, we make our decision – sometimes trading off a really nifty feature for overall compatability ... but it shouldn’t stop there. If we regularly pick up and use different tools, we will be aware of their uses (and limitations) but we do need to update our knowledge. Making a decision that FrameMaker (for example) is unsuitable to use for a particular project may have been valid for FrameMaker 7, but do the new features in FrameMaker 10 make a difference?

I personally believe that the value and contribution of good technical authors isn’t defined by their skill in a particular tool – or even in several – but in their ability to communicate in a way that their audience can understand and relate to. Having said that, I would expect anyone engaging in a craft for which they are being paid to be at ease with their tools. No matter how gifted the artist, I would expect some understanding of the properties of the different types of paint available, even though the talent lies in producing a breathtaking picture. The sense of awe and wonder wouldn’t last long if the paint all started to run down the canvas as soon as you hung it on your wall!

TCUK 2011 getting closer

I learnt a lot from last year’s conference – and got the opportunity to put some of it into practice sooner than I expected. I was very taken with a talk by Martin Block on the use of illustrations and screenshots in user documentation, and any ISTC members (or subscribers) can find an article based on his presentation in Communicator, the ISTC’s publication. I’m already looking forward to learning more on the same subject this year as the specialist stream is Anything but text.

As a self-employed technical author, who has to pay for her own conference attendance and training courses, I often wonder whether I’m really getting value for money – being able to use something I’ve learnt so quickly after the event is a bonus. That aside, I think it is really important to keep up to date with what is going on in my field, as you never know when something you’ve learnt – or someone you’ve met – may enable me to take on a project I otherwise woundn’t even consider. As soon as I have a rough idea what is scheduled for the workshop day on the Tuesday (the programme is a ‘work in progress’), I’ll be signing up. See you there?

TCUK 2010... it's all about engagement

I'm suffering a little from 'information overload' and am slowly recovering from an extremely stimulating three days at TCUK 2010. The specialist stream this year was e-learning, and as I've just started a course called "The eLearning Professional" with the Open University, I thought I'd focus my attention there... with the occasional diversion into cognitive psychology and the use of images in technical documentation.

Highlights for me were...

The two workshops I attended on the Tuesday (Rose Hilder and David Jones gave an good introduction to Author-IT - a product I've heard of but never used - and Mike Hamilton from MadCap told me some stuff about recording audio that I wish I'd known a couple of years ago! Both sessions were very practical, with the Author-IT session in particular providing plenty of hands-on opportunities, and with Mike demonstrating how to "clean up" sound recordings to give a professional polish to the final product.

Chris Atherton provided some more fascinating insights into the world of cognitive psychology. I thoroughly enjoyed the talk that Chris gave last year, and had been eagerly looking forward to this year's... I wasn't disappointed.

I found Martin Block's talk around the use of images in software documentation to be thought-provoking, and it linked in with Ellis Pratt's discussion of the emotional element of documentation, and with many, many others who mentioned the need to "tell a story" and engage the reader. When I first started writing user documentation – long before I knew I was a 'technical author' – I wrote user guides for software used by health care professionals in the NHS (District Nurses, Health Visitors and so on). At the time, the majority of my readers were non-technical and I used to create families – named people, who would have accidents, be discharged from hospital, have babies and so on. I would use these families throughout my documentation, building little stories. I rarely mentioned them explicitly, but the screenshots always showed something plausible, following on from an earlier section in the guide. Martin does a similar thing. He uses the fields in the dialogue boxes to support the message he is giving... simple things like making sure a mobile phone number begins with '07' so it's recognised for what it is. Although someone raised the question of the cost of translation/localisation (not only would new screenshots be required, but would someone have to translate the content into something relevant for the appropriate country?), I wonder if simplifying the process for the reader outweighs (in many cases) the cost of that translation? And is the cost of the translation necessarily more than the cost (both human and financial) of incorrectly maintained equipment because someone hasn't understood the instructions? I know as a reader, one of the things I find most confusing is when screenshots are not consistent in terms of content, or contain no information at all.

Back to e-learning, Zoe Rose's presentation means I now understand much more clearly the advantages and disadvantages of SCORM, Greg Daffern helped me to think of some other uses for some of the tools out there (which helps me to justify the cost) and Simon Bostock reminded us all that e-learning that doesn't involve the learner in some way beyond clicking to move on is no better than sitting listening to a long dull lecture...

I'm already looking forward to TCUK 2011!

Learning something new...

I've got a passion for learning, as anyone who knows me can testify. I've always been interested in finding out about new things – how they work, and why is the way it is.

I've just started a new course with the Open University. I don't know that I'll follow all the way through to an MA (I might... I'll see how it goes) but I'm really looking forward to it. I'm doing a course called "The eLearning Professional" - which ties in nicely with the specialist stream at TCUK this year.

I'll let you know how I get on...