22 Tips for Writing Software Documentation Users Will ... - OCSTC

Orange County STC Newsletter

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This Issue:

June/July 2008

Vol.  47, No.  6

22 Tips for Writing Software Documentation Users Will Actually Read

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22 Tips for Writing Software Documentation Users Will Actually Read

President’s Message

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By Craig Haiss

Next Meeting

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Editor’s Desk

4

W

EduNotes

6

Open Source Corner

7

May North OC Meeting Review

So, how do you go about writing technical manuals for software without going insane?

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Here are some guidelines you can follow to maintain your sanity when writing software documentation.

Society Pages

10

OCSTC Employment Information

10

Congratulations to Recent Graduates

11

Orange Slice— Calendar of Events

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June Meeting Topic

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July Meeting Topic

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riting software documentation is much like juggling porcupines while walking a tight rope in 50 mile-per-hour winds. Your attention is constantly divided, and the situation is always changing. The moment you finalize your work, a new feature appears in the software, and you find yourself scrambling to document it in time for the product release.

1.

Create and maintain a style guide. Style in technical writing can vary from one product to the next, and you’ll save yourself a lot of grief by keeping notes regarding conventions.

2.

Keep your friends close and your SMEs closer. If you can promote open and frequent communication with developers, writing software documentation will be much easier. You won’t be blind-sided as often by changes in the software.

3.

Install often. Don’t waste time writing software documentation for an out-of-date version of the product.

4.

Make time for testing. Be sure to try out every procedure at least once to verify that the instructions are accurate.

5.

Talk to the support staff. You’ll be more effective at writing software documentation if you understand the problems users typically experience.

6.

Use templates. Have a template for each topic type (reference, FAQ, procedure, etc.) and use them for quickly fleshing out new topics.

7.

Invest in your tools. A feature-rich set of technical writing authoring tools will make the process of writing software documentation much smoother. A help authoring tool, such as Adobe RoboHelp or MadCap Flare, and a tool for print documentation, such as Adobe FrameMaker, will suffice. Some XML-based authoring tools are capable of producing both printed documentation and help.

8.

Learn from others. If you run into problems while writing software documentation, open up the MadCap Flare help or an Adobe RoboHelp manual and see if they’ve tackled the same situation. Find examples of great technical writing and emulate them.

Continued on Page 8 >

Chapter Contacts

President’s Message By Betsy Malone, OCSTC Chapter President

OCSTC P.O. Box 28751 Santa Ana, CA 92799-8751 Chapter Fax: 949.830.7585 Web site: http://www.ocstc.org

Administrative Council President, Betsy Malone, [email protected] Past President, Bruce Giddens, [email protected] 1st Vice Presidents, Programs, Suzanne Madison and Sima Staav, [email protected] 2nd Vice Presidents, Membership, Jane Baker, Pat Olsen [email protected] Treasurer, Linda Phillips, [email protected] Secretary, Jim Marchant, [email protected]

Appointees TechniScribe Managing Editor, Michael Opsteegh, [email protected] Public Relations, Open Education, Bill Darnall, [email protected] Education, Brian McCaleb, [email protected] Webmaster, Jeff Randolph, [email protected]

It’s all About You, Really!

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t is with gratitude that I take the post of President for 2008-2009. I’m sure it will be challenging, and I look forward to working with the Council and our many talented members to make contributions and changes to our Chapter.

Basically, our goal is to organize the world’s information and to make it universally accessible and useful. It sounds like those words were written by a tried and true technical communicator, but in fact those are the words Google cofounder Larry Page used to describe his “little” search engine. It’s funny how his vision, goals, and achievements transformed a proper noun into an everyday verb. Still don’t know what I’m talking about? Hmmm, just google Larry Page. Can OCSTC change the world like Google has done? Probably not, but we can certainly tap into the talent, skills, and knowledge of our members. OCSTC must create a vision that leads to action—one that brings about positive changes and growth. In order to accomplish such tasks, we, the members, need to set chapter goals. I cordially invite our members to attend the OCSTC council meeting on July 1, 2008, at 6 p.m. (e-mail [email protected] if you are interested in attending) to join us in brainstorming and setting chapter goals. Let the council know what you think is important about meeting topics, student involvement, mentoring, OCSTC and STC competitions, Orange County corporate sponsors, meeting formats, and other topics.

Employment Manager, Betsy Malone, [email protected]

“Success is the progressive realization of predetermined, worthwhile goals.”—Paul J. Meyer

Committees

Take the OCSTC Challenge

Nominating Committee : Bill Darnall, [email protected] Adrienne Escoe, [email protected] Larry Lockie, [email protected] Valerie Mitchell, [email protected]

We can’t achieve chapter goals without you! We have many volunteer opportunities waiting for someone like you to either lead or be a participant. You can choose your involvement and the amount of time you would like to dedicate to being part of the OCSTC team. If you have been waiting for the right time to voice your opinions and ideas, the time is now! Your talents will help us move forward and improve our chapter. I look forward to meeting, sharing, and discussing ideas and goals with you at the July council meeting and throughout the year at chapter meetings. I encourage and challenge you to take a step out of your Continued on Page 11 >

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Next Meeting Topic:

DITA/TECHCOMM

Alternative Career Paths for Technical Communicators

CONFERENCE

Speaker: Jack Molisani When:

Tuesday, June 17, 6-9 p.m.

Where:

DoubleTree Club Hotel 7 Hutton Centre Drive Santa Ana, CA 92702 714.751.2400

Cost:

Members with reservations . . . . . . . . . . . . $24



Students with reservations. . . . . . . . . . . . . $18



Nonmembers with reservations . . . . . . . . $29



Walk-ins, or those registering after the deadline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $33



No-shows billed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $24

Reservations:

Due by midnight, Friday, July 13

Registration:

There’s a lot we don’t offer you in 4 days.

_ _ _ _

Sales people presenting pitches Vendors selling to you in a session Untried, vague, first-time presenters High costs while your budget tightens

We know that regardless of how hyped, how well spoken, or how rich it is, you don’t want bull. Our conference provides access to real users, experts, and answers.

Online at http://www.ocstc.org/dinres.asp

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Directions to the DoubleTree Club Hotel Map of the I-405 and SR-55 area. The star below indicates the hotel location. Parking is FREE.

You deserve udderly clear answers to your technical communication questions!

The Bright Path Solutions DITA and technical communication conference has sessions on: Understanding XML 9 Working with and developing for DITA 9 Deciding on a CMS 9 Case studies on XML, DITA and CMS tools 9 Developing FO 9 Creating XSLT 9 Content reuse 9

DoubleTree Club Hotel 7 Hutton Centre Drive Santa Ana, California 92707-5794 714.751.2400

Tech comm tools: 9 FrameMaker 9 Acrobat 9 RoboHelp 9 Captivate 9 InDesign 9 XMetaL 9 WebWorks 9 much more… 9

November 3–6, 2008 McKimmon Conference Center Raleigh, NC, USA

If you would like to receive e-mail notifications about upcoming OCSTC meetings, visit http://www.ocstc.org/list_redirect.asp. Click Join. This list broadcasts only meeting notices and STC announcements

For more details or to register online: www.brightpathsolutions.com/nobull Enter the promo code OrngCty to save up to US$100!

BrightPath



June/July 2008  •  3

Publication Policies

Editor’s Desk

TechniScribe is published 12 times a year as a benefit to the members of the Orange County Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. The goal of the publication is to reflect the interests, needs, and objectives of OCSTC members. TechniScribe strives to be an advocate for, and an inspiration to, technical communicators by keeping them connected to each other and to opportunities for professional growth.

By Michael Opsteegh, TechniScribe Managing Editor

Articles published in this newsletter may be reprinted in other STC publications if permission is obtained from the author, credit is properly given, and one copy of the reprint is sent to the Techni­ Scribe managing editor.

Submission Information The editorial team retains and exercises the right to edit submitted and requested material for clarity, length, and appropriateness. When submitting material, please remember to: • Include a 25-word biography about yourself. • Send articles in Word (doc, docx), Rich-Text Format (RTF), ASCII (txt), or in the body of an e-mail message. • Send material to the managing editor (techni­[email protected]) five weeks before the date it will be published.

Editorial Staff Managing Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Copyeditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Copyeditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Copyeditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Proofreader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Proofreader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Proofreader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Web Version. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Michael Opsteegh Teresita del Sol Anne Stratford Barbara Young Jennifer Gardelle Suzanne Madison Sima Staav Jeff Randolph

Monthly Advertising Rates 1/4 page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/3 page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/2 page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Full page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

$40 $45 $60 $80

Subscriptions $10 a year to members of other STC chapters.

Printer PrintWorks, Irvine, CA

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ou may be wondering why there is a blue ribbon on the cover of this issue. I received some very good news last month. Of the 25 chapters that submitted entries to the STC newsletter competition, OCSTC was one of only two chapters that received a Distinguished Award. In addition to being honored with the Distinguished Award, TechniScribe also won Best of Show! This is an honor, not only for the TechniScribe staff, but also for the entire chapter. If you are looking for work, or think you’ll be looking for work soon, you should consider increasing your visibility to potential employers by contributing an article to your chapter newsletter. Since TechniScribe was honored with the Best of Show award, you can bet more people within STC will be taking a closer look at the newsletter this year. It was fitting to receive news of this award just as I am finishing my first year as managing editor and preparing to thank those of you who have contributed over the last year. Writing articles after you have been writing most of the day at work can be tough, and I know it. Likewise, copyediting and proofreading on your own time can be a pain. Despite whatever amount of time our contributors have devoted to making this the best newsletter possible, they have received something in return, be it a sense of accomplishment, increased visibility in our community, or a chance to voice an opinion. My sincerest thanks to those who have contributed regularly over the past year: Jane Baker, Bill Darnall, Bruce Giddens, and Will Kraft. Thank you also to Heather Barth, Sharon Clark, Carrie Damschroder, David Dick, Sarah Dzida, Kathy Graden, Craig Haiss, Mary Ann Howell, Virginia Janzig, Rachel Khim, Suzanne Madison, Betsy Malone, Jim Marchant, Kevin McLaughlin, Jack Molisani, Linda Oestreich, Jeff Randolph, Lance-Robert, Kelley Frances Smith, Keith Soltys, and Joe Welinske. A big thanks to the copyeditors, Teresita del Sol, Anne Stratford, and Barbara Young; the proofreaders, Jennifer Gardelle, Suzanne Madison, and Sima Staav; and to the man who posts the newsletter on the web site and delivers the printed copies to the post office, Jeff Randolph. Without these regular and occasional contributors, TechniScribe could not happen. The honor bestowed Continued on Page 11 >

4  •  June/July 2008

TECH WRITER FOUND. PROSPRING’S MISSION STATEMENT To match candidates looking for a position with clients needing to fill a position so both candidate and client are happy with the result. Looking for a position? Looking to fill a position? Call us—we can help! (866) 302-5774 x201 ProspringStaffing.com

June/July 2008  •  5

EduNotes By Bill Darnall, Cochair Education

The Editor’s Agenda for Trade and Commercial Publications Introduction

T

his note reveals how you can locate and communicate successfully with editors. The focus is on trade and consumer magazine editors. Parts 1 and 2 of this series provided an overview of the authoring process. Note this information is for experienced technical communicators who aspire to be published authors. You must be tenacious. Identify publications of interest. Follow publishers’ guidelines. Give editors what they want. Deliver error-free copy in a timely manner. Be aware that breaking into magazine article writing can be very time-consuming. Your personal, shortterm return on investment (ROI) will be small. However, your long-term ROI can be large. You must learn to work cooperatively with editors. An understanding of the editor’s agenda will help you be successful.

Trade magazines

Most trade magazines are free for qualified readers. Paid advertising is the principal means of support (and profit). There is a synergistic relationship between paid advertising and article content. Trade magazine articles discuss new products and industryspecific applications. Articles directly related to newproduct advertising are common. Trade magazine readers are subject matter experts (SMEs). Most trade magazines do not pay well, if at all, for published articles. However, the publication may allow promotion of your web site or e-mail address. In addition, ghostwriting is common in trade magazines. Expect to receive income for ghostwriting. However, expect your article to often appear under the byline of an advertiser’s corporate executive. Trade magazines have long-term publishing schedules to facilitate the advertising sales process. Trade magazine editors combine paid advertising with advertising-related content. Editors talk directly with advertisers. Editors talk directly with writers. Editors expect authors to have expert knowledge in the field they are writing about. Articles usually require an editor’s approval before submission. Advertising-related articles require advance planning. Expect to provide timely delivery of the article copy and any supporting illustrations in the required format.

Consumer magazines

Consumer magazine subscribers pay a subscription fee. Paid advertising supplements the subscriber-paid fee. Readers expect to see articles of interest in the general subject for which they subscribed. Advertis6  •  June/July 2008

ers hope readers will respond to their advertisements. Articles and advertising are usually complementary, but not necessarily directly related. You do not have to be a SME to write for a consumer magazine. These articles may have an observer’s or a reporter’s perspective. Consumer magazines always pay writers for published articles, but it is harder to break into the consumer market. Consumer magazines have long-term publishing schedules to facilitate the advertising sales process. Consumer magazine editors combine paid advertising with their publication’s topic-based content. Editors talk directly with advertisers. Editors talk directly with writers. Feel free to submit your topics to them for consideration.

How to locate trade magazines

There are lists of trade magazines on the Web. Once you locate a candidate magazine, find the masthead. Here is where you will find the names of editors. Senior editors head the list. In addition, ask for the author’s guidelines. Larger organizations publish many magazines in different trades. Here are two online sources you can use to locate trade magazines:

• http://www.industryclick.com/icmagazines. asp • http://www.1800miti.com/page76e.html

How to locate consumer magazines

Consumer magazines are often harder to locate. However, with your tenacity and information-locating skills, you can find them. Your goal is to look for the masthead with its list of editors. Request the author’s guidelines. Here are two online sources for locating consumer magazines:

• http://forums.writersweekly.com/viewforum. php?f=12 • http://www.absolutewrite.com/freelance_ writing/markets_online.htm

Conclusion

There are similarities and differences between trade and consumer publications. You can be a successful author if you help editors achieve their goals. Next month—Query Letters

Open Source Corner By Will Kraft, OCSTC Student Member

Inkscape

I

f you are a technical writer, there inevitably comes a time when you must add a graphic or illustration to a project. For diagrams and illustrations, vectorized imagery is the industry standard because vectorized art uses “true” lines that can scale to theoretically infinite size and still remain perfectly smooth. In contrast, raster images (like photos) can only be enlarged to a certain amount before becoming “blocky,” especially on curves. Industry-standard tools like Illustrator are ideal for the task of creating vector artwork, but these tools are expensive This screenshot shows the outline view of an illustration. Many technical illustraions will not and hard to legitimately involve this much detail, the screenshot demonstrates how complex your illustrations can be with come by when working this free software. Screenshot credit: http://www.imageafter.com/forum/index.php?thread_ on a budget (if you do id=460 not already have them). Fortunately, the open difference, intersection, etc.), path inset/outset, path/ source software community has produced several object duplication, and path simplification. tools that are able to create vector-based artwork, and Inkscape saves projects in the XML-based Scalable the most notable of them is Inkscape (http://www. Vector Graphic (SVG) format, which is also supported inkscape.org). to some extent in most modern web browsers. (Firefox Inkscape is very easy to use due to a well-designed 3 offers a very faithful rendering, for example.) This interface that provides a wide variety of tools that makes it easy to produce vector artwork for the Web let you create lines, polygons, Bezier curves, spirals, that retains its scalability (far superior to rasterized and assorted paths. My favorite drawing tool by far GIF images that were historically used for line art on is the calligraphic brush, which is very responsive the Web). Inkscape can also export Illustrator native and allows for easy freehand drawing, especially format (AI) and encapsulated postscript (EPS) images with a USB tablet device. In addition to regular fills for Adobe Illustrator, although from my experience and strokes, Inkscape supports gradients and transthe EPS exporter offers better fidelity to the original parency, and has a large pallet of predefined colors. image in Illustrator. Images may also be exported in Inkscape has many effects that can be applied to vecAutocad DXF and Microsoft XAML, although I’ve tor objects to change and distort them, such as twirl, never personally had an opportunity to test these. stretch, envelope, and fractalize. Many other tools can apply special effects to rasterized portions of a project. Inkscape is a valuable tool for both the novice user and the serious artist. Its flexibility and versatility Inkscape has many other tools that one would take make it an ideal tool for both print and web graphics. for granted in a drawing program. Image layers and The fact that it is free makes it possible for everyone to grouping make complicated graphics easier to work ditch Microsoft Paint for something better. Inkscape is with, while support for text paths makes simple and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, in addition to complicated text effects possible. There are also many source codes for any other platforms. “convenience tools” such as path blending (based on June/July 2008  •  7

22 Tips for Writing Software Documentation < Continued from Page 1

9.

Stay organized. Learn to use project management software to track pending tasks and notes. Keep a manila folder for each project and fill it with printed copies of notes and important email messages. This is especially important when writing software documentation for multiple products at once.

10.

Keep a list of questions for SMEs. Your time with them will be more productive, and they will appreciate your respect for their busy schedules.

on your help navigation, table of 11. Focus contents, or index. There’s no point in writing software documentation that users can’t find. Enable full-text search, if possible.

use cases, and compare your pro12. Prepare cedures to those use cases. Does your documentation cover all of the tasks your users need to complete? If not, fill in the missing content.

specific. When writing software documen13. Be tation you must be particularly clear about

tasks the user must complete versus tasks that the software completes automatically. Ambiguous language will leave users scratching their heads or reaching for their telephones to call Support.

context. Writing software documen14. Provide tation isn’t just about telling users what to do.

You must also tell them why they would want to complete a task, and explain the desired outcome. This point is particularly important for anyone using a single-sourcing methodology where chunks of content are combined to create the final output. Be sure to provide context to show how those chunks of content are related and create a feeling of continuity.

that your documentation set is com15. Verify plete. Did you include accurate installation

instructions? How about contact information for customer support? Does your product warrant a tutorial or interactive training? Writing software documentation often requires producing more than just a printed manual or online help.

existing content. If your company 16. Leverage provides a knowledge base or support web

site, refer to it in your manuals. Use crossreferences to guide users through all of the various forms of product documentation in an intelligent manner.

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a consistent design for your documen17. Use tation. Users will adapt to your design and

learn more effectively if you present content in a consistent and user-friendly manner.

unnecessary content. Writing software 18. Delete documentation isn’t like writing a novel, and brevity will often result in improved clarity. However, don’t leave out important information for the sake of being brief. Use as many words as necessary to accurately explain a concept, and no more.

peer reviewers. Preferably, get another 19. Find writer and a product developer to review

your documentation. They will help sort out any technical inaccuracies, and improve the clarity of your writing.

often. The great thing about writing 20. Revise software documentation is that you usu-

ally have frequent opportunities to deliver updated content. Developers constantly ship newer versions to include the latest features. Take advantage of those updates and ship your latest improvements to the software manuals and help.

some informal deadlines for yourself. 21. Set Factor in time for documentation reviews,

testing, and dealing with troublesome authoring tool issues. One of the difficulties of writing software documentation is the instability of product release schedules. By maintaining your own aggressive deadlines, you’ll be more prepared if the company decides to ship the product two weeks earlier than planned.

some fun. Play network games with the 22. Have developers, or go out for a long lunch with

your fellow technical authors. Writing software documentation is hard work. Don’t burn yourself out.

I hope these tips make the process of writing software documentation a little less painless. If you’re as crazy as the rest of us technical writers you might even enjoy it! This article originally appeared on the HelpScribe blog at http://www.helpscribe.com. Craig Haiss maintains HelpScribe.com, a web site devoted to tips and information for technical writers and help authors. He lives in Michigan and is a senior technical writer in the accounting software industry.

May North OC Meeting Review By Bruce Tepley, OCSTC Senior Member

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t the May North Orange County meeting, Sharon Burton presented us with an overview of the latest version of a new product from MadCap Software, Blaze. Blaze is a product that is similar to MadCap’s multiple output editing product, Flare, but it is limited to importing, editing, and publishing for printed documents, only. Sharon first noted that MadCap Software for technical writers has always approached technical communication as a complete process that can enable writers to create the highest-quality documents, as easily as possible. Because of this, using Blaze or Flare seems very different in use, compared to Word or FrameMaker. But once we appreciate how Blaze is designed with real-world writing in mind, we will find it much easier to focus our energies on clarity of meaning in our technical communication, Sharon asserted. She then demonstrated this by showing how Blaze would simplify the mechanical complexities of structuring content, maintaining a consistent style, and even quickly switching styles and controlling conditional text for different versions. MapCap’s originated their approach largely by listening to the gripes and wishes of experienced technical writers. Sharon illustrated this with a new toolbar for starting work quickly in specific parts of a work process. This is a toolbar that she, herself had suggested. The toolbar is very practical, reflecting her background as a recognized, international expert and entrepreneur in the technical writing field.

Sharon showed us how Blaze provides features that made controlling conditional text and style requirements simple to overhaul. The versioning changes she set up took only seconds to demonstrate. What we often think of as an “overhaul” task to produce different documents was more of an instant version-switching process. To provide us with the most current view of the many features Blaze provides, Sharon performed her demonstration with a soon-to-be released, but unvalidated, version of the software. She warned that there

Sharon Burton demonstrated MadCap Blaze with her usual energetic and humorous style.

Sharon did not just claim the approach used in Blaze was easy and intuitive, she demonstrated it by working with new documents, created during the presentation, on-the-fly. After her introduction, the main demonstration part of the talk was divided into three parts: importing, editing, and publishing.

Importing

Sharon demonstrated that the importing abilities of Blaze are remarkably broad and flexible, while relating the features to real-life situations that we encounter as technical communicators.

Editing

Publishing

Sharon demonstrated several features that made modifying content very easy, including a particularly simple, effective way of rearranging outlines that represent the actual final text.

might be bugs we might uncover, but added that there probably would not be. This underscored her personal confidence in the quality of her product, especially when we saw the software performing flawlessly. Throughout the demonstration, Sharon deftly used a left-hand panel in the Blaze GUI, provided in a collapsible tree format, to organize production work intuitively. Not surprisingly, the most extensive collection of subfeatures in the tree was under the editing section. Time did not allow for a complete demonstration of the many features in this panel, particularly for editing. What stood out in Sharon’s selection of features was the intuitive nature of the feature organization—an organization that paralleled the processes technical writers use. To me, Sharon succeeded in demonstrating how Blaze frees a writer to concentrate on clarity of content. This Continued on Page 11 > June/July 2008  •  9

Society Pages TechniScribe Copyright and Trademark Statement

STC Mission Statement STC advances the theory and practice of technical communication across all user abilities and all media.

Positioning Statement STC helps you design effective communication for a technical world through information sharing and industry leadership. The Society for Technical Communication (STC) is the world’s largest organization for technical communicators. Its more than 14,000 members include writers, editors, illustrators, printers, publishers, photographers, educators, and students. Dues are $60–175 per year. Membership is open to anyone engaged in some phase of technical communication, interested in the arts and sciences of technical communication, and in allied arts and sciences. Society for Technical Communication 901 N. Stuart Street, Suite 904 Arlington, VA 22203-1822 703.522.4114 (voice); http://www.stc.org

OCSTC invites writers to submit articles that they wish to be considered for publication. Authors retain copyright to their work and implicitly grant a license to this newsletter to publish the work once in print and to publish it once online for an indefinite period of time. In your cover letter, please let the editor know if this article has appeared elsewhere, and if it has been submitted for consideration to other publications. The design and layout of this newsletter are copyrighted as © STC, 2008. Some articles might refer to companies or products whose names are covered by a trademark or registered trademark. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Reference to a specific product does not constitute an endorsement of the product by OCSTC or by STC.

Colophon TechniScribe is written using Microsoft Word, and laid out using Adobe InDesign CS3 for Macintosh. Gill Sans and Palatino Linotype are used for heading and text fonts. PDFs are produced using Adobe Acrobat Professional 8. TechniScribe relies on the following editorial references for style: American Heritage Dictionary, Chicago Manual of Style, and Words into Type.

OCSTC Employment Information Our job listing is entirely online at the OCSTC web site. Pages are updated as jobs are submitted.

Staff Jobs

http://www.ocstc.org/employme.asp

Contract Jobs

http://www.ocstc.org/contractme.asp

Free Job Posting

http://www.ocstc.org/jobsubmit.asp

Inquiries If you have an inquiry, e-mail our employment manager, Betsy Malone, at [email protected]. A limited number of printed copies of the OCSTC Web site listings are available at monthly chapter meetings.

Society-Level Job Listings STC maintains job listings on the Internet. You can download the listings from the STC web site at http://www. stc.org/jobsdatabase.asp. 10  •  June/July 2008

Society Pages

May North OC Meeting Review

President’s Message

< Continued from Page 9

< Continued from Page 2

is accomplished in part by providing numerous writing convenience features, but more importantly, by allowing writers to separate wording from document structure. For example, the outlining feature was the simplest and most flexible I have seen. Another organizational advantage in Blaze is the efficient separation of the document styling from the wording.

comfort zone. Volunteer to join a committee, write a newsletter article, get involved with membership drives, contact potential speakers, provide chapter publicity, redesign our web site, assist with education initiatives, and other activities. After all, you are the ones who shape the success of our chapter!

In contrast to the products Sharon mentioned for comparison (Word and FrameMaker), Blaze makes it easy to concentrate on relating document structure to stylistic appearance in one step, rearrange content structure in another step, and finalize the wording in another step. This organization of the editing features not only makes editing in Blaze potentially much quicker, it enforces style relatively effortlessly. She demonstrated a similar approach in the publishing step that enables writers to easily save different styles and versions in the same document. Like any high-quality product presentation from a company product manager and evangelist, Sharon’s talk and PowerPoint slides demonstrated the fundamental functions of Blaze in a way that illustrated the look, feel, and power of this product. But unlike many such presentations, Sharon also spoke to us in a way that only a seasoned expert in every aspect of technical documentation could. She succeeded in conveying to us much of what the experience of using Blaze is like, for everyday, practical document production.

Send questions or comments to Betsy at pres@ocstc. org.

Editor’s Desk < Continued from Page 4 upon our newsletter belongs to each of the folks I have named. Since everyone involved has worked hard this year to bring you a quality newsletter, we are taking the month of July off. This is the first time in a couple of years that our editorial staff have taken a short break in the summer. TechniScribe will return to your mailbox in August. Since the newsletter staff are taking a well deserved break, take this opportunity to polish up that article you’ve been writing for TechniScribe! Submit your newsletter inquiries, articles, and ideas to Michael at [email protected].

Congratulations to Recent Graduates Regular TechniScribe contributors, Jennifer Gardelle, Will Kraft, and Michael Opsteegh, completed degree programs at Cal State Long Beach. Congratulations and good luck! If you have any noteworthy news, accomplishments, or promotions, tell us about them. Send your story to our VPs of Membership, Jane Baker and Pat Olsen, at [email protected].

Recent graduates, Jennifer Gardelle (BA in English and Certificate in Technical and Professional Communication), Will Kraft (BA in English and Certificate in Technical and Professional Communication), and Michael Opsteegh (MA in English, Rhetoric and Composition) celebrate at the Cal State Long Beach commencement ceremony. June/July 2008  •  11

Orange Slice: Calendar of Events Date

Event

June 11 June 17

OCSTC Council Meeting OCSTC Chapter Meeting Jack Molisani, “Alternative Career Paths for Technical Communicators.” July 1 OCSTC Council Meeting July 15 OCSTC Chapter Meeting Jack O’Connell, “Workplace Influencing Acedemia.” August 5 OCSTC Council Meeting August 19 OCSTC Chapter Meeting

Location

Time

Airport Executive Suites, Irvine 6 p.m.-7 p.m. DoubleTree Club Hotel, 7 Hutton Centre Dr., 6:30 p.m.-9 p.m. Santa Ana, CA, 92707, 714.751.2400 Airport Executive Suites, Irvine DoubleTree Club Hotel, 7 Hutton Centre Dr., Santa Ana, CA, 92707, 714.751.2400 Airport Executive Suites, Irvine DoubleTree Club Hotel, 7 Hutton Centre Dr., Santa Ana, CA, 92707, 714.751.2400

6 p.m.-7 p.m. 6:30 p.m.-9 p.m. 6 p.m.-7 p.m. 6:30 p.m.-9 p.m.

June Meeting Topic Alternative Career Paths for Technical Communicators

Have you ever thought, “I’ve been a Senior Technical Writer for years. Now what??” In our June 2008 meeting, returning speaker Jack Molisani will explore the concept of “alternative career paths” that he introduced in his popular session, “How to Make a Six Figure Income as a Technical Communicator.” Associate Fellow, Jack, is the founder and president of ProSpring Technical Staffing, an employment agency specializing in technical writers and project managers. Jack also produces LavaCon: The Conference on Advanced Technical Communication and Project Management.

July Meeting Topic Closing the Achievement Gap

California’s rigorous academic standards and accountability system have led to steady, significant achievement gains over the past five years. However, achievement data clearly reveals the need to focus in new ways on the groups of students whose achievement lags persistently behind. The achievement gap between white students and other ethnic groups as well as between English learners and native English speakers, socioeconomically disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged students, and students with disabilities compared to students without disabilities is a pervasive issue in many, if not all, of California’s schools. Superintendent O’Connell’s Closing the Achievement Gap initiative is a public-private partnership aimed at supporting the work of policymakers, educators, and interested community members, with major backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it is the electronic hub for helpful information, research, and success stories about efforts to close the gap in California.