The convergence of information science and tech comm
Until I started working at Scriptorium, my educational and work background was in information and library science.
Webcast: DITA 101
In this webcast recording, Sarah O’Keefe gives an overview of DITA, one of the major structured authoring standards in tech comm. You’ll also learn about DITA concepts, the business case for DITA, and typical scenarios where DITA is used.
Encoding context-sensitive help information in DITA reltables
The problem: DITA does not provide a default mechanism for encoding context-sensitive help information. This article discusses a new approach that avoids specialization and provides a maintainable approach for context-sensitive help mapping.
Design isn’t free
The mantra of XML is that you separate content from formatting. Authors do content; formatting happens later. During a panel discussion at last week’s (excellent) UA Europe conference, I realized that this is only half the story.
Let go of your silo
In reality, collaborative authoring is little more than a euphemism for the idea that “anyone can write.”
That’s Tom Johnson’s take on collaborative authoring in his latest blog post. The writer in me sympathizes deeply because the “anyone can write” attitude is a direct challenge to the careers of professional writers.
Cloudy with a chance of WOMBAT
For remote work, file management in the cloud is way easy. Other methods, not so much…
New to tech comm? Expect the unexpected
When I started at Scriptorium a year ago, I knew almost nothing about tech comm. I knew what technical content was, having used it many times, but I’d never really thought about how it was produced.
Vendor webcast: An overview of authoring DITA with oXygen
In this webcast recording, George Bina shows you how to create DITA content from zero to a full deliverable using oXygen. The full deliverable leads to multiple publishing formats.
Breaking the batch habit
The batch publishing paradigm is deeply ingrained in technical communication, and breaking out of it is going to make the transition from desktop publishing to structured authoring look easy.
When perceptions bite tech comm’s backside
It can be a mightily sucktacular experience when you discover what other people think technical communicators do.
