Scriptorium

His responsibilities include content strategy analysis, automating production and localization tasks (often with XML-based workflows), and managing schedules and budgets for complex consulting projects.

Alan guides books through the entire publication process as the manager of Scriptorium’s imprint, Scriptorium Press. He is also the coauthor of Content Strategy 101, The State of Structured Authoring, and Technical Writing 101.

As a technical editor for Fujitsu Network Switching in 1994, Alan rewrote and reorganized the flagship document for a phone switch, and he was the primary editor of English content that was translated from Japanese. While at Fujitsu, Alan began working with element definition documents (EDDs) in structured FrameMaker (then known as FrameBuilder).

In the 1990s as a new technical writer, Alan wrote documentation for a Lexmark laser printer. He then completed the production work on the localized versions, which taught him early lessons about the importance of considering translation when implementing publishing processes.

Alan’s involvement with publishing goes back to his days at Wake Forest University, where he earned a degree in English. As an editor at the weekly student newspaper, the Old Gold & Black, he worked with a basic markup language to transmit content to a typesetting machine and also managed the first section that made the transition to desktop publishing. He later managed the paper as editor in chief. When he’s not working, he’s eating (preferably pastry or chocolate), reading, traveling, or scoping out bargains.

Follow Alan on Twitter at @alanpringle