Dragomir Anachkov
Technical communication (TC) as a professional opportunity is not a new notion in the IT field. Technical writers have been part of the hardware and software development process for decades. Today, we take a closer look at Bulgaria. How did the community start there, and what has been achieved so far by its members?
Marion Knebel
In software development, the keyword agile is at least as popular as DITA in technical writing. This is no surprise. Both agile and DITA focus on modularization and the requirements of the users. In this article, we discuss how agile documentation works in practice, recommend tools that support the agile processes and point out the challenges for technical writers.
Alper Zafer Güneş
I´m a PhD student at the Istanbul 29 Mayis University and gives us insights into his research titled “Factoring in Culture in Technical Communication”. Güneş gives the guidelines of an exercise he prepared for a 3-hour coursework for undergraduate students.
Judith Hallwachs When you hear about iiRDS for the first time, it will probably seem quite complicated – it was the same for me. So to understand it better, let’s strip it down to a machine everybody knows from everyday use: Why not use a coffee machine in order to explain the highly technical standard?
Keith Schengili-Roberts
The “D” in DITA stands for “Darwin”, underscoring the fact that the XML standard has evolution built into its design. That evolution continues, with several new offerings expected soon from the OASIS Technical Committee in charge of the standard, including the various flavors of Lightweight DITA, multimedia extensions to DITA 1.3, and the upcoming DITA 2.0 standard.
Anne Gentle
What do you think about reviews when you are submitting documentation changes in a code repository? How do you maintain quality and think about levels of editing while working on documentation in a code repository? Here are some ideas…
Anne Gentle
Let’s give your readers the chance to do these quality checks for you as easily as possible. How? By reporting the bug on the page where they found it. Your best bet is to look at any given page on your current docs site. We introduce some techniques and a punch list…
Helena Maier
Not long ago, all technical documents were designed in black and white. Color printing was simply too expensive. Until today, color has been seen more as an image issue than a truly necessary tool. However, colors are important in pointing out differences and supporting the identification of components…
Helena Maier
“Why don’t you make videos?!” Who hasn’t heard this question already, for example from users or developers? In such cases, technical writers usually think of utility films. The benefit should be clear…
