So, when I was asked to make a user guide in MS-Word for a web-application, I did the needful, but also went a step-ahead to offer an online help, which could be integrated into the application. Customers are happy when you offer them a little more than what they accept; and needless to say my customer was glad. The only glitch being nobody wanted to offer me a licensed tool.
The XML processing model is widely supported by a number of vendors. The class-based extension mechanism in DITA translates well to the design features of the XSLT and CSS style sheet languages defined by the World Wide Web Consortium and supported in many transformation tools, editors, and browsers.
The toolkit continues to be the foundation of most publishing of DITA content. Many DITA users use it directly, and some DITA authoring tools and content management tools now integrate parts of the toolkit into their own publishing workflows.
I have often mulled upon the career progression for technical communicators. A technical communicator can always choose to write, review and publish through his/her professional life but there is significant risk of stagnation, because of three reasons:
• In the same project/organization or domain the documentation will soon become robust and the documentation repository will only [...]
Yes, writers have to sell their skills in IT-organizations - not to get the job, but after they land a job in an IT-organization. While most IT-organizations are realizing the need for hiring skilled writers to handle their technical and organizational documentation, they are not fully aware of the potential of the writers they [...]
As a technical writer by profession, with myriad experience in writing for the IT industry, I strongly believe that IT-based documentation is an upcoming domain where more and more people should venture. In this blog post, I intend to share my observations on where and how writers with a technical bent of mind can [...]