My presentation for the STC Summit in Dallas is finally done. The session, “Managing in an XML environment,” is scheduled for Tuesday, May 4, at 4 p.m. Central time.
I hope to see you in Dallas, but if you can’t make the conference in person, I will also do a webcast version of this presentation on June 15 at 1 p.m. Eastern time. That event is free but does require registration.
I’m sure you’re wondering about the duck. In my presentation, I will be introducing a formula for measuring documentation quality. It’s based on Quality, Usability, and some other factors that spell out, you guessed it, QUACK.
And if that’s not enough to bring you to the session, I also have several other animals in my slides. Consider yourself warned.
Can’t make it to the STC Summit? Visit our virtual booth to win goodies!
April 26th, 2010 by Alan Pringle
Sarah O’Keefe and Matt Arnold will be representing Scriptorium at the STC Summit in Dallas next week. If you’re attending the conference, be sure to visit our booth to meet Sarah and Matt, pick up some chocolate, and get a free copy of our updated white paper compilation, The Compass (while supplies last).
If you’re not attending the STC Summit, you still have a chance to pick up conference swag from us by visiting our virtual booth—a short survey that asks the same questions we ask conference attendees. During the survey, you can also ask us questions about any challenges you’re facing with developing and distributing technical content.
Complete the survey by May 5th (the day the STC Summit ends), and we’ll enter you into a drawing to win one of six copies of The Compass—and the winners get some chocolate, too. No Scriptorium conference booth would be complete without chocolate!
I’m not attending the conference, either, so you can consider me your virtual host at the virtual booth. I’ll “see” you there! (And you better hope I don’t eat all the chocolate before you get there.)
P.S. If you are attending the conference, you can see Sarah at three events:
That’s a new phrase to me, and it was new to Maria Langer, too, as she noted in her An Eclectic Mind blog. As part of a podcast panel, she was asked to offer advice on how to become a power blogger. Some of her fellow panelists mentioned the quantity of posts, but Maria’s focus was elsewhere:
The number of blog posts a blogger publishes should have nothing to do with whether he’s a power blogger. Instead, it should be the influence the blogger has over his readership and beyond. What’s important is whether a blog post makes a difference in the reader’s life. Does it teach? Make the reader think? Influence his decisions? If a blogger can consistently do any of that, he’s a power blogger.
I couldn’t agree more. I appreciate reading any blog that gives me useful information or analysis that hadn’t occurred to me. For example, I recently had issues with a new PC I’m using at home as a media center. It was not picking up all the channels in my area, and an excellent blog post helped me solve the problem with little fuss. To me, that author is a power blogger.
What I frankly find irritating—and certainly not my worth my time—are blogs that are basically what I’ll call “link farms”: posting links or excerpts from other blogs with no valuable information added. I’m quite the cynic, so when I stumble upon such a blog, I figure the blogger is merely trying to generate Google hits and ad revenue, is lazy, or both. Quantity—particularly when said quantity is composed of rehashed material from other bloggers—does not a power blogger make.
When it comes to contributing to this blog, I try to write posts that have a least one nugget of helpful information, analysis, or humor, and I think that’s true of the posts from my fellow coworkers. (At the risk of sounding like I’m bragging about my coworkers, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read one of their posts and thought, “That’s smart!” or “That’s cool!”) Frankly, I’d rather not write anything at all than to publish something just because it’s been a few days since I posted. And I have a lot more respect for bloggers who write quality posts once in a while over those who put out lots of material that is borrowed from elsewhere.
And on that note, I’ll leave you with a short clip showing superheroes using their powers for a practical solution. (See, I’m trying to entertain you, too!)
New White Paper: Configuring fonts in FOP and DITA OT
October 19th, 2009 by David Kelly
We recently updated a new instance of DITA OT 1.4.3 to create PDFs of Scriptorium proposals from DITA source files. We wanted to emulate the original proposal template, which included a lot of fonts that were not configured in the DITA OT’s PDF rendering engine, FOP.
Remembering the nuances of font configuration for FOP turned into a lengthy exercise. After seeing requests for help on configuring fonts in the DITA user’s group forum and FOP’s Nabble forum, we decided to publish a white paper addressing the subject. It covers FOP configuration, DITA OT configuration to use FOP-configured fonts, and how to reference configured fonts in the DITA OT’s XSL-FO style sheets.
In what now seems like a previous lifetime, I began my college career studying fine art. I chose this program because I’d been drawing incessantly for years and managed to secure an art scholarship. I had no idea what I would do with the degree, I just knew I loved drawing and studying art history.
I specifically remember the turning point in my college career as an artist. The assignment was to draw a supersized version of any object. For some reason, I chose a hamburger. (More on that choice later.) So I took great pains to capture every detail–fresh water drops on the lettuce leaves, the oozing slice of cheese, the thick, juicy meat patty, the sesame seeds on the bun. I thought it looked pretty realistic.
The instructor’s assessment haunts me to this day. He said it was the most disgusting, unappetizing hamburger he’d ever seen. (He was NOT a good professor.) My classmates froze in silence, hardly believing his cruel response to a fledgling artist’s precious work. I was heartbroken and humiliated. After such a traumatic event, no wonder I became a vegetarian.
That was a turning point for me. I decided to switch majors to English literature because I loved to read. Again, I had no idea what I would do with an English lit. degree, which is not an uncommon situation. If you took one class in English lit., you know how many essays students have to write and the “valuable” feedback one gets from the professors. That experience prepared me for what would come later.
Years after graduating and working in dead-end jobs, I made my way into technical writing and consulting, and the rest is history. Now I get feedback from editors and customers, and it actually is (mostly) helpful. Plus, I get to learn about new tools and technologies on a regular basis and hang around with other cool technical writers.
My presentation for the STC Summit in Dallas is finally done. The session, “Managing in an XML environment,” is scheduled for Tuesday, May 4, at 4 p.m. Central time.
