I was asked to provide help content in the form of a getting started guide for a piece of software that was going to be released world-wide.

I started working on the project using my tool of choice, a help authoring tool called MadCap Flare. This is a tool I really like, and have been using for several years. I’m something of an expert on Flare, so it is my first choice for pretty much any authoring project.

I started working within my group, however, and found that Flare wasn’t going to be the right solution for this project because of project constraints outside of my control. We have an in-house translation group that does all our content translation. They have their tools in place and are not interested in obtaining and learning to use a new tool (MadCap’s Lingo tool). There are certain strings in the project (specifically surrounding variables and master pages) that wouldn’t get sent to translation if they didn’t use Lingo. This project is going to go out in 24 languages, so simplifying the process is essential.

I ended up creating a site using JavaScript and HTML. Translation can handle HTML files, so this project is easy for them to manage on their side.

The moral of this story is that I ended up picking an inferior (in my opinion) tool, HTML and JavaScript because it was the right tool for this project. While I think Flare is a better tool overall, in this case, it wasn’t the right fit. Now I could have gone through a bunch of hoops to output HTML files and then re-import them into the Flare project, and then try to re-generate the project in the new language, but that was more work, with more room for error, even though it would have given me more options for designing and creating my output.

Sometimes you have to pick the right tool, even if it isn’t the best tool.

You may remember the old WordPerfect days. Those were the days of Reveal Codes (Alt F3) when changing the formatting of your document was easy. In fact, in the late 80s and early 90s, WordPerfect was the de facto standard word processor.

Now, twenty years later, Microsft Word has taken over as the market leader and standard word processor. Word Perfect is still out there, but you’re hard pressed to find any company (outside of Corel, the current owners and developers of WordPerfect) that uses WordPerfect.

Most former WordPerfect users have been forced to learn to use Microsoft Word, and many complain that they are lost without Reveal Codes, and are unable to format the document the way that they want. They believe that WordPerfect was a better word processor. However, just because WordPerfect may be the better tool, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is the right tool to use. It turns out that if you can’t share documents with other people who don’t use the same word processor then you have a harder time communicating with them. Or, if your organization doesn’t support WordPerfect, you can’t use it at work.

(Now, I will point out that current versions of WordPerfect are able to read and write MS Word files, so this isn’t a perfect comparison, yet there have been many people who, due to work requirements, have been forced to make the switch to Word, regardless of WordPerfect’s ability to read/write MS Word files.)

The trick, it seems, is knowing when the right tool IS the best tool, and knowing when the right tool is something else. As technical communicators, we need to be more focused on getting the project done the right way for our organization, while focusing less on whether or not we get to use our favorite tools.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with giving up on tools you loved for the sake of a project. Share your story in the comments, below.

The STC Board recently conducted a survey, asking for input on whether or not to allow student members to vote at the Society level. (The right of student members to vote at the chapter or community level is determined by the chapter or community’s bylaws. However their right to vote at the Society level is specifically prohibited by the Society bylaws.)

Much of the discussion on the listserv was focused on the results of the survey including whether or not to make individual responses public (anonymously). That’s an interesting discussion, and if you’d like to have it, I recommend the thread on Techwr-L. Instead, I’d like to focus on the topic, and why I think students should have the right to vote.

First, lets talk about the community level. (For the purposes of this discussion, I’m including both chapters and SIGs (Special Interest Groups) in the concept of “communities”.) Should STC communities allow student members a vote in community business? I say yes. Here’s why: Student members who join a community do so like any other STC member: they pay an additional fee to join the community. The fee to join the community is the same for students as for regular members. Their membership in the community, therefore, represents an interest in that community and its members. From that standpoint, I can’t see why student members should be treated any differently than regular members of the community.

Some people believe that student members–because they are students–are less reliable than regular members. Maybe they think this is because Society-level membership for students is less expensive, so students are less committed to the profession and thus the community. I disagree. First, I think it is erroneous to assume all student members are typical college age students. That simply isn’t true. There are lots of student members who, mid-career, have gone back to school to improve their skills, or get an advanced degree to help improve their marketability. Are some student members typical 18-25 year olds? Yes. But certainly not all, so it is unfair to judge the group based on our perceptions (or stereotypes) of 18-25 year olds.

Some people believe that those students who are in the 18-25 year old group are too inexperienced to provide a balanced perspective on what the community direction should be. To me, that just sounds like age discrimination. In the United States, we allow these people to serve in the military and we allow them to vote in political elections. We expect them to research the issues and vote based on their beliefs. Do we somehow believe that an STC member is qualified to vote for the US President, but can’t understand the complexities of STC, and so therefore shouldn’t be allowed to vote in Society issues? I don’t buy it.

I also believe that student members are hopefully learning the latest trends and technologies, and can provide the Society with needed perspective regarding these issues. When I was in my undergrad English program with a tech comm emphasis ten years ago, I was taking classes on XML programming–a class that directly affected my ability to get my first job out of college. I believe many of our student members are learning using the latest software and tech comm tools. Let’s hear what they think about trends in the field and how we can solve some of the problems we face. A different perspective on an old problem is sometimes what is needed to solve it.

At the Society-level, I think the same reasoning applies.

Some argue that because student members paid lower dues than regular members, the student members are less inclined to feel ownership in the Society, or care about the issues they would be voting on. I don’t think that is a fair argument. I would be interested to know how many “regular” members have their STC dues paid for (wholly or partly) by their employers. I’d also be interested to know how many students have their STC dues paid for by their educational institutional.  My personal experience is this: When I was a student STC member during my undergrad years, I paid my own dues. All of them. And because I was a student, it was a bigger chunk of my total income. Every job I’ve had since I graduated (three companies) has paid for my STC dues. Now I recognize that isn’t the case for all members. Many of our regular members are paying out of their pockets, but I know that many people are having their STC dues paid (at least in part) by their employer. Plus, most of our regular members are paying a lower overall portion of their annual income to STC dues than manyof our student members.

Considering all of that, I think that our Student members joined because they have an interest in the profession and the Society. Most of them are paying out of their (smaller) pocket to be a member. Many of our regular members are not. I don’t think that lower membership fees for students is, of itself, a reason to deny them a vote in Society business. In fact, I can’t think of any compelling reason why students shouldn’t be allowed to vote.

When the Intermountain Chapter presents its new bylaws next month, you will almost certainly see in them the right guaranteed to all members–student and otherwise–the right to vote in chapter business. I hope the Society-level board will carefully consider their reasoning for not allowing student members to vote, to see if the reasoning is valid.

Do you disagree with me? Let me know your thoughts on student membership voting in the comments below.

If you are looking for some great technical communication blogs, you should start with Mindtouch’s list. There are some great, great people on that list. I’m proud to be included among such illustrious company!

This new newsletter, MadNewz, will primarily be written by community members. The inaugural newsletter is a commentary post featuring ten “best practices” for single sourcing. (Read it.)

In this first newsletter, the author uses a conversational, informal tone that doesn’t sound like corporate-speak (which I think was intentional). It contains some useful information for current Flare users, the primary audience. This is a cool idea, as it will give community members a chance to contribute and let their ideas and work be showcased by MadCap. The bottom of the article includes an e-mail address to write to if you would like to contribute to a future article.

Some things I would change: first, the weird gradient background doesn’t work for me. It distracts me from what I’m reading, which isn’t great design. Second, it was only after I read the article twice that I noticed the author’s information in the sidebar. I would have preferred to see the author’s name beneath the post title. When I’m reading articles on the web, I generally tend to ignore sidebars because they generally include navigational information, or other content not directly relevant to the article I’m reading. I found it confusing that the author info was in the sidebar—so much so that I almost posted here that I was disappointed that the author wasn’t given credit. These are very minor shortcomings, however.

All in all, I’m pleased with the direction, and look forward to some quality community-driven content in the newsletter.

(Googling is cheating, just so you know. Remember the honor code?)

How many triangles can you find in the following diagram?

Hint: Drawing and using a highlighter to mark each triangle is helpful so you can be sure you don’t double-count or miss one.

Updated 6/16/2010 – Here is the answer:

IP info: I created the image myself in Illustrator and the animation movie in Photoshop. Here is the license for both the image and the movie answer:

(Triangle Image by Technically Speaking is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.)

I think it is an honor to be listed. I got a text message from my colleague, Tom Johnson, who writes another listed blog, I’d Rather Be Writing. We are both listed in the “Technical Communication and Science Communication” category.

Check out some of the other blogs on the list. And thanks to Bloggie Talkie for the including Technically Speaking on the list!

The CBS Evening News recently reported on the dangers posed by digital photo copy machines. Essentially, every new copy machine made since 2002 has a built-in hard drive that keeps a copy of every document that is copied, scanned, or faxed by that machine.

Here is the story: (You can see the same story on CBS’s own site.)

Watch CBS News Videos Online

I think back on the copies I’ve made in the last year, which include:

• Copies of the listing form for our condo
• Copies of each offer we made on houses (there were 3)
• Copies of all the documents related to the purchase of our new house, including detailed financial statements and bank statements
• Copies of my tax returns including W2 and other documentation with private information

…And that is what I can think of off the top of my head.

I made some of those copies or scanned the documents at places like Kinkos, using my work copier/scanner and copies were done at my mortgage company, my title company, as well as the buyer and seller’s mortgage and title companies.

I had no idea that copiers were storing that kind of information. Did you?

However, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it. I can’t control how the hospital copies my medical charts. I can’t control how the mortgage or title companies make copies of documents.

We live in a world where HIPPA and other privacy laws require paper copies of these documents to be securely disposed of, yet what about the digital versions of those same documents? How are we to protect our private information?

I know, this is normally a tech comm related blog. But I just loved this message.

Okay. Back to work.

I love my iPod touch. I am green with envy every time I see somebody using an iPad. However, in the current market, I’ll never be an iPhone owner, and I doubt I’ll be getting an iPad. (Though, dear, father’s day and my birthday are happening in the same week, next month…) I don’t want a phone from AT&T, and frankly, I’m kind of annoyed at Apple over the whole Adobe Flash support issue.

I’m glad to see Android gaining market share. Products are improved through competition. As competitors like Andorid and Blackberry increase market share, Apple will have to adjust if they are to continue competing. Maybe they will even be forced to rethink their refusal to allow Adobe Flash on iPhone-OS devices. As Android and Blackberry user bases widen, application developers will increase their support for non-iPhone platforms, which will improve the application markets for all devices.

You have to admit, when Apple releases a new device, the world oohs and awes about it, because Apple makes some pretty incredible products. Owning one of those products, especially in the early adoption phase, is something of a status symbol. However, other handheld OS developers are closing the gap between their devices and Apple’s, and there are some really cool products running operating systems like Android. In some cases, Android is already leading the way, forcing Apple to play catch up.

So, as a current iPod touch user, I say “Congratulations Android!” Because my next device may or may not be from Apple. I won’t decide until I see who is willing to give me the features I want from my device and right now, it is pretty hard to say who that will be.

This was my first conference since the Twitter revolution changed how attendees interact with conference presenters. I loved using the conference hashtag (#stc2010) for my tweets, as well as for searching other tweets about the conference. Twitter was such a handy way to share short tidbits of knowledge we were gaining at the conference, it served as an instant feedback method for presenters, and it was a great way to connect with other people at the conference for evening social activities.

If you want to see a list of tweets about the conference, go to Twitter and search for the #stc10 hashtag, or just click here (I did the “hard” work for you).

One of my favorite parts of the conference was meeting, in-person, people from the tech comm profession that I have seen or interacted with online. I really enjoyed meeting everybody at the conference, and it adds a new dimension to the online conversation when you’ve actually met somebody.

I attended lots of interesting sessions. The presentations, by an large, were fantastic. Kudos go to the STC conference committee for picking such great presenters and presentations. For every session of the conference, there were literally 3 or more sessions I wanted to attend. What is great about Summit is that conference attendees can go to the STC website and view Summit @ A Click, where you can see almost all of the presentations from the most recent conference. This isn’t up yet for this year’s conference, but it will be in the next couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to that.

As an almost-chapter-president, I thought the conference was inspiring, and it energized me for the coming year. I’m excited to serve the Intermountain chapter as the incoming president, and I think we are going to have a great year.

I’ve already reached out to our chapter members to inform them of the activities that are coming up, but I want you all to know that you don’t have to be a chapter member to participate. These events include:

• May BBQ and Social. At this pot-luck event, we will have social interaction with other tech comm people in the area. Feel free to bring your family. Please RSVP (see the link) so we can know how much meat to bring.
• June e-Learning Event. Lunch is provided at this half-day event where we will listen to three different presentations on e-Learning. Registration for this event is $15.00 (regardless of STC membership).

We will also be holding our annual business meeting on Friday September 17th in the evening.

I invite those tech comm professionals in the greater Salt Lake area to attend all of these events, regardless of your membership in STC.  We want to build a strong tech comm community in the intermountain area, and we need your help to do it!