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On I'd Rather Be Writing, I blog about the latest news, tips, and trends in the field of technical communication. I also record podcasts with tech writing luminaries all over the world.
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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..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..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..Madcap Flare Review: 45 Things I Love About Flare, 31 Things I Hate About It
Thursday, January 31st, 2008 Posted in Flare | 47 Comments »
Madcap Flare is one of the most advanced, functionally robust online help tools for technical writers who want to single source their content. When you use Flare to create an ... Read more..Jeter Interviews Mike Hamilton at Former Blue Sky Software Office in La Jolla, Calif.
Saturday, December 29th, 2007 Posted in Recom. Podcasts, Technical Writing | 17 Comments »
Charles Jeter recorded an excellent podcast with Mike Hamilton, V.P. of product management at Madcap Software, and posted it on his blog yesterday. Jeter is a technical writer in the ... Read more..“Could you please tell me what the job of a technical writer is like?”
Friday, December 21st, 2007 Posted in Technical Writing | 24 Comments »
I recently received an email from a reader who asked to know what the job of a technical writer is like. Anoop writes, I am a computer science Master's student ... Read more..Adventures with the New Technical Communication Suite from Adobe (mostly RoboHelp 7 and Captivate)
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 Posted in Technical Writing | 22 Comments »
Rob Houser's recent article in Writers UA, "What's New in RoboHelp 7?", is a thorough, insightful article I highly recommend. After reading his review, I thought I'd post a few ... Read more..Adding a Send Feedback link to Your Online Help / RoboHelp Project
Friday, December 7th, 2007 Posted in Technical Writing | 7 Comments »
I was reading an article in a previous STC Intercom magazine about how to add a Send Feedback link to your online help project, but the javascript didn't work. Here's ... Read more..Sample Integration of Captivate Screen Demos in RoboHelp Hotspots
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 Posted in Technical Writing | 4 Comments »
I made a help file showing a sample integration of Captivate with Robohelp, specifically showing screen demos inside hotspots. I like that the screen demos hide so nicely. (The content of ... Read more..Thoughts on Adobe’s New Technical Communication Suite
Saturday, November 24th, 2007 Posted in Technical Writing | 4 Comments »
I'm excited to welcome Adobe as a new sponsor for Tech Writer Voices. This past week, I've been playing around with their new Technical Communications Suite. This Suite includes Framemaker, ... Read more..MadCap Software Sponsors the Tech Writer Voices Podcast
Monday, November 5th, 2007 Posted in Technical Writing | 13 Comments »
I'm proud to welcome another sponsor to the Tech Writer Voices podcast: MadCap Flare. You may be wondering exactly what sponsorship involves. Basically, it's different for each company, but I'm offering ... Read more..