Flare | I'd Rather Be Writing

Subscribe:

RSS |

Email |

Twitter |

iTunes

Home About Contact Podcasts Writer River WordPress Consulting Advertising

Latest Comments

Craig: Oh, and I humbly disagree that technical writing can’t be self-taught. After all, I taught myself. I... (7)
Sheila: Oh for God’s sake, that code is only for Wordpress Rss feeds. Ughhhhhhhh. Forget it, I’m... (19)
Sheila: My gosh, sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you! I forgot where your site was because I... (19)
Craig: This is one of the publications I read that helped me decide to enter technical editing and writing:... (7)
Marijana: I would never condemn taking tech comm classes at all, for me it was very, very useful. But it is also... (7)
Ken: Here’s another digg clone site,http://www.earnersclub.ne t It is focused on internet marketing,... (31)
Traci Nathans-Kelly: I have a PhD in English (literature), I teach tech comm in a college of engineering, but I... (7)
writer zero: I just want to expand upon what Alan J. Porter says. “Don’t get into Technical Documentation... (7)
XYFloyd: hey man i love your site.. your friend michael told me you were looking for a new way to earn some extra... (9)
Alan J. Porter: I could go on about this subject at length, but I would sum up my advice as this…... (7)

Archives by Date

What We Learn from Help Authoring Tool Surveys

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 Posted in Technical Writing | 4 Comments »

Recently the Hat Matrix Blog (aka, the Mad Hatter) published the results of a tools survey that included 590 participants. The respondents were asked what authoring tools they used ... Read more..

Podcast: Flare 4 — Ten New Features, Interview with Sharon Burton

Monday, September 8th, 2008 Posted in Tech Writer Voices | 13 Comments »

[audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://idratherbewriting.com/podcasts/sharonburton.mp3] Download MP3 (right-click and select Save Target As to download) Duration: 60 min. Flare 4 was just released today by Madcap Software. In this podcast, I talk with Sharon Burton -- product ... Read more..

Flare 4 Giveway — Enter to Win a Free Copy by Commenting on This Post

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 Posted in Flare | 92 Comments »

[caption id="attachment_1924" align="alignright" width="105" caption="Madcap Flare"][/caption] Madcap Software is preparing to release Flare 4 shortly (an exact date hasn't been announced). Being the cool people they are, they gave me a ... Read more..

With All This Fuss About Tools, Three Best Practice Attitudes

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 Posted in Technical Writing | 14 Comments »

[caption id="attachment_1836" align="alignright" width="240" caption="A variety of tools"][/caption] A few weeks ago I started experimenting with surveys in my sidebar, mostly informal, and mainly to try out different WordPress plugins. ... Read more..

Echoes from the past: DITA, Help, Single-Sourcing tools — Looking from the 60s to today

Monday, August 4th, 2008 Posted in Technical Writing | 1 Comment »

This is a guest post by Daniel Ng, a technical writer in Malaysia. Daniel mentioned an interesting article he'd read on the possible return of Corel Ventura, and I asked ... Read more..

“What’s Next?” — A Nice Way to End Help Topics

Saturday, June 28th, 2008 Posted in Technical Writing | 3 Comments »

At the end of many topics in Flare's help, a What's Next? section appears. For example, in a topic on Creating a Table of Contents, the What's Next? feature guesses ... Read more..

My Compromise with SharePoint — What Works and What Doesn’t

Monday, June 23rd, 2008 Posted in SharePoint, Technical Writing, Web 2.0 | 9 Comments »

In a previous post, I mentioned my desire to use SharePoint as a help authoring platform because it provides a Web 2.0 experience that is company-sanctioned. SharePoint not only has blogs, ... Read more..

Podcast — Tackling Godzilla: A Writer/Usability Consultant Reflects on the Largest Project of her Career

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 Posted in Tech Writer Voices, Technical Writing | 4 Comments »

Download MP3 Duration: 30 min. [audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://idratherbewriting.com/podcasts/putkey1.mp3] In this podcast, I talk with Theresa Putkey, a writer/usability consultant in Vancouver, about the largest project of her career. She explains how she approached a project ... Read more..

My Love Affair with Drop-Down Hotspots Ends

Thursday, February 21st, 2008 Posted in Technical Writing | 13 Comments »

I used to think drop-down hotspots were the cat's pajamas, until I realized they're problematic for single source chunking. Let me elaborate. Drop-down hotspots seem like they'd be all the rage ... Read more..

Top 10 Workspace Configurations for Technical Writers

Friday, February 15th, 2008 Posted in Technical Writing | 21 Comments »

Here's my list of the Top 10 Workspace Configurations for technical writers. (By "workspace configuration," I mean the characteristics of your work environment that make you most productive and happy.) Dual ... Read more..

All About Madcap Flare: Podcast Interview with Paul Pehrson, MVP in Madcap Software Forums

Saturday, January 19th, 2008 Posted in Recom. Podcasts, Tech Writer Voices | 15 Comments »

Download MP3 Duration: 35 min. [audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://idratherbewriting.com/podcasts/paulpehrsonmvp.mp3] Madcap Flare is one of the most powerful online help authoring tools on the market today. In this podcast, Paul Pehrson, MVP in the Madcap Software forums, ... Read more..

I’d Rather Be Writing - Tom Johnson

About this site

Blog Sponsors

What I'm up to

Shared Info