Resources: tips, tricks and reflections
Practical articles on technical communication — how to structure, clarify and circulate knowledge.
Having a hard time retaining customers? Think technical documentation.
Do you put a lot of effort into finding new customers year after year, but don’t always succeed in building a lasting relationship with them? Let’s take a minute to look over some figures…
Read the articleThe Topic-based Method: Giving Good Directions
As any travel writer knows, readers must be lead to the right destination with suggested itineraries to help them make the most of their trip. The same principle applies to technical writers using the…
Read the articleThe Topic-based Method: A Guide in the Right Direction
In the topic-based method, every topic meets a goal and so generally corresponds to just one type of information. In our last article, The Topic-based Method, we compared documentation to a chain of islands,…
Read the articleThe Topic-based Method
In technical documentation, everyone knows the topic-based method is a must. But what is it exactly? In the topic-based method, every topic stands alone Every topic should be independent. This means that when you’re…
Read the articleIdentifying and Writing for Your Users’ Goals
Goal-oriented documentation is effective documentation. In this article, we’ll look at how to identify your users’ goals and create content that meets them. Go ahead: ask them! The first step in identifying what your…
Read the articleIdentify Your Audience
Before you start writing, even before you think about content, format and technical details, you must first identify your audience. Your typical users While you can’t imagine every reader who may eventually pick up…
Read the articleMyth 5: Technical Documentation Is Useless
Just use the product. Push a few buttons. Shake, shake. Kick! Okay, it’s still not working. Make a few phone calls. You’ll figure it out! Right? Hmm… Actually, a user’s manual might be handy…
Read the articleMyth 4: Technical Documentation Should Be an Inside Job
Many managers think that because their staff knows their products like the back of its hand, documentation is best produced in-house. Reality Contrary to what some may think, outsourcing your technical documentation may be…
Read the articleMyth 3: Technical documentation? Boring!
For many people, technical documentation is uninteresting because of all the dry facts and information it presents. Reality Okay, it might be true that technical documentation rarely has exciting information: there is no action…
Read the articleMyth 2: Technical Documentation Is Expensive
Legend would have it that technical documentation is frightfully expensive, devouring your budget in one toothy bite. Technical documentation projects are spooky expenditures that haunt your company like skeletons in the closet… Aren’t they?…
Read the articleMyth 1: Nobody Reads Technical Documentation
Your clients don’t consult your technical documentation? They’d rather work it out “the hard way,” even if it means making a few mistakes and wasting some time, before they resort to opening your user…
Read the articleA question about your documentation?
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