Posts matching to columns
Mouse Euthanasia with Camtasia
December 31 2008
(edited 3 year, 3 month ago)
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Hi, you keyboard whiz readers! I needed to make a change in this month's featured application at the last minute. Because of some previous damage to my computer, the Captivate download did not work properly. No matter! Camtasia is an excellent tool that can do a lot of what Captivate does for less money. Unfortunately, Camtasia is no longer freeware, but you can download a 30-day trial version, as I did.
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Eye Spy
"You know your teacher is possessed by Beelzebub when his or her head rotates 360 degrees at the blackboard. But is this what it takes to effectively keep watch over a classroom while a teacher unveils a frontal lesson? All adults who work with kids instinctively understand that they love to deny their mischievous behavior when the teacher isn't looking. It's one of the hallmarks of adolescent classroom acuity. Lest you grow eyes in the back of your head, educators are in a significantly vulnerable position. So how does one fight back?Read more...
התשתית החוקית, האתית והמעשית
תיאור של תהליך הגישור בפרק זה מתייחס לגישור באופן כללי כשיטה ליישוב סכסוכים בתחומים רבים – סכסוכים עסקיים ומסחריים, סכסוכים בצרכנות, בין שכנים, בין קרובי משפחה ועוד.
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All About Indexing #8: Starting An Indexing Business, Part 2: Marketing
All About Indexing #7: Starting An Indexing Business, Part 1: Training
June 25 2008
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Hi, everyone! For my last two columns, I would like to talk about how one goes about starting an indexing business. I believe that the skills needed to become a good indexer are partly innate and partly acquired. My indexing teacher, the great Kari Kells, says in the introduction to her Basic Indexing Tutorial that on her first day of an indexing class she took in library school, she knew she had found the perfect career as her teacher described the way she had always automatically sorted her photos by category, and Kari nodding and smiling as she recalled her own automatic sorting of M&Ms by color, and music by genre, then alphabetical,then chronological, etc. (Anyone out there nodding and smiling at this?)
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Traveling there & here: Part 2
June 22 2008
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Having lived in NY for a number of years where the closest thing to a moose is some animal that escaped from the Central Park Zoo, worrying about moose vandalizing our motel room seemed rather cute to us, but it was no joke to the motel owners. Here in Israel, my wildlife issues consist of mosquitoes and spiders, but traveling around Israel is a relative breeze,
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Creating Your Home Court Advantage
June 19 2008
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You may root for your home team, but how often do you root for yourself? How to develop self-talk that is positive and genuine.
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Guide for the Perplexed: Where the How-To’s Are, and Office 2007 Commands
June 16 2008
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Drop in for a roundup of helpful Web sites that offer instructional content in textual form, news about a Microsoft Office add-in that helps you adapt to Office 2007, and all about run-time environments in Linux.
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The Fastrack in Robohelp
June 12 2008
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Your help authoring can become much more efficient if you learn the necessary shortcuts. Similar to my previous columns, keyboard shortcuts are not an "all or nothing" affair. Learn the shortcuts that make your help authoring easier. Although I have only worked with Robohelp, I think it is safe to assume that other help authoring tools utilize similar shortcuts. Whenever you need to learn a new help authoring application, or any application for that matter, always experiment with the various shortcuts offered.
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המגשר: תפקידו, כישוריו והכשרתו
תיאור של תהליך הגישור בפרק זה מתייחס לגישור באופן כללי כשיטה ליישוב סכסוכים בתחומים רבים – סכסוכים עסקיים ומסחריים, סכסוכים בצרכנות, בין שכנים, בין קרובי משפחה ועוד.
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Play Music and Get a Date at the Tool Bar & Grill
June 9 2008
(edited 3 year, 3 month ago)
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Wherein Jonathan recommends a great simple media player and a Web site that can get you out of trouble, and Mark reviews Linux calendar utilities.
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All About Indexing #6: Interviews With Indexers
June 9 2008
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Hi, everyone! Continuing last column’s discussion of the history of indexing, I have found that these days there are almost as many methods of index creation as there are indexers! At this point I felt like my book research could only take me so far, so I decided to interview a few longtime indexers to get some anecdotes on the topic. Mike Bennett, Ellen Chapman, Linda Hallinger, Pam Rider, Barbara Roos and Kamm Schreiner come from a variety of backgrounds and I learned a lot from speaking with them!
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Traveling there & here: Part One
June 8 2008
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I know from my Jewish history courses in college that the stereotype of the wandering Jew is not really based on the Jews’ desire to travel as much as out people’s forced travels and relocations, depending on the whims local governments. I, however, love to travel, whether by plane, train or automobile. I really thrive on the excitement of exploring new places and meeting new people. Give me my map & I am on the way!
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Attitude – The Critical Third Leg
The triangle of success includes knowledge, skills, and attitude. Why is attitude important, and how can we - really- change attitude?
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Venturing into Culture: Cinema and Iconography
June 2 2008
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Jonathan recommends the best movie review Web sites, and Mark recommends icon utilities.
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The Final Why
June 1 2008
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“When we didn’t have a manual yet, when we didn’t know what to name the commands on our menus, when we needed our business cards spelled right, we couldn’t have done without you,” the boss said. “But now the product is in release, and I don’t see the ROI from fine-polishing the error messages.”
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Monkey See Monkey Do
"How many bars of soap would it take to wash out the mouths of our most vulgar students? I'm not advocating such an archaic punishment, but if I hear just one more Junior High school student offer greetings and salutations to his peers with a: wassup beeach? or how'z it mother f@cker?, I am going to lose my composure and thrash someone with a complete, unabridged Webster's dictionary.Read more...
Working Your Way to a Faster Framemaker
Can you use Framemaker without the mouse? While it may not be as intuitive, it certainly is possible, unless you're drawing graphics, of course. Even then, you can keep your actual mouse usage to the bare minimum.
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All About Indexing #5: The Process of Index Creation
Hello again, my fellow Elephants! I would like to continue this week on the topic of “how we index”—indexing processes of yesterday and today and the history of indexing technologies. The American Society of Indexers (www.asindexing.org)website gives the following standard process:
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To work or not to work, but will ever I get paid?
May 22 2008
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While I search for that elusive holy grail of the perfect full-time, flex-hours, well-paid, work from home job that is both interesting and challenging, but does not have me tearing my hair out or staying up 3 nights a week, I have managed to pick up some part time work and a few freelance projects. But I am beginning to wonder if I will ever actually get paid.
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What is Coaching?
Coaching is about change, but what kind of change? This is the first column by business psychologist and coach, Dr. Carolyn Tal, to introduce and give tips from the field of professional coaching.
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Zero-Based English
I’ve run into people who make a virtue out of ignorance. On both sides of the fence. Some are technical writers and they say, “Because I know nothing about your product, I can serve as a model of the user’s point of view.”
“But you’re nothing like our users,” say the technicians, “because you’re not in the same business.” Then they tell the writer, “Because my English isn’t very good, my writing can serve as a model of how to write for people whose English isn’t very good.”
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“But you’re nothing like our users,” say the technicians, “because you’re not in the same business.” Then they tell the writer, “Because my English isn’t very good, my writing can serve as a model of how to write for people whose English isn’t very good.”
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Let Your Fingers Do the Surfing
If you think that surfing is designed only for the mouse, think again. Those of you who gather a lot of information via the Internet should consider the most effective way to do it – and that involves using the keyboard!
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הליך הגישור: עקרונותיו והתנהלותו
תיאור של תהליך הגישור בפרק זה מתייחס לגישור באופןכללי כשיטה ליישוב סכסוכים בתחומים רבים – סכסוכים עסקיים ומסחריים, סכסוכיםבצרכנות, בין שכנים, בין קרובי משפחה ועוד.
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All About Indexing #4: A History of Index Creation
Hi, everyone! For this column I would like to talk a little about the history of the index. I don’t think this is something I learned about in indexing school, so writing this will be a history lesson for all of us!
Even before books were invented,the Greeks and Romans were already hard at work discovering different ways of organizing information. One of the first forms of written material they used was the papyrus scroll, but it was not very efficient when it came to information retrieval.
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Even before books were invented,the Greeks and Romans were already hard at work discovering different ways of organizing information. One of the first forms of written material they used was the papyrus scroll, but it was not very efficient when it came to information retrieval.
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Adventures in Shopping
May 8 2008
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Part of the fun of learning to “be Israeli” is learning how to shop here. Years ago, I was told that if you do not try to bargain, the shopkeeper will be offended. I think those days are long gone, but I have learned that thing are a lot more flexible here than you might imagine.
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Sticky Notes On Your Screen
May 6 2008
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I describe my pick for an on-screen version of Post-It Notes, and Mark demonstrates perl scripting.
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Reg and T.M.
May 1 2008
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There are three kinds of trademarks: our own trademarks, trademarks of other companies we like to be on good terms with, and trademarks of other companies we don’t care about. We demand respect for our own trademarks, we give respect to the trademarks of other companies we like to be on good terms with, and hey, we don’t much care about trademarks of other companies we don’t care about.
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All About Indexing #3: Index vs. Concordance
PowerPoint Perfection
April 28 2008
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PowerPoint is a presentations and animation tool suitable primarily for the mouse; Right? Well, not necessarily. You can perform many editing, often repetitive actions in PowerPoint with the keyboard, if you know how.
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Dupe Finders and One-Liners
Utilities for identifying and deleting duplicate digital photos; interesting survey on firewalls; and one-line Perl commands in Linux.
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What the Romans Knew
Memory improvement techniques are based on finding memory pegs, on which to hang the things one wants to remember. The principle of memory pegs is simple...
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Joining the official Merry-Go-Round: Job Networking
April 21 2008
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Finding work in Israel is not easy. A while back, before we finally decided to make aliyah a reality, and not just a \"in a few years\" thing, close friends made aliyah and ...
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Polish Up Your Image at the Terminal
The best free image-editing utilities, how to trap Web plagiarists, and all about the Linux terminal.
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English is Only Human
April 15 2008
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The English language is only human. It didn’t anticipate everything you might want to say.
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Do it Yourself Keyboard Shortcuts
April 13 2008
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Let’s review. We discussed how to navigate in Windows and MS Word, sans mouse. Is it fair to say that you’re overwhelmed? Perhaps you don’t like the shortcuts I’ve explained so far. If they don’t meet your needs, you can make your own!
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All About Indexing #2: The Importance of Indexes
The most frequently-asked question that professional indexers get, it seems, is “can’t a computer do that?” My next column will deal with the differences between an index and a concordance, which is what computers can do, but in the meantime I want to explain what an index is and why indexes are a necessary part of a book. The American Society of Indexers website (www.asindexing.org)gives an excellent overview for anyone wanting to know basic information:
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On learning Hebrew (In Hebrew and English)
April 7 2008
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This article will be shorter than some of my previous ones because I decided to write it in both English and Hebrew. Since the Hebrew (see below) will take more time (to put it mildly) and require the assistance of my current ulpan teacher to “check”, I hope you will forgive the relative shortness of this article.
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Making Much From Little: Text Expanders
April 6 2008
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Read on to learn about text-expander utilities, PhraseExpress in particular, and equation editors.
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Can it be both raw and right?
April 1 2008
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“You know you guys are crazy?” said old Genady. “You tell one person that the way you write the material makes it right or wrong, but you ask another person to tell you whether it’s right or wrong before you’ve written it correctly and you’re angry that he tries to correct the writing.”
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Rule the World
March 30 2008
(edited 3 year, 2 month ago)
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Wherein I discover a screen ruler utility and offer free copies of Titan Backup Business, and Mark explains both sides of Linux window management.
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Word Outlining Made Simple
In my last article, I introduced you to keyboard shortcuts for MS Word. This time we will focus on outlining.
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All About Indexing #1: Indexing in Israel
Hi! My name is Shoshana Hurwitz,and I’ll be doing a column for Elephant about a profession that seems to belittle-known in Israel (though I hope to change that!): indexing. To see an overview of my background and how I ended up becoming a professional indexer, check out my member bio page.
For my first column, I'd like to talk about how indexing is perceived in Israel. I don’t believe it to be any coincidence that the very same month that I found my true calling professionally was the month that my husband, daughters and I started our journey towards aliyah, which will culminate this coming July. But as excited as I was about my new love of indexing, I was dismayed to discover that my new internet friends in Israel were not quite as much. Here in Israel,they told me, indexing is not really thought of as a profession in itself. Itis something that librarians do, something that tech writers do, but not something that just is.
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For my first column, I'd like to talk about how indexing is perceived in Israel. I don’t believe it to be any coincidence that the very same month that I found my true calling professionally was the month that my husband, daughters and I started our journey towards aliyah, which will culminate this coming July. But as excited as I was about my new love of indexing, I was dismayed to discover that my new internet friends in Israel were not quite as much. Here in Israel,they told me, indexing is not really thought of as a profession in itself. Itis something that librarians do, something that tech writers do, but not something that just is.
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About Shoshana Hurwitz
I am an indexer, copyeditor and proofreader with 10+ years of experience in the publishing field and recently started my own freelance business, Hurwitz Indexing.
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A funny thing happened on the way to the electrical store, or shocking truths about Israel
Ok, so being that I worked for years as an electronics technician, I should come as no surprise that my favorite food item in Israel the new drink, Shocko.
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Creating Strong and Memorable Passwords
One of the most daunting and challenging tasks with whichour memory has to cope on an almost daily basis is remembering passwords.Modern life surrounds us with passwords, for almost any activity we need tocarry out, be it ordering books on the web, entering out computer at work oropening our free email service account from any computer other than our own. Weneed to provide strong passwords for using each of these services or computers,but we also have to make these passwords memorable, and desirably intuitive.
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Loops
Excerpted from my book FrameScript for Newbies Copyright [7/17/2007] by Paul Schnall
Loops are a way of moving through a book or document and running lines of code on each object of a particular type. For example, looping through every paragraph (paragraph being the object) in a document and searching for a specific word or text is easily done using this construct.
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Loops are a way of moving through a book or document and running lines of code on each object of a particular type. For example, looping through every paragraph (paragraph being the object) in a document and searching for a specific word or text is easily done using this construct.
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Someday You’ll Thank Me For This
Jonathan's Tool Bar & Grill is back! This week, read about a memory booster for Windows XP, a useful reference source, and how to find files in Linux.
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Deplorable Plurals
March 15 2008
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Writers who find the word “and” overused substitute “along with,” “in addition to,” “not to mention,” “as well as,” or “besides,” without realizing that each of those substitutes has its own connotation and none of them has the power of creating a plural.
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Cooperative Learning in School
"Can't we all just get along?" The popularized outcry by Rodney King captures the essence of cooperative learning with kids. Everyday children are put to the task of working together as a class, in groups or pairs, without systematic preparation or training. The result is often a breakdown in rank and file with dissention leading the attack. Here's an example:Read more...
Best Free PDF Yet
March 10 2008
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Howdy once again from the Tool Bar & Grill, where thesearch for better utilities and Web sites never ends. We have found some great free solutions today, too.
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Aliyah organizations 101
March 7 2008
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For some reason (probably because I don’t like getting flamed) today’s article has been avoiding the word processor for several days. I finally realized that I was looking at the whole thing wrong.
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Knowing Where You Are
March 3 2008
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Excerpted from my book FrameScript for Newbies Copyright [7/17/2007] by Paul Schnall
It is always good to know where you are, this is also true in scripting. Most FrameMaker objects have a text location or text range property. This property tells you the coordinates of the object. Then, these coordinates can be used to place other object relative to this location. For example, if you have the text range of a paragraph, then you can specify a new text location. The new text location can be anywhere within this text range. The text location can be used to add text at that point.
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It is always good to know where you are, this is also true in scripting. Most FrameMaker objects have a text location or text range property. This property tells you the coordinates of the object. Then, these coordinates can be used to place other object relative to this location. For example, if you have the text range of a paragraph, then you can specify a new text location. The new text location can be anywhere within this text range. The text location can be used to add text at that point.
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“Such As” and Suchlike
Kipling mentioned “such boastings as the Gentiles use, or lesser breeds without the Law.” In other words, only a certain kind of boasting. But if he had written “boastings, such as the Gentiles use,” it would include all boastings and those of the Gentiles would be just an example.
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Of Mice and Keyboard Shortcuts
February 27 2008
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I never use the mouse. Well, that’s not entirely true; I do occasionally use the mouse, it is just the exception, not the rule.
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“You have to be out of here with in two weeks or your stuff will be out on the sidewalk by next Friday.”
February 22 2008
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No, I did not assault the Em Bayit, or even yell at the Director of my Absorption Center.
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Create Screencasts and Quick Video Captures with Jing (Totally Free)
Jing,a new project by TechSmith, is a tool that allows you to quickly capture video or an image from your computer and share it with others, such as project team members or customers.
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Remembering Numbers
Digitsare amongst the most difficult things to learn are, as they seem to totallylack any meaning and therefore do not lend themselves to be easily memorized.However, an old mnemonic overcomes this obstacle by converting the digits toletters, which can be easily converted back to the requested number when theneed arises. The first part of this article explains this conversion method,while the second demonstrate one of the possible ways to put it into practicein the technical writing world - memorizing port numbers.
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Documenting your Scripts
Excerpted from my book FrameScript for Newbies Copyright [7/17/2007] by Paul Schnall
As you write scripts you should always document them. Anything that is relevant to the creation and use of the script can be put in the script as a comment. It is always advisable to put a section at the top of the script to give you and other readers pertinent information. This information can include:
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As you write scripts you should always document them. Anything that is relevant to the creation and use of the script can be put in the script as a comment. It is always advisable to put a section at the top of the script to give you and other readers pertinent information. This information can include:
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The Tense for What Never Happened
February 15 2008
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It makes sense to say “I’ve never seen such a beautiful view.” But there’s a complication. If I’m looking at such a beautiful view right now, how can I say I’ve never seen one?
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Ramblings of an ex-teacher
Kick 'em in the back, kick 'em in the knee, bring it on teachers, educate me! Oh come on educators, "let's give it the old college try!" Sorry, too much to ask? Well then, drag yourself to work and just get through the day without too much aggravation and insult.Read more...
Welcome to Chelm!
Moving to Chelm
Making aliyah is supposed to be the fulfillment of my of your Jewish identity, so why does Israel make it so difficult? Wasn’t it bad enough in America being the only one who did not hunt for Easter Eggs or bring presents to exchange for the “holiday” party. Now the shoe is on the other foot, and suddenly I have the funny accent, and my skills “are not specific enough”. Laugh and cry with a recent olah as she navigates Israeli bureaucracy.Read more...
'Hello World': Inserting New Text
February 3 2008
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Excerpted from my book FrameScript for Newbies (Copyright [7/17/2007] by Paul Schnall)
Today we will add text to the document, and then we will add a paragraph to a document.
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Today we will add text to the document, and then we will add a paragraph to a document.
Inserting Text
To insert text use the New Text command. But first:Read more...
Too Much Determination
February 1 2008
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I knew I couldn’t put across an explanation, but perhaps I could at least put across the impression that I think I know what I’m talking about. “It comes down to a difference between English and Hebrew,” I said. “The word ‘it,’ in the objective case, can serve as a relative pronoun in Hebrew but not in English.”
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Madcap Flare Podcasts
January 22 2008
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Madcap Flare is one of the best online help authoring tools on the market. Here are 3 podcasts on Flare and Madcap Software that you might want to check out.Read more...
FrameScript for Newbies
January 17 2008
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Excerpted from my book FrameScript for Newbies Copyright [7/17/2007] by Paul Schnall
In general FrameScript is used to perform complicated tasks on large books or on whole document sets. Scripts can also be written to perform tasks on the document level, these range from manipulating paragraphs to tables. Large complicated scripts are usually written by professional scriptwriters, but with a little help any technical writer can acquire the skills needed to start writing scripts quickly and easily.
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In general FrameScript is used to perform complicated tasks on large books or on whole document sets. Scripts can also be written to perform tasks on the document level, these range from manipulating paragraphs to tables. Large complicated scripts are usually written by professional scriptwriters, but with a little help any technical writer can acquire the skills needed to start writing scripts quickly and easily.
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The Multi-Tailed Example
January 15 2008
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You try to write the example so that it reaches out a well-directed hand to the reader, and the reader grabs the example by the tail.
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Don't Overshorten
January 1 2008
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There's a Sucker Born Every Minute
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"Could you please tell me what the job of a technical writer is like?"
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 at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. I am in my second year and I am on the lookout for jobs. Other than the system software engineer posts, I am considering applying for a job as a technical writer too. I do love witing as much or maybe more than I love coding and understanding operating systems. I do have experience in system software but not in technical writing, though I do blog occasionally and I also have written a few technical how-tos.Read more...
Could you please tell me what the job of a technical writer is like? How different is it from that of a software engineer? I know it pays less, but I guess you might get more satisfaction especially if you like writing? Could you, if you have the time, tell me how a day at work goes like? Do you think with my limited experience, I have a shot as a technical writer and in the area that I'm interested in?
In this week's Tool Bar & Grill: XML authoring tools.
The latest post in Jonathan's Tool Bar & Grill includes a brief review of XML tools by Mark Lautman that will be of special interest to technical communicators. Be sure to check all the previous posts, too, for valuable tips on useful free utilities and helpful Web sites. See you there!
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The Wherefore of Style
December 15 2007
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 | I ask about the purpose, and I’m answered about the background. “Why do the user’s neckties appear on the screen in that particular order?” I ask, expecting to hear how that particular order serves the purpose of benefiting the user. “They appear according to the sequence in which they arrive from the database,” says Dror the developer. |
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Lateral Thinking in the Classroom
Remember the old trash compactors? You shoved in as much garbage as possible, compressed it and added some more. Neat, tidy bundles of waste, prepared for dumping, dense and inert. Lot's of energy goes into packing, but once they are imbedded in the ground, how useful are they? Clearly some material can be recycled. But how do we begin the sorting process? How much information that we impart to kids today will be useful to them and society in the future? Are we helping them sort the trash or just cramming in more?
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What 99% of the People Who Buy iPods Don't Realize ...
December 5 2007
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The Andor and the Orboths
What can we do to show that the slash applies to a whole phrase? Maybe pad it with spaces?
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Intro to the World of Podcasting
In this first article, I thought I'd explain how my interest in podcasting developed. I first started listening to podcasts in January of 2006. As it was the beginning of a new year, I had new resolutions, one of which was to exercise more. I hate running, but I thought if I had something engaging to listen to, I could separate my mind from the pain and boredom of running.Read more...
Wash the Dishes
"A Philistine giant measuring over nine feet tall and wearing full armor, came out each day for forty days, mocking and challenging the Israelites to fight. His name was Goliath." The problem with much of schooling today is that we have all too often been transformed into Goliath's.Read more...
Forever HIPO
Before you set about doing something, you should know what you’re starting with, what you’re planning to do to it, and what you expect to wind up with at the end. And that pattern of input, process, and output is hierarchical.
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Unstating the Obvious
Granted, writing needs to acknowledge the known, at least tacitly, in order to stably introduce the unknown. But still, every sentence - even the first one - should add informational value if possible.
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Time for an Update
Before the progress bar reached 100 percent, I wrote the preceding thirty-two editions of this column. Now that they’ve all appeared, it’s time for an update because in the meantime some e-mail has come in.
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Never Back Down. Just Back Up
Reviews and recommendations of hard disk backup utilities, both freeware and shareware, for Windows and Linux.
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The Phrasals and the Had Had
October 1 2007
(edited 3 year, 2 month ago)
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Who cares what’s a phrasal verb and what isn’t? In my experience, the only people who care are people looking for an excuse to end a sentence with a preposition. And they’re wasting their time.
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Necessary Unnecessary Facts
September 15 2007
(edited 3 year, 2 month ago)
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In order to write correctly what you know, you need to know more than you write. Hemingway said, “When a writer omits things he does not know, they show like holes in his writing.”
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Staying Up To Date
Updates of favorite utilities (Karen's Power Tools, MP3DirectCut, 1by1), and recommendations of software update notification services.
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Stupid Email Tricks
Today let’s try to find good uses for some interesting new Web sites that integrate with email.
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Cool Tools for Hot Days
Here are handy small utilities for freeing files that Windows has locked up for their own protection; unlocking all your computer's secrets; and converting the masses -- or volumes, temperatures, distances, and anything else that needs converting.
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Here Comes the Big One
July 30 2007
(edited 3 year, 2 month ago)
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Now It Can Be Told
In which I share my list of essential "Desert Island Disk" utilities, and review Dead Pixel Buddy.
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Sync or Swim
Review of Allway Sync file synchronization utility, and update on Web-hosted backup service DivShare.
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For Desktop Neatness Freaks
June 17 2007
(edited 3 year, 2 month ago)
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Get Your Blah-Blah Out Faster
Reviews PhraseExpress, a time- and keystroke-saving autotext utility for all Windows applications. Also updates on Ad-Aware and SecureZIP.
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Better Windows Accessories
Reviews of two free improvements on windows accessories: TaskSwitch XP Pro and Moffsoft FreeCalc.
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Good Things Come Faster To Those Who Don’t Wait
May 19 2007
(edited 3 year, 1 month ago)
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Reviews of Safarp for quickly uninstalling programs, Speedbit Video Accelerator, and Slawdog Smart Shutdown.
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Fly By the Seat of Your Pants
May 13 2007
(edited 3 year, 1 month ago)
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See Food Diet on the Web
May 6 2007
(edited 3 year, 2 month ago)
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Review of three nutrition and fitness Web sites for dieters: NutriDiary, SparkPeople, and Calorie-Count.
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Small, Powerful, and Free
April 29 2007
(edited 3 year, 1 month ago)
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Capsule reviews of great free utilities – VoluMouse, Documeron, TinySpell, and Actual Doc – plus updates of old favorites WinPatrol, SecureZip, IrfanView, and TraxTime.
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Putting Movies On Disks Shouldn't Be So Hard
Converting movie files in AVI, MPG, or other formats for burning onto disks and playing in DVD players can be either simple or cheap, but not both. But I have found a few utilities that make the time-consuming chore at least bearable.
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WordWeb, Your Dictionary On Disk
April 10 2007
(edited 3 year, 2 month ago)
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Where do you go to look up word definitions, spelling, synonyms, and antonyms? My choice is WordWeb, a fairly complete dictionary on your hard disk.
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Your Personal Proofreader
March 25 2007
(edited 3 year, 1 month ago)
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Reviews of Smart Type Assistant, a utility that provides AutoCorrect- and AutoText-like functionality in all Windows applications, and Giveaway of the Day, a Web site that gives away a different commercial program each day.
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God and the Technical Writer
And in the beginning there was nothing. And then one day a huge bang was heard that echoed round the universe and when the smoke had cleared, all that could be seen was a giant Product Manager and a petite Technical Writer
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I Do Not Understand HR People
I had an appointment to speak to the technical writing manager...
I arrived 10 minutes early for the meeting with the HR lady and was told to sit in the foyer and wait. That is what I did - for more than an hour. Eventually...
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I arrived 10 minutes early for the meeting with the HR lady and was told to sit in the foyer and wait. That is what I did - for more than an hour. Eventually...
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Love Is Fickle
March 10 2007
(edited 3 year, 1 month ago)
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Update on newly discovered utilities I like even as much or more than some I previously recommended: startup and process managers and a tray clock.
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Gratis Anyone?
March 8 2007
(edited 3 year, 3 month ago)
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A popular writer's debate is whether or not to work for free. Should I pound out that article for nothing or next to nothing? Should I copyedit my friend's work just because? Do I help out with Acme Marketing Inc.'s campaign because they're starting up and they promise loads of future work?
It depends. On a number of things. But I've narrowed it to a few sorting criteria to help in the weeding process
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It depends. On a number of things. But I've narrowed it to a few sorting criteria to help in the weeding process
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Did It Work Out?
February 28 2007
(edited 3 year, 2 month ago)
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...on my last day there I told him that in my humble opinion the machine was under priced and the panel was really ugly
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To Do: Find To-Do List Manager
Jonathan reviews ToDoList, an excellent and free task manager that espouses the Getting Things Done (GTD) approach to time management and productivity, and also visits some Web sites for to-do list management, including Backpack, Vitalist, Rememberthemilk, Taskfreak, and Nozbe.
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The point of my existence
I had a marvelous encounter yesterday which simply begged to be written down and shared with other technical writers.
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How I Got Started
February 15 2007
(edited 3 year, 3 month ago)
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I had spent most of my working life as a mainframe service engineer at IBM and the thought of sitting in one place the whole day was scarier to me than bungee jumping over a crocodile infested swamp.
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My First Day as a Technical Writer
He poured two glasses and we wished each other l’Hayim and a sort of blessing on the new book. Technical writing suddenly took on a completely different structure and I could definitely get used to this.
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Control Your Startups
Reviews of some of the best free startup monitoring and control programs: Windows XP's built-in tools; Mike Lin's Startup Monitor and Startup Control Panel; CodeStuff Starter; BillP Studios' WinPatrol; and Web sites describing startup programs and processes.
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Safer Surfing Safaris
January 25 2007
(edited 3 year, 2 month ago)
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Reviews ways to stop identity theft through phishing Web sites: McAfee SiteAdvisor, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, Opera 9.
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For Music Lovers Only
Some favorite free tools for managing music files: Switch, MP3 DirectCut, ID3 TagIt, Slice, Stamp.
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Baby Steps
I’m not saying that I have it that badly coz I don’t. Nobody chains me to my desk and sticks hot skewers up my nose.
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The Cabbage Years
January 3 2007
(edited 3 year, 2 month ago)
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Starting out as a freelance writer was tough. Really tough. ... So I armed myself with trade weaponry: ...
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Freelance Journalism: Taking the Leap
Freelance journalist Stephanie Freid (Scribblin' With Steph) shares why and how she plunged into the world of freelance journalism, how she got her business going and why she isn't looking back.
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A Few of My Favorite Things
Review of some free screen capture and WiFi tools: FastStone Capture, Screenshot Captor, SnagIt, MWSnap, NetStumbler
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Search Beyond Google
Using only Google when searching the Internet might result in missing a lot of information. Metasearch tools pull results from multiple search engines. Also: Review of Distant Music, Adam Klein's debut CD.
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Stream of Mumpyness
This article fuses the "Stream of Consciousness" literary technique with the world of technical writing. The end result is best viewed after taking mind-altering drugs.
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EULAppreciate This: Help with Required Reading, and Flame Retardant
Reviews of EULAlyzer, a clever little utility that reads a EULA and flags suspicious words and phrases, and Comodo, the best free firewall.
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Things that Made me Laugh This Week
November 8 2006
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(edited 3 year, 2 month ago)
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My boss stood over my shoulder while I was sitting down working on my computer. All of a sudden I realized that there was a buzzing sound coming from his trousers.
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A Great Explorer Is Discovered
Review of xplorer2 file and disk manager utility, a replacement for Windows Explorer, and other such utilities.
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Rosh Katan
I’m going to be a Rosh Katan from now on. For those of you who don’t speak Hebrew, a Rosh Katan is somebody who does the minimum that they can get away with and doesn’t make any extra effort.
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Print File Lists and See the Time
Reviews of Karen's Directory Printer (print file and folder lists) and TClockEx (enhance Windows system tray clock).
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Do you know what makes me angry?
Do you know what makes me angry? I mean, do you know what makes me really, really, really angry?
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Ahhh Good Times
Have you noticed how they always say that on reality TV shows even though they haven’t gone anywhere? ... Is it my fault that I enjoy writing up features, should I apologize for running with glee to document bugs; do I need treatment for my pathological enjoyment of sitting with R&D developers?
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We Don't Pay for Zip
Brilliant Ideas
So my boss wants me to come up with something “new” in time for the Sales Conference at the end of October.
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That @#$%^& CAPS LOCK Key!
Today's featured utility is tiny but potent. How often do you hit the Caps Lock key accidentally, RESULTING IN A SENTENCES LIKE THIS? Or you tapped Insert when you meant Home, and overwrote your latest pearl of wisdom?
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Pick your Battles
In case you hadn’t picked up on it, the Mumpy is a sensitive soul, and gets offended at the slightest provocation. When you look up the phrase “water off a duck’s back” in the dictionary, you will never see a photo of the Mumpy.
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Take No Responsibility
I sent out some Release Notes for review the other week. In the Release Notes, I had documented a new feature which posed some risk to the customer’s organization if they were not very careful with their configuration. A leading support engineer emailed me back asking me to include the following note:
[Company Name] takes no responsibility for the following feature.
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[Company Name] takes no responsibility for the following feature.
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Nothing melts a Mumpy more
Just when I thought it was all over and I was going to resign from my job and become a wet nurse, something unexpected happened to me. I was sitting in a meeting with my team (Product Management) – minding my own business and lost in a pleasant daydream about George Michael, when I heard my name mentioned.
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Information Teaser
My boss is an information-teaser. Picture the scene. I am sitting in my boss’s office, notepad in one hand, pen in the other, and a look of intensely, earnest concentration on my face. My boss is standing by the white board discussing a white paper he wants me to write about subject X.
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Have You Marinated Your User Guide Lately?
The other day somebody sent me a funny sentence taken from an advert for a technical writer published on Jobnet. The advert stated they were looking for a technical writer who was good at writing, editing and marinating technical articles.
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Don't Ask
Things Not To Say to a Technical Writer and How to Respond
But nobody ever reads the manuals anyway. As said by a Product Manager in a large meeting. The correct response to this does not involve extreme injury to certain body parts. The recommended course of action is
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But nobody ever reads the manuals anyway. As said by a Product Manager in a large meeting. The correct response to this does not involve extreme injury to certain body parts. The recommended course of action is
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