Colored Writings

Interview-Paul Trotter

2011-04-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

Mentorship Queries

2010-08-07T01:49:00.000-07:00

Mentoring has numerous benefits that are independent of position, function, domain, technology, and so on. To highlight these benefits in my column, I would like to draw on experiences from real life – both from the point of view of mentors and mentees. Following are a few few questions asked, and I have tried responding to them with sincerity.

Who has been the best mentor in your career/life? Why? Makrand Pandit (Mak) has had a great impression on my professional life. He is talented, a man of great repute and managing skills are extraordinary. Mak allows you to grow as a professional. His mentoring skills are methodical and exemplary. He provides you a scenario and allows you to solve the problems by your own reasoning. Extremely polite and calm at situations, Mak teaches you the basic values of life and yet remains humble. He is the best mentor any one could have. Mak has made a great impression on my professional life. Watching him work is a lesson in itself.

Can you recall a couple of specific instances where your mentor’s guidance helped you do the right thing?Yes, the situation is very much fresh to this day. I was fresh to technical writing and much like every newbie followed the various technical writing mailing lists.Once I gathered some encouragement to respond one of the queries that was received with flak by a lot of people. Disheartened and dismayed, I decided to unsubscribe from the mailing list, but then I received an email from Mak. He then had a call with me and discussed where I was incorrect. We went through the email once again, and this time he showed and underlined the errors committed in the email. There were mistakes in grammar and sentence composition, but the manner in which he made me realize was a lesson. I become far more confident after that day.

Who has been the best mentee for you? Why?: I have been mentees to couple of my students. It will be bad if I take their names for confidential purposes. But, the gentleman who lost his job during the recession phase of last year and yet took the STC India Mentorship program needs a special mention and applause.

What do you think are the top 3-5 reasons for successful mentor-mentee relationships? I believe whatever you do you need to see that the other party listens. So participation is by far the most important thing that you need to have for successful mentor-mentee relationship. The second thing, which ticks is learning from both the ends. A mentor should make it a point to test the mentee' knowledge during the completion of the program and acknowledge if he/she has learnt something new. And, finally, you do not boss around in this relationship. When two person agrees to get into this relationship, they should consider both of them as equal parties seeking knowledge. Only then can the seeds of successful relationship work.

What makes the mentor-mentee relationship go wrong? What would be your advice to mentors and mentees to avoid such situations? Do not have bossy attitude, refrain from false conviction and statements, do not make false promises, stop making fun of each and be professional- I guess all of the points mentioned by me needs to be avoided for mentor-mentee relationship to not go wrong.

Advice to mentors- Understand and analyze the mentee' profile even though the mentorship manager may look into it but still you should make the final call,ask the mentee to come up with a list of key areas that she/he wants to cover up in the program and prepare your agenda based on the program, keep a diary and record the important points, listen to mentee' confusion/dilemma, be emphatic, observe mentee' growth, give exercises to test the mentee' aptitude and skills, never scold them and allow them to make mistakes but teach them carefully, be punctual and keep it as much professional as you can.

Advice to mentee'- have your objectives set and get it ratified by the mentee before the program starts, clear your doubts as and when you have, do not call up at wrong times and instead write emails, be inquisitive and punctual, never shout at your mentor but correct them if he/she is wrong.

STC India Career Day and Regional Conference, 2010

2010-07-26T00:11:00.001-07:00

Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup-Supported by STC India at Misys on January 30,2010

2010-01-14T06:13:00.001-08:00

Dear Members,

Happy New Year to all of you! Here are the details to this year' first meetup:

The Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup-Supported by STC India is pleased to announce a half-day learning session on January 30, 2010 at Misys Software Systems, Bangalore.

Misys is sponsoring this session.

Please make sure that you are present at the venue by 10:00 AM (latest) to avoid inconvenience to the speakers and the participants.

To ensure higher security for all the delegates, Misys mandates the following:
- Identity Card
- Business Card
- Online Confirmation Letter

Don't worry if you don't have all the items listed above, if you are having anyone of these, it should be fine to allow you inside the office premises.
………………………………………………………………………………….

Both STC and non-STC members can attend the session for FREE. However, registration is MANDATORY. Please note that the registrations for the sessions close on January 28, 2010. For

registration, please drop in an email to rguptaz at gmail dot com.

You can read the details at http://techwriter.mee...
……………………………………………………………………………………….

Agenda
------------
10:00 AM – 10.30 AM – Registration
10:35 AM to 11:35 AM – "How content is created and consumed" by Peter Yorke
11:40 AM – 12:10 PM - Coffee Break
12:15 PM – 1:15 PM – "About Madcap Flare" by Venkatesh Iyengar

About the Presentations:
-----------------------------
Topic: "How content is created and consumed"

Synopsis: This presentation focuses on new trends in creating content and the blurring lines between marketing and technical communication. It talks about democratic creation of content,

transparency in communication and examines new trends in content dissemination. The presentation is designed to appeal to the tech writer, marketing manager and man on the street!!

Speaker: Peter Yorke is founder and independent consultant at Yorke Communications Private Limited and has around 20+ years of experience in branding, corporate communications, content

management, marketing, high-tech public relations, training and technical communication. Prior to starting Yorke Communications, he was the Vice President – Marketing and Communications

at Oracle Financial Services (formerly i-flex solutions). Peter' expertise includes Marketing, Corporate Communications, Internal Communications, Media Management, Branding, Name Change

Communication and so on. More details about the speaker: www.linkedin.com/in/peteryorke65

Topic: " About MadCap Flare"

Synopsis: MadCap Flare is a professional authoring software tool for technical writers, documentation specialists, and user assistance developers. Whether the writer is creating projects for

high-end digital print publishing, desktop publishing, help systems, or web-based online publishing, the writer has a complete set of professional help authoring and content development

tools.Authoring can be done in structured topic-based content development for powerful, and sophisticated information delivery. This documentation tool allows the writers to easily create,

manage and reuse content with conditional text, variables, snippets, outlines, and more. Please note that Venkatesg will talk about its important features, creating snippets, variables, and

generating output. The presentation will be for 45 minutes and Venkat proposes to reserve 15 minutes for answering the questions.

Speaker: Venkatesh Iyengar works for Consona Software, Bangalore as a Senior Technical Writer. He was earlier associated with Subex Systems, LogicaCMG, i2 Technologies/DELMIA, and

Symphony Services. Venkatesh has worked on diverse products and domains including telecom, CRM, SRM, PLM, and ERP. In a writing career spanning 10 years, Venkatesh has traveled

extensively and has delivered many types of user documentation to a varied audience. His hobbies include teaching financially-challenged children with learning tools and what he holds very

dear to his heart is leading team of friends to provide assistance to people undergoing oncological treatment.

Venue
---------
Misys Software Solutions (India) Pvt.Ltd,
3rd Floor, Saraswathi Conference Room,
Eagle Ridge, Embassy Golf Links Business Park,
Off Intermediate Ring Road, Koramangala
Bangalore 560071
Cell: 9900171161

Misys office is situated next to the CSC building and Opposite to the uSigma office.

You can also get the directions by clicking the following URL-
http://maps.google.co... wloc=A

We look forward to see all of you there.

Thanks & Regards
Rajdeep

Seek your inputs for a Social Network Portal in Technical Communication

2010-01-12T07:35:00.000-08:00

Folks,

I am in a process of designing a social network portal for technical communication and user experience design. I am planning to use Joomla as the open source tool for this purpose. To facilitate the process, I seek your assistance in two ways:

1) Please tell me what are the things that you feel that a social network portal in technical communication should consist of? I wish to make the portal interactive, so if you could tell me if blogs, quizzes, forums and so on can be of much help? Or, suggest me some ideas.

2) I need a web designer preferably someone who has worked in Joomla. I have the prototype ready and just want the designer' assistance in implementing the process. The designer will be paid a good remuneration. I can talk to the person about the remuneration part offline.

Appreciate if you can respond to me at holypriest at gmail dot com.

Thanks & Regards,
Rajdeep

Calling Articles for the Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup

2009-12-19T02:34:00.000-08:00

Folks:
Good news!

Come January 2010, Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup (http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/) is starting of with something special! We are going to bring you a surplus of articles in technical communication, usability and user experience design. No need of educating yourself as to who will be writing those articles. For this is where, YOU stand to grab a spotlight. The idea is to select an article every month and post it to the Bangalore TW Meetup as well as to the award-winning STC India' bi-monthly Ezine INDUS.

Do's and Don'ts
The word limit for articles is 600 to 1000 words. Do include your recent passport-sized scanned snapshot and a short bio about yourself, in around 40 words in the email. Do remember we will ONLY entertain articles, which are original and written by you. Stupid me, but if you are planning to copy or use someone' else works, please remember to get an acknowledgement from the respective authors. In no case, Bangalore TW Meetup will be responsible or liable for your content in the article. So, hopefully you will be original and allow us to read YOUR thoughts. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to see how your writing is judged and am sure, we all would love to read those valuable inputs and improve on our writing skills, for that is the ultimate objective.

Send me your articles on or before January 20, 2010.

How to submit?
Submit your article by email. My email ID is holypriest@ gmail.com. Our editors panel comprising of will be doing a more thorough edit of your work and will send you the red lined version for your article. You will then need to acknowledge the reviewer copy and send out your final draft. We will send you an email once your article gets posted to the Meetup site.

If you have any concerns or suggestions, appreciate if you write to me off-list. My email ID is holypriest at gmail dot com.

We look forward to hear from you.

Best wishes
Rajdeep

Calling all Presenters for the Meetup

2009-12-15T09:36:00.000-08:00

All

Hope all of you are doing fine. I am writing this email to know your interest in conducting learning sessions at your office premises. As you know, the Bangalore Meetup for Technical Writers is a voluntary outfit managed and run by professionals with full-time careers in technical writing.

It will thus be of great help if you can come out and assist me in this work. Please have a discussion with your training or HR folks if they will be interested to organize a learning session at their premises. All we need is a conference room with projectors and enough seating arrangements to hold a capacity of 40-50 participants. That is all!

I am also looking out for presenters for the meetup sessions; in case you have a topic and need a platform to introduce it before the writers- we will be more than happy to do it for you. All you need to do is to send out an email to me citing your topic gist and boom! I will get in touch with you. But be sure, that you have loads of energy in stored because all you know you may soon be a regular presenter to the meetups.

We have been keeping the registrations FREE and we intend to continue it in 2010. But! let's get some new faces, and loads of energy.

Come on folks! spread the word, and help me in this venture. You can write to me at holypriest at gmail dot com
I look forward to see my mailbox full with your emails, :)

Do not forget to send across your feedback and suggestions too.

Have a wonderful and prosperous 2010!

Cheers
Rajdeep

My Take on the 11th STC India Annual Conference @ Bangalore

2009-12-06T03:21:00.000-08:00

"From the very first moment, it was more than a conference. It was
undoubtedly a carnival, which saw knowledge transforming into
valuable assets".
It was an exemplified occasion to see how a
voluntary organisation can rise up to deliver excellence in every
form, only by the sheer will power and perseverance of its
volunteers. No one can befit and earn this tag over and over again
but the India Chapter of Society for Technical Communication. It
showcased another successful and quality conference this year,
and who would say Recession has hit us.

The 11th Annual Conference organised in Bangalore by its ever enthusiastic
volunteers proved to be a knowledge enriching experience.
A round of applause to conference volunteers and especially
to Gururaj for organizing such a wonderful conference.A herculean
task but done with a smile!

I attended the pre-conference workshop conducted by Vasanth V
and Narassimhan K at Sasken on December 2. Vasanth' session was
on Documentation Program Management, and as usual his content
and style of delivery was excellent. The session had couple of role
play exercises and it added more vigor as some people
surprisingly found them in the shoes of program manager,
technical writer, doc manager and so on. The situations and role
plays were based on actual accidents set in Indian context. And, it
made it more interesting.

The Leadership session was invigorated further by Narssimhan
session' on 'Zen and the Art of Leadership'. The session made the
attendees out there to think beyond their day-to-day lives and
ponder on a lot of aspects. Questions that made me wonder were:
"Do you actually think you should be thankful for giving?" and so on.
The attendees actively participated in the session and shared
their personal experiences on the same. He also used the movie
Tom Cruise starer THE LAST SAMURAI to elucidate his points.

The main conference took place on the 4 and 5 December at the Lalit
Ashok. Over 570+ participants from all over India and certain parts
across the globe comprising of technical writers, freelancers, doc
managers, program managers, CEO and VPs and so on attended
the event. It had something for everyone, right from freshers in
tech writing to experience professionals. So, I had options at my
hands to participate in certain sessions or not.

On the 4 December, I got a chance to witness and listen to
certain experts engaged in a debate: "Do Indian Writers need to
get a degree in Technical Writing from the US and UK universities."
Mak and Gyanesh had done a survey on the same recently and used
the forum to share their report.My personal opinion is with due
regards to quality of education in the universities of India,
so long we do not have something substantially good like the
content and course structure from a Utah university and so on in
technical writing, I think it is good to have a degree in
technical writing from a reputed and a good university from US or UK.

Kumar' session on 'Asset, Liability, Income, or Expense' was worth
attending. Kumar spoke how the technical communication
function and the underlying processes affect, directly and
indirectly, the balance sheet and income statement of a business.
enterprise. Being a financial and cost analyst at some point of his
career, Kumar confidently showed the relative significance of the
technical communication function varies depending on the nature
of business -- product development vs. technical communication
services.

Next, I loved the presentation by Gary Manders on
documentation risks. Gary highlighted the areas of the business,
which are often subjected to extreme scrutiny to streamline
operational efficiencies, standardize procedures, and secure
quality levels.

Michelle kept me awake with her wonderful talk on Accuracy of
Command Documentation. Cisco has created a Java-based tool
that compares the documented CLI syntax with syntax extracted
from the source code and identifies inaccurately-documented CLI
syntax. Wonderful!

I would have love to attend the panel discussion for 'TechComm
2010', but then as fate would have it I fell down and had to seek
some medical treatment.:)

Next, I found myself as one of the speakers for the 'Project
Management Progression'. Introduced for the first time in the STC
India Conferences by Sandhya, it was a beautiful experience. I
spoke on estimation of GUI based doc projects at a stretch for 60
minutes. To a question asked by a participant of estimating an API
document, the answer is relative estimating technique is
applicable.

The STC India AGM was held next and the new council was
elected. Congrats to them!

After that it was the time to put on the dancing shoes. It was an
awesome evening with networking and cocktail dinner. Most of the
participants showed that they can do something in the
entertainment zone, if they were to quit technical writing. I
realised that I am a pathetic dancer, and why I failed
to qualify for the Dance Premier League. :)

The following morning had some interesting presentations. Inspite
of getting stuck in the MG Road traffic and missing the new
elected Admin Council introduction to the gathering (I am sure I
would love to attend Vikram' presentation on Time Management soon.
I need it badly :),I turned up to hear 'Managing
Content Using Joomla'.The overall idea of the workshop is to
enable users build their own Web sites using Joomla with the help
of Joomla’s extensive extension library and to empower the
participants to easily manage the content on their own sites by
themselves.

Next, I got a chance to listen to Joakin Nyback speak on 'Technical
Product Information from a PLM perspective'. The talk covered
namely in the aspects of : Overview of quality attributes, Increase
focus on documentation quality, Overview of quality metrics and
Quality escalation process.

Honestly, it was a good experience to attend Dr.Manjula's
workshop on 'The Product with No Manual'. Like many, I too got revived,
rejuvenated and re-energized through the simple yet effective yoga
and breathing exercises.

I have used a little bit of Doxygen and was looking forward to
attend Alok speaking more on it. Alok beautifully spoke on the
understanding the drawbacks of static API documentation approach,
Ascertaining the requirements for automating API documentation
and Evaluating the available alternatives (JavaDoc, Doxygen, etc).

Suraj Jayan's presentation on the upcoming tools was good.
Personally got a lot of information on Google Wave and will not
mind using it on technical documentation.

An interesting quiz rounded up the event. Congrats to all the winners!
Mak was once again in the peak of thing as he answered most of the
audience questions. Surprisingly, Mak was curious to know the incorrect
answers.
I could never figure out why, but that is Mak. :)

The 11th Annual Conference was unique and different in many ways.
The conference content and agenda was audience based and not topic
based.

I thoroughly enjoyed the conference, and I am sure you must have done
the same. And, as I left the venue bidding bye to all of my friends,
I felt "I had taken advantage of the professional development on offer". "And, maybe, it is a good time to ask you, "did you?"

See you at the 12th Annual Conference.

Cheers
Rajdeep

Future of Social Networking

2009-07-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

Minutes of the Novell Session

2009-04-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

Hi

I am posting this message on behalf of Binika Kumar.

Regards
Rajdeep
_________________________________________________________________________

Hi All

Here is a gist of the Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup Session at
Novell.

Event: Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup-Supported by STC India

Date: April 18, 2009

Time: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Venue: Novell Software Development India Pvt Ltd

Attendees: 40

"This is the best reception we have received till date of all the STC
sessions", the Meet-Up kicked off with these words from Rajdeep Gupta.
In his introduction speech, he was highly appreciative of Novell's
hospitality.

After registering and receiving the welcome drink and kit, the assembled
audience was welcomed by Parag Goel, Manager for Novell's TechPubs
Group.

The first presentation on “Diversifying with Value Added Services“ was
provided by Lakshmi R and Shilpa Banderkar. They jointly briefed us on
how value added services can help us explore our hidden potential and
climb up the career ladder. Instantly, the audience could bond
themselves to the discourse. Their interest was evident in the
discussions that followed. The presentation provided an insight on:

* Core responsibilities performed by us during the SDLC/DDLC phases
and the value we can add during these phases
* How to add value to the GUI/CLI review and product usability
testing
* Challenges that we can anticipate while pursuing these services
and how to overcome these challenges.

After the first session, we took a 30 minutes break to refresh ourselves
with coffee, yummy sandwiches, and Black Forest pastry.

The second presentation on "Interacting with Global Doc Teams" was
provided by Shruthy Devendra. She approached her session in an
interactive manner by probing the audience's opinions. The presentation
provided an insight on:

* Challenges that we face while interacting with Global doc teams
* How to overcome these challenges
* What are the best practices followed at Novell

The Quiz and Lucky Draw was also held and the winners were gifted
goodies. This gesture brought smiles on many a faces.

The audience was appreciative of the presentations. Rajdeep once again
thanked Novell for sponsoring the event and being a wondrous host. The
meeting ended with Parag thanking the audience and all the hosts for
making the event a success.

Please click the following URL to view the session's photos-
http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/photos/591416/

To conclude, the enthusiasm garnered in the session was astonishing.
Overall, it was a perfectly-organized and warmly-hosted event that
provided a great mix of learning and fun.

Regards,
Binika Kumar

10th STC India Conference @ Pune

2008-12-16T08:57:00.000-08:00

It is not the first time that I am penning down the minutes of the STC India Annual Conferences. Every time I jot it down, I question myself for failing to do proper justice to the STC India Annual conferences. I am sure this time I have done an OK performance. My apologies if I have missed out on something.

In years to come they will say great wine must age like STC India conferences. There is a sense of excitement as you uncork another bottle. The 10th STC India Annual conference at Pune kept the sparks flying and lived more than its expectations. The city of Pune played host to this year’s conference staged between the 11th and 13th December, 2008.

December 11:

The STC India Annual conference celebrated technical communication excellence by a Leadership day and Pre-conference workshop simultaneously. The Leadership Day sessions of STC India’s Annual Conference were held at The President Hotel, Pune. Topics ranging from “Tips on how to work with universities and colleges to start with Technical Writing Courses” to “What it takes to be a Distinguished Chapter” were discussed.

The leadership day got more stimuli with a captivating presentation by Vice Admiral SC Suresh Bangara, who used the clips of Bollywood movie “CHAK DE” to usher in the importance of leadership. He believes that leaders are born but leadership qualities can definitely be inculcated or bred amongst everyone.

Pre-conference workshops: The preconference workshops of STC India’s 10th Annual Conference were held at The President Hotel, Pune. Mahesh Gupta gave hands-on exercises to understand DITA concepts and their implementation in FrameMaker. While Vasanth educated the audience on managing technical documentation projects based on Project Management Institute and Agile project management principles.

A parallel track ran in which Sandhya Prasad educated the audience on their role in the documentation life cycle. She shared ideas on Project management tips, tools, techniques, Learn best practices on documentation project management.

December 12 & 13: Conference Days

Along with full two days of all the regular sessions: paper discussion, panel discussions, and the quiz this year Unconference sessions were introduced. Topics ranging from “Web 2.0” to “The Zen of Technical Writing- A sequel” were discussed.

Throughout the conference there were constant interaction amongst the speakers and participants were constantly networking themselves.

The highlight of the conference for me was the much-awaited panel discussion on “The economic slowdown and its impact on Technical Writing in India”. Edwin Skau presided over the session and the panel discussion included managers from different companies. The panel was of unanimous view in their decisions that technical writing will suffer due to the economic slowdown. It also urged the technical writers to start working on their weak points and utilize the time to build up their core skills and learn more on their domain.

Paresh Naik presided over the STC India Salary survey.

Amidst all this knowledge sharing, the conference was a hub for various companies to set up their respective stalls not only to share their company awareness but also to solicit feedback from the delegates. Also, there were contests organized and hordes of prizes given. The 10th STC Annual Conference at Pune proved to be a showcase of knowledge sharing and diversifying technical communication knowledge to all the quarters.

LIVE: STC INDIA ANNUAL CONFERENCE @ PUNE

2008-12-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

Every year, it keeps on becoming the much awaited event for the technical communicators in India. Last year, it witnessed a surprising turnout of 300 writers in India' "Beach City"- Goa. This year, I am glad to be a part of the 10th Annual STC India Conference at Pune.

The buzz is tremendous with most of the writers, instructional designers, usability consultants & specialists waiting to network and share knowledge amongst the counterparts. I look forward to be a part of the show this time too, in the colors of Bangalore STC India City Representative. And,who knows, the following year, you may just see me as the STC India Secretary, touchwood. I am running for the STC India Elections 2008-09.

I have been a part of STC India activities for some time now, and have attended in the past attended Bangalore and Goa conference. This year, the conference expects a turnout of 300 people, and it would not be surprising if we get a few late registrations.

I would be presenting my first STC India Annual Conference presentation along with my friend, Saravanan Manoharan, senior writer with Mtree software, Noida. We will be presenting a topic on "WIKI BASED DOCUMENTATION USING JOOMLA".

I would be using this platform to regularly update on the conference activities as and when it happens. This idea was instigated to me by my fellow colleague Sreeraj Nair. Right now, am busy with preparing the presentation and trying hard to collate information on wikis and Joomla.

Folks, I'll try to update on the proceedings as and when it happens. Please bear with me if the wi-fi facilities do not work or I get lost in the beautiful locales of Pune.

My Take on Google Chrome

2008-09-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

In Marketing parlance: Once you have a brand name, you don’t need publicity at all. Google must be wondering and thanking stars for they have managed to save cash in not marketing for their latest product- Chrome. These chaps make world class online applications, and understandably are the ruling classes of online search engine.

This was much expected; Google has been giving sleepless nights to Microsoft over the past few years, and with its own Internet Browser ‘Chrome’ – Bill Gates you need to do some serious thinking.

Chrome released this week and within a few hours finds itself in the desktops of a few hundreds of computers. This numbers will keep on adding in the days to come, and much like Gmail- Google’s own internet email application, will dominate the market soon.

My assumptions of Chrome hitting the market and being the very best has got to quite a few factors but namely with the market war on Internet Browsers. Observe the scenario: a few years back when Internet became a household name, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was the only thing available to the common man.

It was like if you wish to access the world wide web Internet Explorer were the only medium. Though Netscape was the primary browser, it soon fell down. Mozila acquired it. Within few years Mozilla came out with Firefox , which incidentally is an open source browser.

But the interesting part was it had lots of features, faster and bug free (almost). Till date though IE continues to dominate the browser scene with 50 % Firefox has slow and steady and caught up along with Apples Safari.

Faster: Initial days but Chrome is fast- real fast. Its interface is intuitive and just a few keystrokes and joom you are on. Downloading takes a lesser time compared with IE and firefox. Chrome uses Webkit (aka Apple Safari’s Engine) for rendering web pages.

By default, Chrome displays the top nine visited websites on the system on clicking a new tab. This identically gives you a preview to the history of the websites and also allows you the select any of the sites without any additional keystrokes.

The memory usage is very low when you think that it has varied security and javascript tookboxes.

It’s only released for Windows at the moment and will require sometime before its released for Linux.So all those Linux lovers, use it. Initial days. I suggest you try installing and playing with it for sometime.

I love using Google apps , and I am in Totally for it. Well guys! time will tell, but for now much like the Mcdonald's product "I am loving it"

Minutes of the Presentation at Adobe on 30th August

2008-09-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

Date: August 30, 2008

Time: 10.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.

Venue: Adobe Systems

Session 1: “Documentation Document usability testing - How to kick start” by Rajdeep Gupta.

Session 2: "Ten tips for enhancing productivity at your workplace: Tools and Processes that can be used to get the most out of your working hours" by Preran Kurnool and “Getting the most out of your help projects: Tips and Tricks with RoboHelp and Acrobat" by Mallika Yelandur.

Rajdeep Gupta started the day’s sessions after setting the meeting’s agenda and introducing the participants.

Rajdeep noted that documentation usability testing could enable users to find information to accomplish a particular task or employ a particular tool in an easy and efficient manner. He emphasized that performing usability testing on documents requires a good understanding of the users and their constraints.

Technical writers and in-house resources could do the document usability testing within a structured and detail-oriented framework. Document usability testing also involves best practices, protocols, understanding and evaluation of user feedback.

Rajdeep also detailed the document usability testing process that he employed, and explained how the testing environment was set up, the resources were identified, and the time and budget were planned. He also presented a classification of “usability errors” that he found while performing document usability testing.

Event: Bangalore TW Meetup Session-Supported by STC India

He added that the errors found should be quantified to make technical documentation more usable.

In the second session of the day, Preran provided answers to how Adobe Acrobat Professional 9 could efficiently manage document reviews. Reviewers could collaborate on the review process by seeing and building on other reviewers' comments.

The comments can be uploaded to a central repository and sorted by author, date, or page. A Review Tracker monitors the progress of shared reviews. The tool allows participants to e-mail reviewers, send e-mail reminders, or invite additional participants to a review.

Mallika introduced the attendees to RoboHelp Packager for Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), which allows technical writers to convert existing WebHelp files created with RoboHelp 7 to a powerful Adobe AIR application.

After the WebHelp is generated, technical writers can run the AIR package to develop an AIR application and send it to the users as a single file (.air). The application allows the users to add comments to the Help file and create context-sensitive help.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks by Rajdeep.

Judging a Technical Writer

2008-08-22T01:10:00.000-07:00

I have been honored to know couple of tech writers personally, who are not only brilliant in their profession but are well-cultured human beings. Thus this sought them with well earned respect from every walk of life. How do you judge a technical writer?

Obviously,writing is the first criterion, which would stand out. When you say about good writing, what generally you analyze? I won't take names here, but good writers have an immaculate hold over their language. Thus when they are writing its all about the flow; they do not find it a hard terrain. These writers are inquizitive to the core.

Everthing surprises them and they seek for more. Lets talk about a writer in a health domain who suddenly got a freelance offer. The writer has to document on Mobile Technology. I tell you these writers would have googled and gathered enough information before they appear in an interview.

They don't see it as just another work, but the sheer pleasure of documenting a software product/ technology is more than a few dollars to them. These writers believe that if they can make a novice user understand the complexities of the product, they have done a great job.

Lets face the fact: Good writers are seldom available. So, when you catch one, try to sit and learn. I had been horrible in my prime of career (I guess am little better) but thankfully, I had a senior writer helping me out. He has been a learning experience to me.

After observing me for couple of days, he took me aside one fine day and gave me certain tips. He didn't ask me to change my writing style since he believed it was good, but he found it unsuitable for Technical Writing. He told me to go through a few of the documentation guides that he had delivered.

I went through and then he asked me to analyze with my documentation. I was at sea. The first noticeable feature of his writing was clarity. Good writers write in a very clear and simple language and even though it is complex, you'll find each and every line clear.

Gathering Information is the most essential factor in Technical Writing. Belive me as good writers will tell you,"if you can gather information well, 70% of your job is done. Poor documentation happens due to lack of proper information.

" I used to accompany with my seniors when they used to interview the developers and SMEs and the way they gathered information was so immaculate.

How to have a good technical writer placed in your company? Fortunately or unfortunately, there are no tools by which you can find out.

But, I guess you need to hire someone who has an interest in technology, someone who has a knack for learning tools and domain. Prepare a questionnaire where you can feature questions on Grammar as well as Technology.

I asked once someone to write the steps for preparing a cup of coffee. She couldn't write it properly. How on the earth could I expect her to write on something on Technology?

Learning with Me

2008-07-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

For those of you who joined me for the first time- seminars, conferences, meetups, chatrooms, personal encounters etc, I am a learner. So, if the topic throws enthusiast glances-ah-this-dude knows everything, than you are completely mistaken. I am with a capital LEARNER. I have been in this technical writing industry for nearly 5 years now, and officially hold the designation of a Technical Writer and Lead Writer for sometime.But call me a WRITER,and I am more open to take you for a drink.

In the capacity of writing software, I have closely encountered with clients,managed project documentation teams, estimated the time and effort of projects and sometimes acted as a consultant. So, I am not going to talk anything about this NOW. Alright, when this opportunity knocked at my door of being a consultant for setting up documentation services for a company, I was like hmmm, ahhh, should I or not?

There are distinct possibilities that may arise and lead you to say NO. First and foremost, if you like me are working for an organization than please note that it's a dangerous thing. So get yourself to do a non-voluntary services. My first suggestion is consultant brings contacts. You work with clients in their spaces and you should try to build contacts in every fashion

Scrolling at your will

2008-03-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

As you scroll to the bottom of the page, more content loads up. So there is effectively no end to the scroll (at least till the content ends) and no pagination.

A demo of this control is at:

http://www.symfony-project.org/demo/pager.html

The most seamless application of this is in Google Reader. I’ve been using it for a year, but never noticed the way content is added based on the scroll!

Epic Editor Session @SUN MICROSYSTEMS

2007-12-24T20:43:00.000-08:00

Straight from the Assistant Organizer's Desk

2007-12-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers,

At the very outset let me wish one and all seasons greets for a fantastic Xmas and a prosperous 2008. Don't forget to invite me for the new year party :) I promise I am going to behave well :)

Coming back to the subject this is the time of the year when I usually look back at the activities that Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup carried out for the year 2007. Trust me, we had lots of sessions and activities this year. But I'll keep the email short and crisp as some usability guru opined, "write less, illustrate more".

Let me begin: we had 9 sessions in the year 2007, and the topics covered were as usual varied and interesting. Topics right from "API Documentation" to "English Grammar" and "HTML Programming" to "Comics in Tech documentation" were discussed. We also had tools session on FrameMaker and Epic Editor.

This year also witnessed an association in the form of premier Society for Technical Communication- India Chapter getting associated with the Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup. STC India sponsors the Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup now.

We at the meetup have had always tried to spread technical communication knowledge to various quarters and have not limited ourselves to just corporate offices and institutes. I am glad to announce that we are getting invites from certain colleges to organize technical writing sessions at their premises. Incredibly encouraging.

Networking still seems to be a rage in the meetup, and this month we saw a turn around of more than 50 plus people. That's great! Also, considering that the meetup membership list has grown upto 652 (till last count), the day is near when we will touch the magic mark of 1000 :)

I still get queries as to the registration amount of the Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup. Let me clarify here: This Bangalore Technical Writers meetup is absolutely FREE and no registration charges are required for participation. This is something that we organizers have always maintained, and we will unless and until we have some unavoidable circumstances to face. So, feel free to just walk in anytime at the meetup, and we won't mind having a coffee with you :)

I also look forward to have you as a speaker for the meetup. If you have any interesting topic to speak on (pertaining to technical writing), just send across an email to me and CC it to Saravanan ( sara.techwrit@gmail.com) preferably before the 5th of every month, and we will be delighted to have that as an agenda for the meetup. However, please see that you give me some time to organize the sessions. I am sure you agree to it, meetup takes a bit of time :)

This email is incomplete if I forget to mention the constant support that we received from the entire technical writing fraternity, and trust me we are more than delighted. Couple of you suggested that the meetup should take some initiative to make younger generation more aware about Technical writing as Career, How to be prepared and how they can move on. Well, we will keep that in mind, and will organize sessions soon on that.

Looks like I have made quite a few sleepy by now :) Anyway, thanks for your constant encouragement.

This is your Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup. Make it the best.

Once again Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!

Dating a RoboHelp Project

2007-12-07T06:45:00.000-08:00

Things are pretty eventful in the end of the year 2007. I was slowly wondering after the Annual appraisals that nothing more wrong could happen in my life when I was startled by this. The date was day before yesterday (December 5th 2007), exactly a month remaining for my next birthday.

This is a project that involves me documenting a part of an Admin module, and I had finished it with great satisfication, when suddenly tragedy struck in the form of RoboHelp struck. Couple of things that happens when such things happen- agitated, furious anger and what not. I was feeling all the same but more because this was the first time something such as this had screwed up. I can't explain what anxiety I had developed. Can you believe a mamoth project of more than 50 topics gone for a toss?

I dialled in some no's for help but none could help. I emailed to a mailing list but things didnt sort out. And then, I started drinking water and thought of what could happen if wrong. I did some troubleshooting lessons, uninstalled the software, renamed the project files but none could favor me.

The next morning, I reached office and first things first checked if the project was opening in other systems but it showed the same errors. I called up a senior writer who showed me a ray of life and said "don't worry! it can be sorted out". Well, I must thank her for taking time out and helping me out in this.

Here a couple of things that you should when you get screwed up with a RoboHelp project:

Don't panick; it doesn't help.
Go to the project folder; rename the .mpj folder and check if it opens post renaming.
If NOT, check the .xpj file and try opening it. 90% of the time it should open.
If NOT, than delete the .CPD file and try opening the file again
It should work. Again try reimporting the html topics and create the project.
If nothing works, than you need to pray that atleast the HTML topics that you have created in are all order.

Video on Support Cases and Documentation

2007-11-27T05:14:00.000-08:00

Vasanth's take on Support Cases & Documentation

2007-11-27T01:19:00.000-08:00

Event: Bangalore Technical Writers MeetUp- Supported by STC India
Date: 24 November 2007
Time: Started at 11.00 am
Venue: BEA Systems India Pvt Ltd
Subject: Support Cases and Documentation
Speaker: Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Program Manager – Information Products Group, Sun Microsystems

The name of the attendees' and their respective companies are listed below:
1.Vasanth V- Sun Microsystems
2.S Gopal- Consultant
3.Binamra-
4.Anindita- Integra Microsystems
5.Sarala Prakash- Integra
6.Prabhjeet Singh- HP
7.Manoj Kumar- ACS
8.Rishi- ACS
9.George Abraham- Commit
10.Julie- Lantex
11.Binu PV- Mainstream
12.Sudhindra- Tejas Network
13.Vinay K- Consultant
14.Vaishali- Caritor/Keane
15.Anand- Caritor/Keane
16.Asha- Caritor/Keane
17.Immanuel- Caritor/Keane
18.Kumar Dhanagopal- BEA Systems
19.Paresh Naik- BMC Software
20.Vishakha Naik-
21.Sandeep B- Symphony
22.Gururaj BS- BEA Systems
23.Rajdeep- Infosys

After a welcome note by Rajdeep, Vasanth took the centerstage. He started by classifying Technical Documentation under the following heads:

•Installation and Configuration Guide
•Admin Guide
•User’s Guide
•Developer’s Guide
•Online Help
•Troubleshooting Guide
•FAQs

These documents will further differ depending on whether the company producing these documents are a product or a services oriented company.

Technical Writers should not forget their customers in their hurry to meet the deadlines of releasing the documents. They should make an attempt to find out whether the documents authored by them are being used by the customers. If they are being used, then what is their experience with it?

Next Vasanth suggested some ways to assess the user experiences with the documentation. One way of assessing the user experiences is to conduct docunentation surveys anong the customers. Such surveys can be a set of 7 to 10 questions asking customers to rate the documentaion in a scale of 1 to 10. These surveys can be indepenent ones or it can be bundled along with the product surveys; however, conducting such surveys will involve some cost and also require management sanction.

Another easy way to assess the impact of technical documentation is to get some periodical feedback form the Tech Support team. Technical Writers can network with their colleagues working in the Tech Support team. They can request the Tech Support team to share with them such case logs pertaining to documentation. Case logs are records of conversations between the customer and the Tech Support team.

Some of the case logs pertaining to documentaion could be:
•I am not able to complete my task even after following the steps given in the documentaiton
•I have been misled by the documentation and now I have a different set of problems
•I followed the steps given in pages numbers 6 and 7 of the XYZ documentation and it worked. Thank you.

Case logs may also leads to the following pointers:

•Which are the most and least document topics looked and used by the readerst?
•What is the kind of information the customers are looking for?
•Are customers looking for more Trouble Shooting Guides or FAQs?
•How can the documentation be delivered – books, blogs, wikis, screen casts etc?

Technical writers can use the valuable infornation collected from the case logs to do the following after discussing with their management:
•Rewrite some portion of documentation
•Prioratize and accordingly allocate time and manpower to various types of documentation
•Suggest elimination of some documentation or clubbing the same with some other books

This regular exercise will help the Technical Writers to focus on the needs of the customers. It will in turn reduce the calls to the Tech Support group and help their company save millions of dollars. Also, `Thanks’ notes recorded in the case logs will improve the self-esteem of the Technical Writers, enhance their standing in the company, and motivate them to further excel in their field.

The meeting ended with a general quiz – questions taken from various fields like cinema, IT, agricultual commodities, HR etc. – compiled by Rajdeep Gupta. There was an excellent participation. Nobody lost; everybody won.

The hosts provided the refreshments.

Please follow the link below for meetup photos:
http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/photos/?photoAlbumId=254532&photoId=2655254

You can also download the presentation titled ‘Support Cases and Documentation’ from
http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/files/

Hope to see you folks in the upcoming sessions.

Using Comics in Technical Documentation

2007-10-31T21:09:00.000-07:00

This article of mine got published on the STC Usability Newsletter for October 2007 edition. Please follow the link http://www.stcsig.org/usability/temp_newsletter/0710-Comics.htm

I am also putting it below for an easy referral:

Using Comics in Technical Documentation

By Rajeep Gupta, India Chapter

Introduction

Over the years, I have wondered how end-users view our technical documentation, and have sought ways to make documentation livelier and more engaging. This article is based on the research and feedback I received from a number of user experience designers, usability specialists, product developers and writers, which led me to engage in a dialogue with the users.

How it started

I read an article by Rebecca Sedaca, and titled "Comics - Not Just For Laughs" (http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/comics-not-just-for). The article described how she engaged readers by using comics to communicate concepts and encourage ecommerce. Her ultimate objective was to use comics as a communication medium where complex thoughts are broken down into a simpler communication style, and targeted at various audiences. I came away with the thought that a medium like comics could help us simplify the communication of complex technical topics, and engage the user at time with a 'fun' factor.

Why I liked this approach

Many people believe that technical documentation cannot possibly be made interesting, let alone fun. Most printed technical documentation sits on shelves, often untouched for months or years at a time, and only read when the need arises. Perhaps a new method of communication could make documentation more interesting. I decided to try my hand at this technique. I first considered a chat messenger, and decided to come up with some help files.

Which are the various technical documents deliverables to have comics

I think comics could be handy when you are delivering a safety manual for pilots or passengers. Instead of capturing information points by points in a text, use comics to display the information. In addition, in cases wherein you are writing a manual for a mechanical product, we can use the comics to display the complexities. A user guide or an online help can have comics embedded in it.

Why is it a bad thought?

If you believe the premise that comics can increase the use and usability of technical documentation, it is important to note that there are limits to their usefulness, which may include:

Comics and cartoon actions and characters can be interpreted in different ways. What may seem creative to the writer could be offensive or upsetting to the reader.
A lot of thought must be put into every aspect of the comic. For example, the way the character looks and dialogue will be viewed differently by different readers. You must make an effort to ensure all types of readers will come away with the message you intend.

It is easier and less expensive to fix problems with text than with cartoons, which are drawn graphics.

Children are much more comfortable with comics than adults. Adults are typically engaged only by clever or witty comics. In trying to make the comics appealing, you do not want to sacrifice informational content. Even if you develop an informative cartoon, an adult reader may find it distracting or intrusive, rather than informative.

When viewed for the second or third time, a comic may lose its charm. If a user wants to refer to the technical document again, the comic may be less engaging than when initially seen.

Printing costs may increase if you use color in your comics, or if they add significantly to page count.

Translation of graphics costs more than text translation, and accommodating cultural differences may require redrawing of a comic.

Suggestions

I spoke to a few professionals and here's what they suggested:

Analyze the interaction between the audience, the content, and the drawing. Because a cartoon may trivialize the material, you must assess whether and where comics can contribute to the documentation at hand. This could be accomplished when the technical writers perform a documentation analysis before they begin writing the first draft.

The panel structure of comic art is a nice way to show a sequence of actions, because the time concept is built into the design pattern. Using a non-realistic style also allows the artist/writer to over-emphasize critical details or adjust the "view" to make small details easier to see.

Comics might also be an effective way to engage readers who might not typically turn to a book for instruction. An example could be cited of the United States Army using "comic books" for manuals for heavy equipment, and as well as ease of communicating "service bulletins" to the mechanics in the maintenance departments.

As with so many aspects of user experience, the critical factor here is to understand the users and their context of use, and to make design decisions to enhance usability (for the appropriate people, in their context, to meet their goals).

An in-depth understanding of the culture must be mapped to the technical documentation effort on an ongoing basis. This is one of the critical factors in ensuring successful use of comics.

Anything that reduces cognitive overhead in communication is welcome. Whatever the medium, usability testing on the deliverables is recommended.

Conclusion

I am developing help files that use comics as an interactive medium. When finished, I will forward it to my colleagues for their feedback. Using comics as an enhancement to technical documentation is worth considering. The more experience people have with this technique, the better they will understand how and where comics can best be used.

9th STC ANNUAL CONFERENCE@ GOA

2007-10-30T04:26:00.000-07:00

The air around CIDADE DE GOA at Dona Paula was bearing a sense of expectation from Thursday (October 25, 2007)to Saturday (October 27, 2007). There were excellent reasons. For the next 3 days, CIDADE witnessed congregation of technical writers, editors, managers, instructional designers, web designers, and usability engineers etc to celebrate the 9th STC Annual Conference.

Laced with colorful scenic beauty of beaches and palms, GOA witnessed various knowledge sharing session ranging from Blogging to Heuristic Evaluation, to from Web 2.0 to Managers forum. It had something for each one, and in the end it aptly testified that STC India has managed to bring another event to a resounding success.

The pre-conference workshop was the starting of the gala event which lasted for three days. Francis Anthony (Synopsis) was the EMCEE for the event who infused a sense of charm in the sessions. The inauguration took place at 6 PM with the five STC representatives lighting the diya.

26th October 2007:
As time was limited and multiple presentations were to be delivered, so the organizers had to conduct multiple sessions simultaneously, hence it was left to the delegates to choose and attend the relevant sessions. Brian Keefe (EMC) started with the session on getting ready for the next wave in which he spoke about the induct ion of new trends and technologies in technical writing.

Next, Francisco Abedarabo (Oracle) who enthralled the audience with his wit and humor. The interesting part was the way in which he used the presentation as an aid. He provided certain tips on the American manager’s perspective on Indian writers wherein they mentioned improvement on writing & communication, language skills, a neutral writing style, flexibility; Francisco also advised the Indian writers to follow global processes and learn project management skills.

Suman Kumar (DELL) presented a session on 'If you agree, click "No!", and Ravi Kumar (SUN) on Demystifying Localization. It couldn't get much better as the next item was a debate on whether 'Technical Writers are overpaid or not?' It was pretty interesting to hear as Sameer Chabra, Vasudha Singh, Rachna Ganguli and Udhay Chava infused the audience with their pointers though majority voiced of same opinion- technical writers are NOT being overpaid. Gururaj BS moderated the debate.

After a delicious lunch, the participants were ready for some more interesting sessions. Rachna Ganguli and Shilpa Sharma from Cadence provided us with a session on 'Test Plans been a source of documentation quality'. They thought that a lot of information could be used by writers as an aid for their documentation. Couple of sessions were running at the same time- Shripad and Peter Fernandez (SUN) spoke on collaborative content, while Denise Kiser (Vmware) spoke on the necesarry qualification for a technical publications manager

All through out the conference there were constant interaction amongst the speakers and participants were constantly networking themselves. It got more interactive as Vivek Jain of Adobe presented the session on Adobe Technical Communication Suite. It was a pretty engaging session in which Vivek highlighted the capabilities and features of Adobe suite.

A break was taken for 15 minutes after which the much awaited panel discussion on technical writing in India. Fred Menezes presided over the session and the panel discussion included managers from different companies and discussed on Technical Communication- past, present and the future.

Edwin Skau (Juniper Networks) conducted the prelims quiz. It kept the participants engaged and was pretty interesting to find the enthusiasm amongst the people. Next, the stage set up for a river-cruise. In the arch lights of Panjim city, Goa was a beauty to be viewed and writers showed that they could match the best of the professionals when it came to dance.

27th October, 2007:
The final day of the conference begun with Manmohan and Jayalakshmi of CA putting together an interesting perspective on the global collaborative technical publications organization. Next, Makarand Pandit (Technowrites) set the stage on fire with his presentation on the business management lessons. Mak shared some simple, yet hard to find realities of our work world in "The business management lessons I learnt from my gardening hobby."

Mak used his garden theology to put forward his management perspectives with suggestions just as a plant requires food and water for survival and to turn itself into full-grown tree, similarly experienced professionals need to tap in the budding youngsters or juniors to make them grow as excellent individuals and workers.

Infosys had a pretty interesting presentation lined up with Amit Bhatia delivering a presentation on Usability Evaluation of Help. Most of them had a query on whether Heuristic Evaluation was same as Usability Testing. Amit showed excellent skills in responding the queries. Suraj Jayan (HP) took a session on Tools for Technical Writing 2.0.

Post tea break, Jyothi Jandhyala (BEA) presented a session on DITA migration process. Nandini Gupta (Cadence)provided insights on how to create readers by a question and answer format. While Surag Ramachandran (Honeywell) spoke on E- Learning through Gaming' and Gyaneshwar Talwar (Persistent) on 'Using FrameMaker to develop Help and PDF with a click'.

Following the presentations, Edwin Skau conducted the quiz finals. The team comprising of Gururaj BS, Jyothi and Anuradha came as winners while the team from Huawei were the runners.

Following up with a delicious lunch, the participants were treated with some more presentations- Technical Documentation in Blogging by Dr.Manjula Kandula (Sun), Sankara Rajanala (CISCO) on Technical Editiors Job. Titas Negi and Sumita Mukherjee (Symantec) provided insights into Rubicon-an XQuery based framework for intelligent help systems.

The session concluded with a vote of thanks by Fred Menezes.

Amidst all this knowledge sharing, the conference was a hub for various companies to set up their respective stalls not only to share their company awareness but also to solicit feedback from the delegates. In addition, there were contests organized and hordes of prizes given. The 9th STC regional conference at Goa proved to be a showcase of knowledge sharing and diversifying technical communication knowledge to all the quarters.

Makarand Pandit and Rajeev Jain's Technical Writing Session for Bangalore Meetup

2007-09-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

The Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup-Supported by STC India was held at Continuos Computing, on Saturday 29th September, 2007.

The name of the attendees' and their respective companies are listed below:

1.Rajeev Jain – Zilog
2.Makarand Pandit- Technowrites
3.Ganesh Shenoy- Huawei
4.Anindita Basu- Integra Micro Systems
5.Sairam Y- LSI
6.Blessy Thomas- Citec
7.Joy Myalil- TCS
8.L Chelladurai- ABB
9.Binamra Sharma- Student
10.Rishi Malik- ACS
11.Manoj Kumar-ACS
12.Vinay Kumar- Consultant
13.Sudha A- Technowrites
14.Swetha- Truimph India
15.Gautam Goswami-ACS
16.Sreeraj- Wipro
17.Sreejith G.S- Collabis India
18.AV Jayanthil- Rebaca
19.R.Saravanan-
20.Sagar Kirloskar- Technowrites
21.Jyotsna- Zilog
22.Hemanth- TCS
23.Harihara Subramaniam- Novell
24.Swarna- PGSL
25.Naveen Cruz-Continuos Computing
26.Rajdeep Gupta- Infosys

Highlights:

The session on C++ began at 10:40 am. Rajdeep triggered the meeting by welcoming the attendees and the speakers-Rajeev Jain and Makarand Pandit. There were two sessions lined up for the day- "Programming Concepts for Writers on C++" by Rajeev Jain, Zilog and "Introduction to Structured Writing & Structured FrameMaker" by Makarand Pandit, Technowrites

Rajeev started the session by asking the attendees, what made them to attend the programming session.Rajeev started his presentation by stating "Concepts are important, not language." He then explained the basics of C++ that is, differences between a parameter and a variable, data types, input values; return values, error codes, and host of other things. He then differentiated between keywords and pre-defined identifiers. Rajeev mainly concentrated on the API/ SDK documentation.

He also provided an API template, which is the first step towards API Reference Guide documentation. He answered all the queries related to API documentation.

The training material is available at the following link:

http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/files

A break of 15 minutes was taken after which the session on "Structured Writing & Structured FrameMaker" begun. Makarand Pandit or Mak, as he is fondly called entertained the audience right from the word, GO. He quizzed the audience by questioning on authoring and documents. The answers provided the audience were up to the level. He then explained in detail the terms and cleared all their doubts.

Mak then went ahead with his illustration on Adobe FrameMaker 8.0. He explained in detail what he had learnt in 12 hours to the audience in just about one and half hours. Mak explained what Element Definition Document (EDD) and Document Type Definition (DTD) are all about. He also showed how to edit an EDD, importing a DTD, and all the other tricks that will come handy to the naïve user of FrameMaker 8.0.

Then came the Q & A time in which Mak was asked questions on all the recent developments in Information Development field. One such question was on DITA.

He then explained in brief, what DITA is all about and how it has evolved over the years.

Rajdeep concluded the session by offering a vote of thanks to Mr. Rajeev Jain and Mr. Makarand Pandit for their wonderful presentations and to Continuous Computing for sponsoring the meetup.

You can view the photos of the meetup by clicking the following URL:

http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/photos/?photoAlbumId=225090

From Word to FrameMaker with Love- Written by Mumpy

2007-09-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

Folks

This is a piece written by Mumpy, one of Israel's most humorous technical writers. Interestingly, he makes a point on the the impact of his documentation work while migrating from Word to FrameMaker. Fantastic stuff! All credits to the writer Mumpy.

From Word to FrameMaker with Love

I decided to join the 21st century a few months ago and bought myself a brand new sparkling license for FrameMaker, complete with a Multiple Undo feature for writers like me who always realize they have made a terrible mistake just a nanosecond too late.

It was glorious waving goodbye to Word. No longer will I have to wonder why my documents go straight from page 1 to page 3. No longer will Tahoma font continue to defy me and creep into my documents unbidden. Yes, indeed, we bid a fond adieu to Word and strode confidently into the wonderful world of FrameMaker without looking back. (I did have a third technical writer who looked back and I”ve been sweeping her up all week and putting her on my salad)

But it wasn’t all fun and nice cups of tea. My trusty side-kick found it very hard to say goodbye to the little magic paintbrush icon that that you waved three times and then you could trick Word into doing what you wanted. And I simply cannot figure out how to apply shading to a middle row in a table. But by and large we are getting to grips with the table designers and the paragraph designers and the character designers and the fashion designers.

There is also all the new lingo to learn. Suddenly, we have strange and mysterious concepts like straddling and shrink wrapping, not to mention anchored frames and variables and master pages and side heads.

You know, you spend your life happily merging cells and then one day, poof, all of a sudden you have to straddle. Luckily for me, I did two years of Pilates and am quite good at straddling. Every time I get some disconcordant cells in a table and I need to straddle then, I simply lay down some towels on the floor and Bob’s your uncle

I’m even getting to grips with a Wingding Variable in a fetching shade of turquoise. And did I mention how much I like Master Pages? I’m not so keen on the Reference Pages though and I’m not quite sure what the reason is for their existence. Only God and Shlomo Perets know, and I’m not so sure about God.

The biggest problem is the time it takes to migrate from Word to FM – especially when transferring graphics. My boss is convinced that either I don’t know what I’m doing or that FrameMaker was a waste of money. I suspect that the truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle. And now, if you will excuse me, I have about 59 unresolved cross-references to take care of. They look and act pretty resolved to me – but FM says not. And who am I to argue?

Videos of Bangalore Meetup at Proteans Software

2007-07-25T10:38:00.001-07:00

It can now be viewed by going directly to this link:

Minutes of the Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup for July '07

2007-07-23T06:38:00.000-07:00

The Bangalore Technical Writers meet up-supported by STC India for this month was held at Proteans Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd, on Saturday 21st July 21, 2007. The topic for the discussion was “Theories of English Grammar for Technical Writers”. Anil Pinto, Lecturer in Communication and Media Theory, Christ College, Bangalore discussed with us on this topic.

Anyway, the name of the attendees' and their respective companies are listed below:

1. Anil Pinto – Christ College
2. K Sassendran- Proteans
3. Radhika Nair -Novell
4. Anindita Basu- Integra Micro Systems
5. Cresilla Lobo- Robert Bosch
6. Blessy Thomas- Citec
7. Vandana Rao- Alcatel-Lucent
8. Sinduja R- Honeywell
9. Manjunath- Truimph India
10.Saiprabha- SAP Labs
11.Nethravathi - C4C
12.Aaron R- Wipro
13.Binu PV-Lauteb Information
14.Jaimon Mathew- IGS
15.Sreejesh-EDS
16.Rajeeva B.C- NA
17.Sreejith G.S- Collabis India
18.Vinay Kumar- Consultant
19.Sunita S- Wipro
20.Chaitrao M- G4S Training Centre
21.Reena Lasrado- G4S Training Centre
22.Suchitra- Proteans
23.Rashmi Hebbur- Journalist
24.Banurekha Balaji- Honeywell
25.Jothi- NA
26.R.S.Raju- Adroit
27.Jayant Gandhi-
28.Rajdeep Gupta- Infosys

Highlights:

The meeting started at 11.15, by a quick round of informal introduction. The most interesting point about this session was that the attendees were from various working background that cut across different domains- from Film Making to Economics.

Rajdeep triggered the meeting by welcoming the attendees and the speaker Anil Pinto. Anil kicked of the interactive session by handing over the worksheet to the attendees. The participants were asked to fill in the quiz on “what is Grammar” and “What are the theories of grammar” followed by a discussion on the different answers that the participants came up with.

Anil could easily set off a great interest among the participants to listen to and actively debate on. He discussed the following Grammar theories: Traditional, Structural Transformational-generic.

Traditional theories can be tracked back to 18th century, wherein Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, Prosody, Composition, Spelling, Pronunciation, Sentence Analysis etc were the major focus of study. The Renaissance movement- a cultural rebirth from the 14th through the middle of the 17th centuries in Europe forced the English to think beyond Latin for the style and structure of their language.

The major issue with the Traditional theory was that no two languages have the same grammar. Every language has its own inherent difference. Wren & Martin’s Grammar is one of the best examples that follows traditional grammar theories that focused mainly on words, rather than sentence or language as a whole.

Wren & Martin’s grammar book follows Shakespeare style of English, which is not applicable in many domains such as Technical Writing (though this domain was not evolved in those days; Anil just gave an example).

In response to these issues, a Structuralist theory has been evolved. When Traditional theory concentrated on words, Structuralist theory mainly looked at language as a group of different sentences. People like Saussure researched on 'Signs'. He considered language as signs. Leonard Bloomfield’s language (1933) is a book that refers to structuralist theories. Structuralist theory attempted to understand the grammar of the sentence rather than
grammar of words and its alignment in the sentence.

Noam Chomsky is one of the apostles of the Transformational-generic theory which advocated the importance of language. Anil walked the attendees though the difference between the Surface structure and Deep structure of language, and he also gave a glimpse on present universal grammar.

After the presentation, it was the exercise session that triggered debate among the participant on subject-verb disagreement. The discussion took to different levels, where Anil and the participants discussed about the bridge between academia and the Industry. One of the attendees has the opinion that the industry really does not favour the intake of trainees due to the confidentiality of the project. Everybody agreed upon the need of a curriculum for Technical Writing. Again, Regularity, syllabus and dedicated faculty are the major roadblocks to the aforementioned.

Rajdeep sought feedback from the participants about the venue for conducting future meetups. He also encouraged the Participants to volunteer their time and efforts in sustaining the activities of this group by giving presentations or seminars. Rajdeep also briefed about the upcoming STC-India Career Day and Annual Conference.

You can download the presentation from the following URL : http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/files/

Also, view the meetup photos from the following URL:
http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/photos/?photoAlbumId=190364&photoId=1767636&op=defaultAlbum

The particpants felt that Anil has kindled enough interest in them to delve deeper into the subject. We look forward to another session from Anil where we can learn about how words relate to, and play with each other.

Minutes of the Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup ((June '07)- Supported by STC India

2007-06-26T19:45:00.000-07:00

The Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup for June '07-Supported by STC India took place in Adobe Systems on June 23rd, 2007. Listed are the attendees along with their respective companies' names:
1. Preran- ADOBE
2. Darshin Naidu- HSB Technologies
3. Anindita Basu- Integra Microsystems
4. Arun Martin- Bally Technologies
5. Bibhudatta Mohapatra- Intergra
6. D.Hemadri- Sun Microsystems
7. Joy M J- TCS
8. S.Gopal- Consultant
9. Benazir Hussain- Metalearn Services
10.Rishi Rajpal-Metalearn Services
11.G Raghu-Metalearn Services
12.Shabith Prabhakar-Metalearn Services
13.Ajit Kumar-Metalearn Services
14.K Anantha Raman-Metalearn Services
15.Rajlakshmi Borthakur-Infosys
16.Aunindra Sinha- Infosys
17.Vidya Lakshmi-
18.Shwetha Shashidharan- SAP Labs
19.Dhanish P Bhaskar- Fomax
20.Ramesh-GE
21.Pradeep L.N- Metalearn Services
22.Prabhat Ramesh- Four-C
23.Gururaj BS-ADOBE
24.Surag R- Honewell
25.Jilna Surag- Freelancher
26.Shashi Prabha- TCS
27.Banurekha Balaji- Honeywell
28.Blessy Thomas- Citec
29.Vikash Kumar- Cognizant
30.Saseendran K- Proteans
31.Manoj Potdar-Proteans
32.L.Chelladurai- ABB Global Services Ltd
33.Sreeram MV-ADOBE
34.Rajdeep Gupta-Infosys

The meetup started at 10.35 am and the agenda was "Developing interactive content". After a quick round of introduction by everyone, Rajdeep requested the speaker Preran to initate the discussion.

• Preran who has 7 years experience in Technical Communication and Web Design, started off with an introduction explaining-Learning, Various types of Learners, Interactive Learning for Simulation etc.

• After that Preran discussed Adobe Captivate's TM features like adding interactive tools e.g. text box, mouseclock. He showed how to record presentations (for example, a demo), and explained the multiple output formats for publishing.

• Preran also showed us how to create a quiz question, and the various quiz types that can be created using quiz templates for assessing user at the end of any training presentation.

• After that, Sreeram M V, Product Manager for Adobe Captivate interacted with participants on the Captivate usage. He responded to the user's queries related to Captivate, which they face during projects. The discussion was lively with users providing feedback on the Captivate tool. The participants also tried to clarify questions posed by each other.

The session concluded at around 1 pm with some informal one-one interactions.

Click here to view the photos http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/photos/?photoAlbumId=177937&photoId=1602283

Also, the meetup presentation is available for downloading at http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/files/

Interwoven Session on June 16, 2007

2007-06-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege to attend the STC Learning Session on Usability conducted at Interwoven (June 16, 2007), and am sharing the session’ gist with you.

The first speaker was Sherrill Packebush, a User Experience Analyst with Interwoven who delivered a presentation on HCI and Tech Communication. She gave a basic idea of what HCI is, responsibilities and the role of tech communicators in designing.

Sherill said HCI does a lot of research on the designing and development activities. She also shared her experiences in creating wireframes, prototypes and all. In addition, She highlighted some case studies on usability namely on Amazon. com, move.com and staples.com.

She pointed out that one of the distinguished companies had to shell out $ 900, 000 on Usability issues for they ended up doing the test on the engineering team and never thought of performing it on end-users. Finally, she discussed some usability problems that are been encountered frequently.

Next was Suman Kumar, writer with DELL who delivered a session on Contingency Design, its importance and writers role in it. Citing examples, Suman said that Error messages should be treated as educating the customers. He also cited some practical examples wherein vague error messages have proved costly to the flagships of the product.

In addition, Suman thought that the following points in mind while writing error messages. Error Messages need to be identifiable, accurate, understandable, succinct, correct measure and explain what went wrong. According to Suman, writers are the perfect customer advocates and should play key roles in getting the customer requirements picture clearer to the design and development team. In a nutshell, always try to be on the user's shoes when writing error messages.

The session concluded with a Q & A.

Points on Documentation Survey

2007-06-01T06:41:00.000-07:00

Hi Francis,

At the outset, an excellent chance to do something new out here!

Though I ain't in a position to disclose the Questionnaire (client policies and all), I will share my experiences. I had a chance of revamping the entire documentation for a particular XYZ client.
The first thing is that while I understand you are potboling with enthusiasm to be creative and come out with a new structure, please do not be in a hurry. If time permits, do an analysis of the existing manual; list out all the documentation issues in an excel sheet and try to figure out the possible alternatives to it.

Now, when you are done with that, try to chalk out in a piece of paper as what is MISSING in the document? If possible, have a coffee talk to your fellow mates, clients and end-users (if possible). If not, never mind. I suggest you to look into the customer support emails.

I am sure, there are documentation issues, which might be relevant in terms of language, structure etc of the document. Take this factors into consideration before you start with your new draft.

Create a list comprising of three sections- Major, Minor and Critical and correspondingly departments under which it should go. If there are technical documentation inaccuracy, which is major, the issue should be sorted out by the documentation team, in that case it is you.

If there are incorrect steps documented, which may lead to a wrong action on the part of the user-say an installation step, the issue is critical. If there is some mismatch with the GUI buttons failing to work and all, you need to get in touch with the development or design group. At the end, try to look out possible alternatives and come out with a solution and resolve the matter.

Try to also conduct out a test in the team itself of how users read the documentation. You will get a good idea of the readability of the documentation.

I don't know, but you can perhaps look to explain the features in a new manner-- how about creating a demo, identifying the unique features of the product.Also add a few quzzies in the note and provide feedback in the form of correct or incorrect messages. Always try to get the users in action.

My two cents
Regards Rajdeep

---------[ Received Mail Content ]----------
Subject : [twin] Documentation surveys
Date : Tue, 22 May 2007 19:06:30 +0530
From : "Francis Anthony"

Hi:

I'm starting out on a new documentation project whose content needs to be completely overhauled. I figured that the best way to go about overhauling existing documentation would be to understand:

* What is it that users found lacking in the status quo, and
* What is it that users would like to see in the revamped
documentation

To this end, I will be conducting a scientific survey of the documentation. Has any one undertaken a similar effort previously? If so, I'm interested in hearing from them about their experiences. Broad tips on how they went about it, how much time was spent in the effort,
what kind of questions formed part of the questionnaire, etc. would be greatly helpful.

Please feel free to write to me and to the group, if you like, to share your experiences and insights.

Any and all information would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,
Francis

Staright from the Organizer's Desk!

2007-05-08T07:03:00.000-07:00

I came, I saw, and I conquered - I would like to use the axiom of Julius Caesar, to describe the Bangalore Tech Writers Meetup Group Let me take a breath here! Phew, wasn't I nervous, when Saravanan Manoharan (aka Sara) made me the Assistant Organizer of the Bangalore Meetup .

I still recall that day, when Sara called me over and said, "You are taking it over from here." Initially, I was amused as to why he chose me out of the whole bunch of seasoned technical writers in Bangalore?

But, then Sara patted me on the back, and felt that I could deliver. Well, I don't know, if I have lived up to his expectations (and those of Bangalore Tech Writers), but I can only say that, "I am trying my level best."

To be completely honest with you, it hasn't really been a smooth sailing. I have been blasted quite often, off the list by quite a few members; they were of the opinion that the agendas were offbeat and the venues were improper. I would like to use this platform to respond to some of those remarks. Please note, that in no way am I trying to incite a flame here. I am doing this with a good intention.

As far as I could make out, offbeat topics would be categorized as those topics which do not have any direct co-relation with technical writing. Here, I'd like to point that the Agenda for the meetup include topics that are selected by a panel of technical writers, including yours truly.

Over the last year, we had meetup agendas ranging from a wide range of topics such as, "Reviewing and standards", "Ways/ Methods of continuous learning for Technical Writers", "Procedure/ Steps i nvolved in planning and preparing a Users Manual for a product" to the recently concluded "How to catch errors once you freeze docs?" etc.

How many of you think these are offbeat topics? Does it not help you with your (technical) writing? I guess, what my fellow mates meant was that we should conduct technical writing sessions, in which they will have tools-related questions and all. Nothing wrong in that!

We also have had agendas on topics related to Tools (In the past, we had an agenda titled, "MS Word vs Framemaker"), but in a different atmosphere for sure - we don't encourage the use of boards, fancy conference rooms, or even a pen/ pencil. We chose to be a little different, guess there's no harm in that, right?

My point, here, is that we are not using this Meetup group to conduct learning sessions; we are just discussing an agenda informally and learning simultaneously. Our soul objective (and mind you, its 100% voluntary) is to work out solutions that one faces in day-to-day life and encourage everyone to do their bit for enhancing Technical Communication.

Few people who have turned up for such meetups have been pretty supportive in giving their feedback, and this in turn has done us a world of good. A few drops of water can make a mighty ocean. There's another issue facing us, as an entity - choosing the right venue of course. Writers who have attended the meetup complained about the venue - noisy and loud music.

While I understand and take the comments with a bowed head, I would also like to say something here. We usually have such meetups at a Coffee house or a Restaurant; to conduct a meetup in one of these places requires financial assistance. As of now, the meetup is a voluntary group. Hence, I cannot organize it in a Hotel or in a Conference Hall. I am talking to various people and orgs to organize such meetups at their premises (office rooms) for an hour or so, but its not easy to convince them.

Also, it defeats the purpose to have an informal meetup - the basis on which the meetup idea was born. We would like to keep as it as informal as possible. My request to fellow writers is -> Please have some patience and I am sure, we will work out something. But, it's not been harsh always. We have been able to do a few things quite uniquely, if I can say so.

To start with, we had some recruitment/ HR personnel joining us regularly. It gives me immense pleasure to inform all of you that some participants from the meetup have secured jobs as well by networking. In addition, there have been certain representatives from technical writing institutes, who have got students enrolled. Good news, isn't it?

As we approach another year, I would like to seek an active hand from all of you. To start with, I would like to know what sort of discussions can we have in such meetups, time and venue you would like to suggest? Do you like to have meetups where we make effective use of a whiteboard? Please feel free to voice your opinion offlist to me. My email address is < > My gratitude to Saravanan Manoharan for his constant support and feedback.

Just like another Technical Writer, I am also trying to learn the intricacies of technical writing and group meetings like the Bangalore Meetup has surely given me the confidence and knowledge to go a long way. It may be true for some more writers like me.

I am sure the coming year brings a lot of happiness in each and everyone's life. I urge my fellow writers in Bangalore to extend a hand to my meetup efforts, so that we can help ourselves to be worthy Documentors.

I know TIME is a real factor here, and weekends is the only time when everyone wants to windup, but trust me if you can contribute a little time of yours in such meetups, it definitely adds value to you writing. Finally, I look forward to receiving mails from all quarters about the Meetup. Thanks for your cooperation! Let's make the Bangalore Meetup the best of its kind. Cheers! Rajdeep

API Session with Rajeev Jain

2007-05-02T02:18:00.000-07:00

Technical Writers April Meetup

Agenda: Documenting your first API.

Attendes: 17

The attendees' names along with their respective companies name are listed below:
1. Rajeev Jain - Zilog
2. Lakshmi RS - Gemini Software Solutions
3. Reuben - Arcot
4. Shashi Prabha - TCS
5. Sumit Kumar - Lucent
6. Naveen Chandra - Cokinetic
7. Harish BS - Keeline India Ltd
8. Abhilash Scariya - SAP Labs
9. Imran Ulla - First Indian Corp
10.S Gopal - Goodwill Technologies
11.Priyadarshini Narendran- Zilog
12.Mamata - Arcot
13.Jainthi Sasikumar - Argos Soft
14.Shoba Shanker - Citec
15.Anitha Sadashiv - Technopoint
16.Vishalakshi - Technopoint
17.Rajdeep Gupta – Infosys

Highlights: The session began at 10.30 am. After a formal round of introduction of participants by Rajdeep, Mr. Rajeev Jain started the presentation. It was quite an enthusiastic and interactive session.

Mr. Rajeev Jain started the session by explaining the basics of programming (sequence, selection and iteration). He said that if one understood the programming basics, documenting API was not difficult. Later he spoke on basics of API writing and how different was API documentation from GUI documentation. The do’s and dont’s while documenting APIs were also discussed.

The entire discussion was made easy to follow by providing apt examples of C++ APIs.

Clearing the doubt of one of the participants, Mr. Rajeev said that APIs could be classified into two-Internal APIs and External APIs. Usually, it is the external/exposed/customer facing APIs that are documented.

Answering another question as to what all should be included in the API documentation, Mr Rajeev said that the API document was like a dictionary to the programmer, which was never read from cover to cover, but referenced on an ad hoc basis. He also provided with a sample API document template, and explained the various headings and the reason for the particular heading order.

The meeting concluded with idea that API documentation was very easy, provided one knew the basics of programming and that, API documentation is also a lucrative career option.

The writers attending the meetup found it very informative and useful. Those who were in API documentation got a better idea of what to do, and the rest got an idea of what API documentation was all about.

A few attendees expressed their desire to be regular in meetup.

Mr. Rajdeep concluded the session by offering a vote of thanks to Mr. Rajeev Jain for delivering a wonderful presentation and to Technopoint for sponsoring the meetup.

You can view the meetup photos by clicking the following URL
http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/photos/?photoAlbumId=156076&photoId=1336004

The presentation will also be available at the Meetup website ; you can get in touch with Rajdeep for further details.

Seminar on Adobe's Products

2007-04-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

{I wrote this in July 2006 and following requests from various quarters, thought of sharing it with folks interested to know as what happened in the Adobe Seminar.}

What was the Seminar about?

The STC India hoisted a unique event for Bangalore –based technical writers on last Saturday (July 15th, 2006). It was a meeting that was a discussion platform on how companies/users use the Adobe products for their specific needs and issues. The meeting venue was at Adobe, Bangalore and was attended by technical writers and Adobe’s product managers. It was also perhaps a befitting occasion for many of the companies/users to show their gratitude and express their requirements to Adobe. Yours truly was present in the seminar and thought of sharing the meeting minutes.

Who all participated?

The meeting started at dotted 10am IST. Gururaj BS, immediate past President of STC India kicked the meeting by welcoming all the participants and invited the Adobe Product Managers to talk over the agenda. After the initial roundup it was the time for Presentations. There were six presentations delivered on that day, and each of them lasting more than 25 minutes. Anyway, I am listing the companies in order of their sequences:
PIVOTAL SYSTEMS
SLING MEDIA
HONEYWELL TECHNOLOGIES
ICALIBER
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES

What did the writers spoke on?

PIVOTAL Systems were the first to kick start the presentation. Pravin and Vatsala of Pivotal delivered the presentation. Their presentation highlighted: how PIVOTAL uses RoboHelp and Framemaker in their Technical Documentation and the features that they believed would make it better.

PIVOTAL SYSTEMS highlighted on the following points:

Conditional text of RoboHelp

A format painter like Microsoft Word needs to be available in Framemaker
Reviewing Format should have more outputs. Everyone present felt Framemaker needs to have a good Review format for everytime it is not possible to send a PDF document for review.

SLING MEDIA

Next was the turn of Mayur Pollepalli of SLING Media. Mayur with his penchant knowledge in RoboHelp highlighted the following:

A better and refined UK Dictionary should be available for RoboHelp as well as FrameMaker
Spell check in Books as well as topics across should be allowed in Framemaker
Mis-spelled words should be highlighted in RoboHelp
Grammar check should be allowed in Framemaker.

The participants kept on highlighting the features that would have wanted RoboHelp to have, and the Adobe Product mangers were no short of responding to their queries and also cross-questioning them.

A break of 20mins was taken after Mayur’s presentation, and it was spend in relishing pastries and samosas that did take care of the attendees’ stomach.

After the initial two presentations, which concentrated on RoboHelp and Framemaker, Surag Ramachandran of Honeywell Technologies took the centrestage with his presentation titled ‘CAPTIVATE AND ME’.

Honeywell Technologies

Surag highlighted the following points:

¨ Captivate has a tendency of crashing down more than often once the demo becomes large.
¨ Captivate lacks professional caption tags.
¨ Captivate disallows users from editing PowerPoint presentation after it is imported.
¨ Captivate’s option of importing presentation is not user-friendly. Based on the two options that captivate allows, you can either have the presentation before or after the video. Hence, you are in a for a tedious task of drill and drag if you are have to your slides between the videos.

Following Surag’s agenda was Pradeep Vasudedvan of ICALIBER who went a next level and spoke about the cons of Audio in Captivate.

ICALIBER

Some of the points that Pradeep highlighted were:
¨ Once a slide is deleted, the audio in the presentation becomes blurred
¨ The audios make the presentation very slow

INFOSYS

Rajdeep was the next one to grab the microphone and this time donning the coat for Infosys Technologies. Rajdeep’s theme for the presentation was ‘Pros and Cons of Importing docs in RoboHelp’ and surprisingly, it did catch the audience 's attention. One of the two reasons that he chose the theme were ‘the hassle that a fresher in technical writing undergoes when he or she is asked to generate an Online Help system using FrameMaker or RoboHelp as an authoring tool’.

Sometimes they end up doing sub-optimal work because learning the nitty gritties of a tool and acquiring skills in Technical Writing takes time. So in this scenario, Microsoft Word does a fantastic job. A Trainee Technical Writer is pretty conversant with MS Word and it is one of the easiest authoring tools. Anyway, the following points were raised:

¨ Formatting becomes a real issue after the Word document is imported in RoboHelp. Studies reveals almost 70 per cent of Technical Writers spend more than half of their working hours in formatting. In that case, the work done on content development is pretty less.

¨ There is no feature available to define the hierarchy of imported information
¨ Some RoboHelp versions like X4 and X5 show incompatibility across MS Word versions.
¨ There is extra manual intervention if you are converting PDF files . A 2-step procedure is required – step 1: conversion to text form using an OCR and step 2: importing the HTML/Word file into RoboHelp
¨ More often than not , hyperlinks and cross references are lost
¨ Easy automation is not facilitated – for example, batch conversions of images or batch converting images imported into thumbnail images.
¨ Reducing the image size every time. Every time you want to insert an image in RoboHelp, you need to use the Image editing tool like Adobe Photoshop. Can RobHelp provide an in built format painter?

Lunch

The meeting closed by 1:30 after which we had a very sumptuous lunch.

Final Comments

I did manage to get a tete-a-tete with the Adobe Product Managers, and they assured us of the following points:
¨ Robohelp’s future roadmap is secure. All the reports leading to their closure are misleading and false

RoboHelp is soon going to come out a feature that allows importing XML files
¨ Adobe’s latest project revolves around the ‘importing docs’ in RoboHelp. So, we might just see advancement in the days to come by.
¨ Macromedia Captivate’s Beta Version will be launched soon.
¨ Adobe is also planning to start off their Documentation team in Bangalore soon.

It was a very enjoyable and enthralling session that lasted more than 2 hours 30 minutes. I had a great time and so did the rest.
Hope we have more sessions in the days ahead!

Talk on Web Search and Online Communities

2007-04-09T00:39:00.000-07:00

5th April, 2007, as part of Big Thinkers India series, Yahoo presented a discussion on 'Web Seminar and Online Communities' at Taj Westend, Bangalore. Distinguished researcher of Yahoo Search, Andrew Tomkins spoke on the same and enthralled the audience with insights on Yahoo's works on Search domain, Implementation strategy using algorithms and latest technologies related to Search.

Andrew based his presentation with various available online communities and their contribution to Search. But before Andrew started with the presentation, there was an introduction by the Yahoo Research and Development team to the audience. The gathering, which included usability specialists, software engineers, designers and technical writers from various companies namely- Yahoo, SAP Labs, Infosys, Accenture etc and a host of students and professors from prestigious engineering colleges - IIT Khargapur, Kanpur, IIIT Bangalore and DCSE were waiting patiently for Andrew to start.

Andrew started his session at 1530 hours and gave a walk through of the topics that he would be touching that evening. Andrew spoke on content formation, fragmentation, online communities' importance and strategies for the future. He started with the website FLICKR and identified it to be a potential social network. It is because Andrew thinks FLICKR is not only a rich and diversified photo sharing website but it contributes a major chunk of internet traffic.

During a research conducted by Andrew, he noticed that people are more prone to engage in photos that are clear and conveys a message. As part of this, FLICKR has a strategy to involve group members in a discussion list and also add their favorite photographers in a list of the same.

Next, Andrew touched on web content and spoke on its relevance in today's technological world. He stressed on the importance of creating content by understanding the user's perspective, and warned otherwise of falling short of web's potential.

Though Andrew didn't wish to divulge on the Yahoo's Search initiatives, he provided some cues. First, the Yahoo search engine teams are working to improvise on their current structure and plan to give other search portals a run for their money. Also, they are working to have a content mixed image search; it means when you do a Yahoo search for Rockstar,Jim Morrison, the search results will be displayed along with his hyperlinked image on the left. In addition, you can view Jim's Bibliography, Songs, Concerts timings etc. On clicking the link, you have the dual option to go to the resource and also revert to the website.

There are also talks going on to have a drop drag search option. If successfully launched, it would give a refined look to the Search concept wherein you can drag any image to the Search page, and the desired results page will open up.

Andrew then spoke on social networks like Orkut, hi5, Gazzag and provided certain blogging tips. He also made some interesting observation regarding the search filters carried by people of all ages. The research shows that kids between the ages of 3-6 years are more likely to search for bicycles, pencils and pens while people in the ages of 50-60 are more likely to do more searches on Poetry, God, Religion etc. In addition, Andrew touched upon a bit of his work related to studying bullentin boards posting.

The house was open for an Q&A session next; Andrew was happy to respond to queries from audiences on various issues. The session got over and participants were treated to a high tea. I had a great evening, enjoyed the talk show, interacted with the participants and learnt that before we get started it is essential to understand what it takes to get to the top of the search engines.

Launchpad for a Writer

2007-04-06T04:30:00.000-07:00

[When I was planning to start my career as a technical writer, like most of the wannabees, I too had lot of questions. At that point of time, I had to fall on Google or refer some list servs for the materials. So, I had decided that when I become a writer, I would jot down my experiences of how to go on with the hunt for a technical writing job. Success came and along with admiration brought a great deal of responsibilities. This article of mine is a part of my responsibility to the Technical Writing fraternity, but please note that it doesn't include everything that you should do to begin as a writer. Rather, I advise you to treat it as a reference material. Added to it, I would appreciate if some of the writers could share me pointers for this article. It would help me to enhance and beautify this article. I'd not like to give gyaan to writing gurus but always have this penchant for sharing knowledge, for knowledge increases when you learn to share. Trust me, it will give you immense joy. Enjoy the article and please comment]

“ A single step and a giant leap for mankind.”

The above quote has been aptly true for mankind’s adventure. It holds true for Technical Writing tryst too. Congrats on taking your first step! Well done!

Technical Writing is a very rewarding and at the same times a very competitive career. You must be an enthusiast and a keen team player to rise to the top-level, always be proactive, open to take any challenges and a go-getter in every word. I presume lots of questions are pondering across your mind. How do I take the first initiative? Where do I apply for jobs? To whom should I get in touch? Do I need a technical writing certification? How are the coaching centers? Relax! In this article of mine, I’ll try to cover on some areas of technical writing. Please note that these are based on my personal experiences and in no ways reflect technical writers overall.

Developing an interest in technology

This is the primary skill for qualifying oneself as a technical writer. He or she has to have a knack for technology. Once you develop that inquisitiveness, everything will fall proper in its place. It is essential for today's technical writers to identify themselves in the arenas of technology. It is not essential because they will be writing on technological subjects, but an interest in technology helps to understand it better. As an effect, a technical writer will be able to provide quality documentation, and at the same time their inputs would come handy. At a later front, this interest helps writers to get a thumbs-up in the developers' coffee zone.You'll also earn more respect from your colleagues, which is always an area of concern for every technical writer.

Earning a Technical Writing Certification

Once you have developed an interest in technology and ready to write, ask yourself: am I ready to get a job without certification? It is a debatable subject and various writers have got mixed responses on it. It is where your knowledge and foresight comes into picture. By default, you will turn to some senior writers or fall into someone who has undertaken technical writing course. However, if I were to paint a picture of technical writing scenario today, I’d select a candidate with a certification in Technical Writing. Why? Obviously, the time and money spent on training a fresher in technical writing could be utilized in some other fronts.

The fact is that Technical Writing scenario has drastically changed over the years. Five years back anyone with an aptitude for technology and writing found a room in a technical writing. Things have changed over the years, and companies have started laying more importance on a TW certification. It has come to a position wherein a person whose resume covers specilisation in the arenas of tools and domain knowledge gets the first nod.

Enrolling yourself in a good Technical Writing Institute

The very next thing for you is to select good technical writing centers. How do you assess a technical writing institute as good or bad ? With the market being flooded with so many technical writing centres, I understand selection is not going to be an easy choice. In this scenario, an incorrect choice of institute would mean loss in terms of both money and time. How do you go on it? I believe you can take the help of certain senior writers or technical writing mailing lists. Also, if possible get the feedback from students undergoinging technical writing course.

Hunting for a Job
Now that you have successfully undergone a technical writing course, it is pertinent that you start applying for jobs without wasting much time. If you are lucky enough to get a placement from the center itself, well and good, otherwise some serious job-searching needs to be done. Before you start applying, do understand that failures are the stepping stones to success, and so even if your initial attempts fail to reap dividends, don’t panic, for it’s the last thing that would matter. But do pick up the points as where you have faltered every time, and try not to commit similar mistakes the next time.

As a fresher, I used to maintain a log book wherein I recorded each and every input that I received for my interviewer. At night before I went to sleep, I used to read it aloud every time. It did help me to reduce the errors.

Applying Procedures
As a fresher, I presume technical writers do not give much thought when applying for an interview. All they are concerned is to send across the resume, but most of the times without any proper homework, as a result of which they run helter skelter afterwards. It’s always nice to be to take a little bit of notice before you start applying for jobs. As a newbie, follow the steps listed below:

Preparing an effective resume
A resume or curriculum vitae outlines your career profile in a short. Hence, it should smell of honesty and accurate information. No information is good if it misleads the interviewer. Try to be objective and never stray away from your points. An important point is does a technical writer’s resume differ from others. The core area of your job profile is on ‘writing’ and hence emphasize on your writing skills. List out all the major achievements that records your writing capabilities. Always do a F7 and see that your resume is devoid of any spelling or grammatical errors. Make a conscious attempt to be honest and show that you are enthusiast. Almost half a dozen of resumes are left unnoticed because of the unstructured way these are written.

Listing out the Achievements and Skills
I reviewed a resume the other day wherein the lady had mentioned skills in cookery, painting etc. All this are excellent, but when the question is that something paying dividends to your writing skills. I do not encourage people to list out achievements except their writing skills. Sorry! but that's the truth.

Searching for a Job
Almost everyday in technical writing mailing lists, umpteenth number of job postings are made. Though most of them are meant for experienced professionals, some companies seek freshers too. Hence, it’s essential to keep your eyes and ears open. Subscribe to mailing lists aka twin-india.org, and do regularly keep a tap on the job advertisements of the newspapers.

Sending out an effective email
Your interview phase actually begins when you applied first for an interview. Please do not be blind that the HR representative doesn’t take care of your email. A good HR will always sketch out and show it to the others to have an effective viewpoint. Needless to say, as a technical communicator you are required to be immaculate in your writing and speaking skills. It makes your task of getting jobs very easy. Take the few points listed below:

Be Patient
A company which has excellent track record in both their products and services will never hire people with a poor or shabby record. After they receive their resumes, they have every right to scan it before they call you up for an interview. Be calm- they are not only testing your technical skills but an overall assessment of how you grope in a situation. If you don't hear from them within a week, don't CALL. Wait for sometime and than maybe you can email them. I expect companies to respond email immediately if they are interested; else, you can deemed it as NO.
Give a valid subject tag

Setting up an objective in your email.

Be direct in establishing the tone of the content between the subject and writer.

Being Proactive
Proactive is the buzzword in the corporate hub. From the day you sit in the job chair to your last day in office, be proactive at your work. The designation of a technical writer is that of a qualified individual who not only writes well, but someone with excellent communication abilities. Please be ready to work on any array of writing- user guides, proposals, collaterals etc. The technical writer has to be clear-headed and as approachable in his job affairs. Also, refrain from any party politics.

Being Passionate
You need to be passionate of each and everything that you work upon. It can be start right from the team meeting eve and stretch to SME interactions, gathering inputs and all. What is important is that the documentation should have a definite plan and should be technically accurate and precise.

Developing an inclined steep curve
Learning is maximized in the sense, when you have more creativity at stake in one hand and technology at other end.

Preparing yourself for an interview
Most of the companies have rigorous interview sessions with you before they select technical writers. Though it is unethical to divulge interview questions, I can assure you that some of the basic queries regarding technical writing would be addressed and don’t ever press the panic button if you aren’t sure of a query. Just be honest enough to admit that you do not have the proper answer(s) to the question.

Searching written materials
Understandably, as a fresher, you won’t have ready made experiences in corporate world, but the job posting ads these days asks a technical writer for some writing experiences. Instead of running helter skelter, I recommend you to take a look at some open-source projects and create documentation on it. Once done, get it reviewed by a seasoned technical writer.

Earning Tricks and Tools
Learning tools online is an easy step. Umpteenth numbers of websites are available on the net. Use certain websites to learn FrameMaker and Snag IT.

These are some of the tools and tricks for you to follow. I am sure there are more recommended by technical writers. Treat this as a reference. But always believe in yourself and have an aptitude to learn always. Success will definately come- it might take a bit time, but will for sure.

Usability Session in ST. Marks Hotel

2007-03-26T01:18:00.000-07:00

No sooner had I got down from the Richmond flyover, my mobile started to beep. It was Nancy calling me from Hyderabad, and she was excited that I was going to be a part of CHI Bangalore event. "Dude, please collect all the information and share it with us".It wasn’t Nancy alone; I had received requests from my closest buddies- Sowmya, Greshma,Alex, Naveen, and all that they wished to know was what the event was all about. I could never say NO to this folks. Though it was my sleeping time,but thanks friends for getting me engaged me in an activity. Surely, you guys owe me a lot.

22nd March of 2007, and I reached at dotted 3pm in St.Marks Hotel,Bangalore collected my badge and an envelope from the organizers. The room was neatly organized with a capacity of almost 100 people. Almost 30 people had steamed over; I had a quick glance at the memory pad. Companies like Yahoo, SAP Labs, Arcot, Infosys (only me) and some freelancers were to be seen. Notwithstanding, students from designing schools like Sristhi, Akashpradeep etc had also come. Some familiar faces in the crowd and I was quick to acknowledge the greetings. Oh! did I forget to mention, I donned the coat of Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup organizer for the first time in that venue only.

The session started at 3:05pm. Sarit Arora welcomed all the dignitaries, participants and the audiences and briefly gave a walk through of the event’s activities. In hindsight, Sarit detailed out the HFI activities in the run to last year in designing and usability, getting more designing schools in place and the HFI’s plan of action for future. Without wasting much time, Sarit invited the first guest speaker Joseph Kaye to the podium. Joseph Kaye or popularly known as Jofish is a well-known name in the field of usability and design. Joseph Kaye is currently doing his thesis from Cornell university, US. Jofish started his presentation by identifying things that he won’t be speaking.

First of he pointed out Usability is not dead, dead as explained by gurus and there’s a subtle of difference between experimental psychologists and testing. Jofish discussed ways to think about experience- focused HCI rather than task-focused. Jofish used his own experiences to show this. He took long-term relationships in account where in he said that a website like http://intimateobjects.org/ has special icons that can be used over IM to express your emotions to your partner. At any instant of time, if you logged into say 8 in the morning, elated to get your partner online and clicked a red icon to show your happiness. The icon appears in your partner’s window and fades away with time. A similar thing happens in your window too when your partner selects an icon. What it clearly shows is the status and emotion related to your partner in the next 24 hours as he or starts missing you. In a nutshell: Designing helps and when it is linked to usability it rocks.

Next, Jofish took a little step forward and touched upon- who are the users, evaluators, limiting factors? He also spoke in detailed about the work done by him on the ‘happy home’ relationships. The experiment conducted by them was in form of placing cameras in the house water tank. For days they recorded the amount of water from the shower fell and at certain time when it was less, they knew certain tension was in.

Next, Jofish spoke about the usability of mini laptops. During a research conducted by a set of experts, they found that the HR team used to face the venom of candidates or employees when taking notes on a computer. Humans like to face the audience when they speak and they are somewhat lost or disturbed when it doesn’t happen. The effects as a result is tremendous and far more negative as one can ever think of. Finally, Jofish spoke on sexual interactions and believes that to keep a relationship lively it’s important that partners indulge in tipsy things-maybe a nudge to each other while getting a coke from the fridge, or a nice peck to him/her while going to the office.

Next, Jofish was addressed to a whole set of questions with your’s truly asking him the success criteria for documentation and the work done in the arena of usability testing for documentation. Jo wasn’t too confident to respond to that and directed the question to Dr. Eric Schaffer, CEO of HFI. Eric stressed on the user content to be simple and clear of any technical, grammatical lapses. In addition, he informed that users’ chances of using help systems were minimal and they hardly use it. He went to the extent of declaring documentation unusable and dead.

Next, there was a break of half an hour wherein we relished pastries, sandwiches and coffee. The attendees got a chance to interact with rest and the room was filled with usability and designing discussion. A beaming sense of freshness and vigor was experienced as participants steamed to hear Dr. Eric’s discussion on PETscan.

Dr.Eric started with a brief background of works done by him for the last 25 years in the area of usability designing and his challenges as the CEO of HFI. Eric detailed out on the importance of persuasion, emotion and trust for a user’s testing and spoke on the PETscan technique-Eyetracking. On an issue that eyetracking is not feasible for small time companies, he said you get what you pay for. Also, he stressed on the importance of Brand. He believes a website like Amazon scores over its contempories because of the brand tag and the organization of the website.

Regarding a query from your's truly on the importance of Help system, Dr.Eric felt that the objective of technical documentation is wrong in India. If you want people to use Help simply build a bad user interface and make sure to very highly motivate the users. Obvious a silly idea, but it meets your objective. The real objective, of course, is to ensure good performance and satisfaction. This is unlikely to occur from a good Help system. Instead design the interface so it is self-evident and needs no Help. Unless you really force people, they will not normally use Help. You can write WONDERFUL Help. But people just don't use it often. In fact, a good place to hide things is under the Help button.

He cited his real-life experiences to speak on customers who are hesitant enough to use Help. Generally, he believes that the only really appropriate Help facility is for answering very specific questions about a single field. When I questioned him about the metrics for Help, he said that there are various ways to look at it. You can measure the number of times Help is accessed (this is mostly a measure of how bad the interface design is). You can have an exit survey asking if the Help answered the user's question. Also, you can more specifically set users tasks, have the users try to complete them in a usability testing environment and see what happens when they access Help (very important and highly recommended).

Eric next spoke on the site maps, navigation tool etc. all these are too much for me to put here. Maybe I will talk to you guys on some weeknight. I had a great time attending the session, learnt a lot, met some usability designers’ friends, got a chance to share my knowledge and yes, I am putting this in practice too. Just a note before I sign off: usability is not dead; it is very much prevalent and as a caution designing without usability is a sheer time waste. So the next time, you work on an application or document something, please do spare a moment to get the users in action.

Autobiography of a User Guide

2007-01-09T05:17:00.000-08:00

It wasn’t the best of start I could have asked for. It wasn’t anything that I had against my creator, Raj. This lad could write but is he equipped to give birth to me? That was the question. Trust me, it had nothing to do with my creator in the form of a 26 year old guy with a stubborn attitude and quizzical smile. Not forgetting his ‘eventful projects; most of the times his victims were my brothers-Online Help.

Anyway, it was Monday and I believe Raj had a horrible weekend added to the break-up with his GF. He wasn’t in great spirits, and when his manager called him up, asking him to work on a TCP server user manual, Raj simply nodded. He came back to the workstation and banged his fists using the choicest of words that would make any C grade director happy. I was startled and was about to think, “Oh my God! Am I going to spend my life with a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome guy?”

Raj works as a technical writer for an MNC. He has been in the profession for sometime now and enjoys the intricacies of technical writing. He was a nice fella who dealt equally well with his friends and peers but was sentimental at times. And my concern is will be equally sentimental while dealing with me? Will he be in good rapport with my agents ‘FrameMaker’ and ‘Microsoft Word’? So much so, I said a quiet prayer to all the operating systems “Please, Please, whichever Operating System I am in please change the technical writer or please don’t function for me”. But I had a journey to do with this writer. To be honest, I found a touch of Leonardo Di Caprio’s character of DEPARTED in me.

The D-day arrived; I woke up bit late; around@ 10’O clock; clear, blue sky awaited for me. Suddenly I found someone talking, “alright, we will keep the source files in D: / and store it later in the LAN”. The voice sounded familiar. Yes, it was the voice of Raj. Raj was pretty Ok today and in other circumstances he was a demon to me. Given the various feedback people throw against him, he was a ‘I-hate-that-guy”. Anyway, I heard the beeping sound of the computer, and then the traditional tune of Microsoft Windows. The question was which authoring tool (agent) was he going to use? I had a bad relationship with Redmond’s Microsoft Word, and I was seeking a chance to take revenge for two of my brothers’ untimely death at the hand of Word. By the time, they passed away, their usage had been mainly with the system administrators, database administrators etc. Frankly speaking, I would prefer FrameMaker as I yearn to look for some stability and gain respect from my peers.

As soon as I was created there was quite a hustle and bustle with my names. Raj wanted to call me ‘TCP user’s guide’ while my boss, the client refused to bow down and looked forward to be called ‘TCP User Guide’. There were heated exchanges between the two with finally the manager Dorado Swami intervened and called for truce. During the course, I had a tete-a-tete with my peers, most of them being user guides. While the mood was upbeat some of them took a shot and mocked saying that I was going to have a bad time while others narrated their experience with Raj and said their in-laws - ‘punctuation’ made mockery. Some neighbors who had already celebrated quite a few releases and were waiting for their new releases asked me to be cautious and behave properly. Some said that I should “go in a task-centric way’ and you’ll be fine. To be honest, I was tense and waited for my master’s confirmation.

We started and the initial few days I was acquainted with a Cover Page, Legal Notice, TOC, List of Figures, List of Tables, and I was feeling quite at home with them. Raj is an avid coffee drinker and at times he will be working on multiple documents, exchanging emails, chatting and listening to songs. I am sure like most of my peers, I too didn’t have much time to understand the pathetic display of writing by Raj, but I didn’t have any other option. I thought of hiding myself in some drives, hung myself, but Raj always used to win the hide and seek race.

Anyway, one fine day I found myself in an attachment traveling to US. This was the first time I experienced a human touch. He packaged me pretty well, did a spell check, checked if the links are working properly and sailed me off to US at sharp 6 pm evening. It was a pretty nice journey and I found myself in John’s mailbox, whom I identified later to be my Reviewer. Here, John baptized me with a bit of authority calling me ‘TCP user’s manual_first draft_reviewed’. I didn’t like this approach but gradually learnt that it was a norm of my life cycle, and I had to quickly adapt to it. John had a keen eye and sent me across with his comments attached. I was now bearing a distinct RED color in India.

The next few days were spent on getting me covered up with content and screenshots. Often, there were iterations, which meant I had to view death of certain content and screenshots. But, the interesting part was that it was immediately covered by new content. Often on those days, there were client calls to be met and that meant longer hours with my client.

I felt sleepy sometimes and Raj used to suddenly wake me up. It was during those periods that I got introduced to new colleagues and friends specially SnagIT and Adobe Photoshop. I celebrated festival of colors Holi with them and learnt various things from Administrator Guide-mainly during lunch hours and weekends. Interestingly, Release Notes had a few jokes to crack and told me the company won’t be able to ship a product without my assistance. For the first time, I felt GREAT. Actually I was on the top of the world.

Work was getting day by day rigorous, and it was during one of this days Raj took me to his house. He shared a 2bhk apartment with his friends and kept me in a Laptop. During the course of the stay, I learnt quite a few things from my colleagues

• Try to have a task-centric attitude.
• Always have the relevant information for the users in simple English.
• Be direct in your tone.
• Always have a cause-effect relationship working for you.

After a month and a half of work, I was shipped to the US. And as I was leaving, I felt sad to miss all the warmth and grace that I received from Raj and my neighbors (reviewers, subject matter experts and project managers) all these days. He wasn’t a bad guy after all. I later came to know that there was a big round of celebration planned for the successful deployment of the product. Raj was appreciated for delivering a usable baby i.e. Me. In addition, they are planning to come up with a younger sister of mine.

Today I am a complimentary gift to George by his father. George studies in VIth standard and seem to be quite impressed by my features; he even took me to his school and showed it to his teacher. What impressed me was that they were taking assistance from me for certain tasks though at times someone called Jerry or Sally from Bangalore used to answer their queries. During the course of time, George stopped reading me and I got a wound as I was replaced with a new user manual. Depressed and humiliated, I found myself in a room filled with my contempories. I guess the only source of comfort was that I found myself in a room with certain user manuals. Here, I remember the last few days that I had spent with my fellow mates in India. I had a last wink.

Beating your own drums!

2006-12-22T22:07:00.000-08:00

And the saying goes, "what's there to cook when you have crap in your mind?". I have often wondered what it takes to get popular in a proffession? Whether it is necessary to be proactive and simulataneously beat the drums? or is it to keep quietly doing one's job and have an innovative approach? A mixture of both should be ideal, and I am saying after some years of working in an IT Industry.And that's even more the reasons I think we need to understand what's that we want from our profession?

I've been part of the technical communication circuit from the past 3 years; a large part of my time has been devoted to understanding the intricacies of technical writing, which I am sure will take some from time. Anyway, continuing with the mailing lists, there are discussions of all sorts; from highly technical to non-technical aspects. The addresses have been mainly writers with some experience in the field. Though the writers mainly post their queries on the mailing lists, they do want them to be personally shooted an email.What results is just the apposite.

An article on face-to-face communication

2006-12-20T05:59:00.000-08:00

A fantastic article on face-to-face communication by Sunder Ramachandran.

How face-to-face communication helps at work

Sunder Ramachandran (-- Sunder Ramachandran is a managing partner at WCH Solutions (http://www.wchsolutions.com), a training solutions organisation. He can be reached at sunder@wchsolutions.com.)

Today, most of your clients, colleagues and stakeholders are just a phone call or email away -- technology has made communication that simple. However, while tools like telephones and computers score high on convenience and speed, they lack the warmth and emotion that face-to-face communication provides.

In my earlier features, I have highlighted the importance of telephone etiquette, making use of online networking and business chat etiquette. However, there are some occasions where you must revive the by-now forgotten art of face-to-face communication.

Appreciating colleagues

In the words of Helen Keller, 'We are all walking with a signboard on our forehead which reads -- 'Appreciate me'.' It seems we have replaced the pat on the back with 'Thank you' and 'Good job' emails. But there is nothing that motivates someone more than seeing their boss walk up to them and appreciate them in front of everyone.

Go to your colleague's cubicle and congratulate them on the great report they sent or the presentation they made recently. I remember one of my ex-bosses who used to call us team members to his cabin just to say 'thanks' and pat our backs. The team immediately took a liking to him as most people expect a warning or feedback when the boss invites them to their cabin.

"It's difficult to build rapport over an email; I would feel much better if my boss appreciates me in person," says Ashok Krishnan, a CA with Nestle.

Criticising or providing feedback

When you provide feedback over an email or a phone call, the receiver may have a completely different perception about its relevance. This effect is amplified when you are not communicating face-to-face. The reader or listener may think you are cold and indifferent and that's why you avoided meeting them in person to discuss the issue. A face-to-face meeting gives you the opportunity to put your point across, while being sensitive and diplomatic at the same time.

"I have noticed that colleagues often use emails to avoid confronting the real issue. If someone fails to meet their target, I would prefer they tell me in person than offer an explanation over email," says Vidhanshu Bansal, a director with Pixel Webtech.

Assigning new responsibility

There is a great risk of the message getting diluted when a responsibility gets delegated through email or a phone call. Don't be surprised if your team does not show a sense of ownership or complete tasks on time if you are not communicating face-to-face. Nonverbal communication, such as tone of voice, facial gestures and eye contact help individuals understand the importance of a task and the need to complete it on time.

"We rely on conference calls, video conferencing and online meetings but, from my experience, there's nothing more impactful than meeting the team in person," says Delhi-based Ashu Gosh, a manager with Aviar IT Consulting.

Damage control with clients

If you haven't provided the product or service the client expected, you are putting your relationship with the client at stake. An apology mail would not suffice in a sensitive issue like this. Go to the client's office, if possible, without them having to call you for an explanation, and reassure them that the confidence they demonstrated when they gave you business was not misplaced. Your client would be pleasantly surprised that you took the time to come and meet them, especially when things went wrong.

"I used to interact on almost a daily basis with a client over emails without ever figuring out whether the person was male or female. When a report I was supposed to send got delayed, I made a rude comment about a female colleague which offended the client who happened to be a lady herself," says Deepak M.L, a manager with Convergys.

Resolving conflicts

Workplace conflicts are common in most organisations. The lack of interpersonal communication only worsens the situation. It's important to remember that 55 per cent of meaning in an interaction comes from facial and body language and 38 per cent comes from vocal inflection. Only seven per cent of an interaction's meaning is derived from the words themselves. So, trying to resolve a conflict over email or a phone call is often a bad idea.

"A colleague complained about another colleague and copied the senior management on the mail. I was surprised to see that mail translating into a flood of mails providing and seeking explanation. The person who sent the original mail was just one floor above the person who was at the receiving end. I had to sit down with both of them in person to resolve the conflict," says Kailasam R, a manager with Lufthansa Airlines.

Your communication style says a lot about you as a professional. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 'You are always under examination by people around you, awarding or denying you very high prizes when you least think of it.' So leave the comfort of your cubicle and build trustworthy relationships by communicating face to face.

Moments of the 8th STC Annual Conference, Bangalore

2006-12-14T22:18:00.000-08:00

”Exclusivity” was the theme for the recently concluded 8th STC Regional Conference held at Bangalore. The theme was appropriate as skilled technical writers presented multiple presentations on diverse technical writing topics in a gala event, spanning three days. Hotel Grand Ashok was the venue for the occasion, which it created a record turnout of more than 600 delegates. With companies like Infosys, Wipro, Dell, CSC, SUN Microsystems, Oracle, Symphony Services, and various others coming under the same roof, it was destined to be special, and it turned out to be so.

Conference Opens on December 7th

Geoffrey Hart opened the 8th STC regional conference on Thursday, 7th December. Popularly well-known in the technical writing circuit, Geoff Hart is a freelance writer, editor, and translator who specializes in scientific and technical communication. Geoffrey Hart delivered the first workshop on Editing, where he spoke of the intricacies of editing in detail, streamlined the editing process, and was never short of jokes. The audience couldn’t help but laugh when he addressed “technical writers as rabbits in a jungle.”

In a concurrent session, Timo Nevalainen addressed writers on the usefulness of content management for online writing. Timo emphasized the importance of content management saying that it is having “the Right systems for the Right People.”

Rajeev Jain (Zilog), Mary Ann Alexander (Pivotal), and Deepak/Siddarth delivered additional workshops that covered the API Style Guide, FrameMaker Insights, and Project Management. The highlight of the pre-conference workshop was undoubtedly the presentation delivered on Leadership Development/ Management excellence by SVP, HR, Symphony Services, Mahalingam. The speaker emphasized the importance of leadership in a project and supported the cause of “working with a business-oriented mind. Seasoned writer, Gyanesh Talwar, spoke on the “hot” topic brewing these days: XML in documentation and also spoke about Structured FrameMaker.

Conference Continues on December 8th

The following morning, December 8th, saw quite an unexpected turnout of technical communicators. The organizers were stunned to see the last minute registrations. Gururaj BS, the president for the STC India Community delivered the address keynote speech and shared the podium with Adobe Systems, Naresh Gupta, and Geoffrey Hart. After Gururaj’s welcome address, Chief Guest Naresh Gupta took the center stage. Naresh delivered a walk-through of Adobe’s products and the projects they are currently working on. Naresh also spoke a bit on the Adobe Captivate Beta version. During a Q&A session, when Naresh was asked if Adobe is planning to come out with a Content Management System (CMS), Naresh said they were not at all, and they are happy to work with their clients who are creating CMSs.

It was a red-letter day for STC India as Dr. Kiran Thakur, Head of the Department of Communication, University of Pune, talked on the inclusion of Technical Writing as a University program. It was the first such program in India, and Dr. Kiran introduced the gathering to the stalwarts behind the program, namely Makrand Pandit, Dr. Sunil Gokhale, and Frederick Menezes. He also gave a brief history of the program, the people developing it, its curriculum outline, and the challenges faced. He urged companies to support the program, as Pune University is a private institution and requires financial assistance to function.

Dr. Pradeep delivered “Exploiting the power of communication in Aerospace Industry,” which was followed by an interesting DITA session by Sandhya Ravishankar (Citec Academy), who suggested Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) for large documentation projects with large content. DITA is an XML-based, end-to-end architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information, which was developed by IBM. She also highlighted training as a core component for writers to fully use DITA.

Next in the pipeline were interesting presentations on “MS Office Security” and “Business of Technical Communication” by Khushboo Jitra (NII Consulting) and John Rosberg (Interwoven).). Khusboo, articulate in her presentation, provided a few strategies for the password protection of MS Word documents and related some document security incidents. John Rosberg identified the business aspects of technical writing and laid a path for technical writers to identify and analyze those issues in real-life scenarios.

But the speaker of the day (in my opinion) was Francisco Abedrabbo. Francisco delivered a keynote on “Tips to Grow Your Writing Career: A Manager's Perspective.”

Amidst all this activity, Frederick Menezes (Symantec) hosted the Quiz preliminaries. Four teams qualified for the finals from the written round. In the evening, a jam session was organized for the technical writers to unwind and "kick up their heels." It certainly grew entertaining as the DJ played some peppy numbers.

Final Conference Day Activities

The final day of the conference began with a presentation on “Documentation Program Management” by Vasanth Vaidyanathan and Anjana Sriram. It was followed by Suman Kumar’s (Dell) session on usability testing. Suman briefed the audience on the principles of usability testing, with suitable examples, but did not have of time, to not go into detail. Mary Alexander, a master in her own right, spoke on RSS Blogs and forums.

Everyone was geared up to witness the all-important panel discussion comprising stalwarts like Makrand Pandit, Gururaj BS, and Sai Kavitha, which was moderated by Manoj Bokil. Each of the dignitaries spoke on their respective arenas. Mak provided his views on making technical communication a business; Gururaj spoke on the career path for a technical writer; and Sai Kavitha delivered technical communication from a manager’s perspective as a panel discussion with a Q&A session following the presentation.

Frederick Menezes hosted the Quiz final session with the gathering cheering for their favorites. The team of Akash Dubey, Vasudha Rangarajan, and Anthony Francis took the winner’s title.

Conclusion

Amidst all this knowledge sharing, the conference was a hub for various companies to set up their stalls, not only to promote their companies, but also to solicit feedback from the delegates. In addition, there were organized contests and hordes of prize awards. The 8th STC Regional Conference–Bangalore proved to be a showcase for sharing knowledge and dispersing the diversity of technical communication.

Ten commandments of a successful author

2006-11-13T05:17:00.000-08:00

Ten commandments of a successful author..EXTRACT FROM Author: vrflash
United States, English translator

1. Read. Otherwise, how will you know you haven’t written something what has already been done?

2. Cut, cut, cut. To keep or not to keep? To be or not to be? If you can live without that word, than the answer is not to keep.

3. Listen to the editor. Follow the publication’s guidelines. They exist for a reason. You may not understand these reasons yet, but why annoy an editor?

4. Check the checker. Let the computer spell-check the work first and then proofread it manually. Computers might be not very smart, but they have a mind of their own and are happy to create havoc with your manuscript if you let them.

5. Avoid clichés like the plague. Why write something that has already been beaten to death?

6. Bring new things into the world. Be creative so that they will publish and read you instead of Joe Shmoe or Jane Doe.

7. Be persistent. Submit your work for publication. Too many talented writers keep a heap of dusty manuscripts under their beds.

8. Start a new. Once you’ve sent your manuscript out, don’t bother the editor with requests for status. Write the next one.

9. Don’t despair. If the manuscript is rejected, edit it and send it to another publication.

10.Know when to quit. If the manuscript gets constant rejections, put it away. Your bestseller is waiting for you to be written, so why waste your time with a dud

Good Writing Leads to Good Quality Testing

2006-06-14T22:44:00.000-07:00

This is an extract from "Benefits of Written Artifacts by Mike Alexander"
______________________________________
While the process of writing can be helpful to your testing efforts, the results of those efforts provide unique benefits of their own. Again, not all test groups produce the same types of documents, and the terms "test plan" and "test case" mean vastly different things to different people. In any case, any written documents you produce as part of your test efforts will provide some, if not all, of the following benefits.

Documents serve as useful artifacts that can be shared with other departments within your company, with regulatory agencies, with test partners, and with any other interested parties. If written well, your documents will provide these third parties with the information they need. That way, you can spend your time testing rather than answering questions about poorly written documents.

You also establish yourself as a reliable source of information, which will be good for your career. If, however, your writing is sloppy or incomplete, chances are you'll spend more time clarifying what you "meant to say" than you did writing in the first place. You will be perceived as disorganized or as a muddled thinker, which will not be good for your career.

At times, testers prepare documents in order to actively solicit questions and comments. Another benefit of a well-written document is that it can be distributed long before other people's responses are needed. That way, your audience has sufficient time to review your work, come up with their own list of items for clarification, and present their questions to you in a helpful fashion. Without a written document to distribute in advance, the responses from your audience will be "on the spot" and may not be as comprehensive as you would prefer.

The writings of one test team member can also serve as models or guides for others. Chances are that not every member on the test team will have the same level of skill or comfort with writing. In those cases, the well-written works of some members make good examples for the rest of the group to study when developing their own writing skills. While templates carry potential problems of their own (see the Pitfalls section below), when used appropriately as a guide they are an excellent way to help others improve skills by example.

Your writing can also benefit the entire test team by providing a single, professional "look and feel" for the group. By using the same well-prepared document outlines or "shells," each member of the test team can write in his or her own personal style while maintaining the written "image" of the group. Of course, the quality of the writing that "fills in" the outline must be high, or else the image is quickly undermined. Just because different team members' writing looks the same doesn't necessarily mean that it's written well.

Many testers I have met share the feeling that they are seen as less-than-equals by the development teams they work with. Quality writing is a trait that all professionals seem to appreciate, particularly when the document must stand on its own without the author present to back it up. An author must be confident in and knowledgeable of a topic to write well about it. Quality documentation tells developers and management that the author is a professional, which elevates their perception of the author and of the whole test team.

Getting a new look-TWIN-LAUNCH Portal!

2006-06-11T23:38:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday (June 10, 2006) was a special day for Technical Writers of India especially for the people behind the portal Twin-India. It was a befitting occasion to be celebrated since TWIN has had worked selflessly for this. I was fortunate enough to be a part of this historical occasion and tried my level best to look as calm and composed I could be in front of a gathering that had stalwarts like Gururaj BS, Vasudha Rangarajan, Suman Kumar, Pradeep Vasudevan and whole set of more.

I reached exactly at 4:30 sharp at the venue Nahar Cottage that is on St.Marks Road. Gururaj,who welcomed all the dignitaries and was looking stunning in his dark green shirts. The host for the show was Anthony Francis,a versatile technical writer who after welcoming the audience asked Mr.John Thomas, the Vice Dean at the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media, to launch the the TWIN portal at Hotel Nahar Heritage, Bangalore.

Mr.Thomas shared his inputs on Technical Writing and reminded the gathering of the launching of his India's first Online Newspaper, Deccan Herald. He saw technical writing a boon for the next generation and said that it should be a part of the curriculm.

Next was the launch of http://twin-india.org that is developed using the content management tool -Drupal. Pradeep Vasudevan gave a brief on how the work on the revamping of portal was started and handed it over to Suman Kumar. Suman presented an overview of how the revamping of portal was done and why they chose to use Drupal instead of other CMS tools like Mambo etc.

A few of the objects while selecting the CMS tool were :
Open-source
Price
User-friendly
Capability of handling features
Search Capabilty

After Suman had completed the presentation few questions were asked as if it would be possible to attach a file these days while sending posts in TWIN. Gururaj responded that by saying that it would depend on the 'theme of the file' and the moderator needs to approve the file first to be posted. A break was taken after that!

After relishing the delicacies of Jamoon, sandwich and samosas, Francis asked senior technical writers to share their TWIN experience. Miss. Vasudha spoke first and than Akash Dubey in his comical note delivered a speech. I was honored to read out a speech of ex-STC India President Mr.Makrand Pandit. A few points that Makrand etched out in his note were to reduce the flame wars that takes place in TWIN these days and to find out some good technical writers from the forum.

The meeting ended with the TWIN List Admin, Sandeep giving the vote of thanks. We all than dispersed.

It was a very eventful occasion perhaps a few more technical writers would have done great.

So enjoy the new portal, and in case you haven't browse through take a look at it http://twin-india.org.

These are my personal comments and in way are related to any groups. In case you wish to respond, please send me your comments at holypriest@gmail.com

A speech worth reading for IT programmers

2006-06-05T05:18:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Get Back to ur Basics!!!

I really enjoyed reading the speech given by Principal Scientist, Adobe Systems. Also got the list of the books we have to get back to…

Advice to young programmers (This is the summary of speech Given by Alex Stepenov (Principal Scientist, Adobe Systems) at Adobe India on 30 Nov 2004. )

1. Study , Study and Study - Never ever think that you have acquired all or most of the knowledge which exists in the world. Almost everybody in US at age of 14 and everybody in India at age of 24 starts thinking that he has acquired all the wisdom and knowledge that he needs. This should be strictly avoided. - You should be habituated to studies...exactly in the same way as you are habituated to brushing
teeth and taking bath every morning.

The habit of study must become a 'part of your blood'. And the study should be from both the areas: CS,since it is your profession, and something from non-CS...Something which doesnot relate to your work. This would expand your knowledge in other field too. A regular study, everyday, is extremely essential. It doesnot matter whether you study of 20 minutes of 2 hours, but consistency is a must. - You should always study basics and fundamentals.

There is no point in going for advanced topics. When I was at the age of 24, I
wanted to do PhD in program verification, though I was not able to understand anything from that. The basic reason was that my fundamental concepts were not clear. Studying 'Algebraic Geometry' is useless if you donot understand basics in Algebra and Geometry. Also, you should always go back and re-read and re-iterate over the fundamental concepts. What is the exact definition of 'fundamental'? The stuff which is around for a while and which forms basic part of the concepts can be regarded as
more fundamental. Of course, everybody understands what a fundamental means. - Here are few books which I would strongly recommend that every CS professional should read and understand.

i."Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" by Albenson and Sussman I
personally donot like the material present in this book and I do have some objections about it but this is the best book I have ever seen which explains all the concepts in programming in a clear and excellent way.

ii.Introduction to Computer Architecture: by Hennessy and Patterson.
How many of you have shipped the programs by writing them in assembly? A very good understanding of basics of how a computer operates is what every CS professional must have. H&P Wrote two books on CA. I am talking about their first book, the introductory text for understanding basic aspects of how a computer works. Even if you feel that you know whatever is written in that book, donot stop reading. It's good to revise basics again and again.

iii."Fundamentals of Programming" by Donald Knuth. The core of CS is algorithms and Data structures. Every CS professional must have the 3 volumes of Knuth's Book on programming. It really does not matter if you take 30 years of your life to understand what Knuth has written, what is more important is that you read atleast some part of that book everyday without fail.

iv. Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson and Rivest This book should be read daily to keep your concepts fresh. This is the best book for fundamental concepts in algorithms.

2. Learn Professional Ethics - As a CS Professional, you are morally obliged to do a good job. What this means is that you are supposed to do your job not for your manager but for yourself. This is already told in Bhagwatgeeta : Doing duties of your life. - The direct implication of this is: never ever write a bad code. You don't need to be fastest and run after shipping dates; rather you need to write quality code. Never write junk code. Rewrite it till it is good. Thoroughly test every piece of code that you write. Donot write codes which are "sort of allright". You might not achieve perfection, but atleast your code should be of good quality. - Let me quote my own example in this context.

You might have heard about STL, The Standard Template Library that ships in with C++ compilers. I wrote it 10 years ago, in 1994. While implementing one of the routines in the STL, namely the "search routine", I was a bit lazy and instead of writing a good linear order implementation of KMP which was difficult to code, I wrote a best quadratic implementation. I knew that I could make the search faster by writing a linear-order implementation, but I was lazy and I did not do that. And, after 10 years of my writing STL, exactly the same implementation is still used inside STL and STL ships with an inefficient quadratic implementation of search routine
even today!! You might ask me: why can't you rewrite that?

Well...I cannot, because that code is no more my property!! Further, nobody today
will be interested in a standalone efficient STL ...people would prefer one which automatically ships out with the compiler itself. - Moral is, you should have aesthetic beauty built inside you. You should "feel" uneasy on writing bad code and should be eager to rewrite the code till it becomes upto the quality. And to the judge the quality, you need to develop sense regarding which algorithms to use under what circumstances.

3. Figure out your Goals - Always aspire doing bigger things in life - "Viewing promotion path as your career" is a completely wrong goal. If you are really interested in studying and learning new things, never ever aspire for being a manager. Managers cannot learn and study...they have no time. "Company ladder aspiration" is not what should be important for you. - You might feel that you want to do certain things which you cannot do till you become a manager.

When you become a manager, you will soon realize that now you just cannot do anything! - You will have a great experience as programmers. But if you care for people and love people, you will never enjoy being a manager...most good managers are reluctant managers. If you see people as people, you cannot survive at management level. - Always aspire for professional greatness. Our profession is very beautiful because we create abstract models and implement them in reality.

There is a big fun in doing that. We have a profession which allows us to do creative
things and even gives nice salary for that. - The three biggest mistakes that people usually make are aiming for money, aiming for promotion and aiming for fame. The moment you get some of these, you aspire for some more...and then there is no end. I donot mean that you shouldnot earn money, but you should understand how much money would satisfy your needs. Bill Clinton might be the richest person in the world; he is certainly not the happiest. Our lives are far better than his. - Find your goal, and do best in the job that you have. Understand that what is in your pocket doesnot matter...what is in your brain finally matters. Money and fame donot matter. Knowledge matters.

4. Follow your culture I have seen the tradition that whatever junk is created in US, it rapidly spreads up in the rest of the world, and India is not an exception for this. This cultural change creates a very strong impact on everybody's life. Habits of watching spicy Bollywood or Hollywood movies and listening to pop songs and all such stupid stuff gets very easily cultivated in people of your age...but believe me,
there is nothing great in that. This all just makes you run away from your culture. And there is no wisdom in running away from your culture.

Indian culture, which has great Vedas and stories like Mahabharata and Bhagwatgeeta is really great and even Donald Knuth enjoys reading that. You should understand that fundamental things in Indian culture teach you a lot and you should never forget them. Finally, I would like to conclude by saying that it's your life...donot waste it on stupid things...develop your tests, and start the fight.

Project Getting Lifecycled!!!

2006-05-31T00:14:00.000-07:00

For those of you caught unaware of the dreaded 'Project Life Cycle' during the Interview phase, here's a sneek peek-a-boo of what a Project Life Cycle.

Project Life Cycle!!!

To B or not to be an OBC!!!!

2006-05-24T03:59:00.000-07:00

This is a premonition concept that Government is for the people, of the people and by the people. Atleast, Mr. Abraham Lincoln would be visualized crying in the grave at the pangs of human morality and lo at the sign of India..I am not going to delve much into the OBCs funda, I'll just narrate certain experiences why I feel it's inadequate to point out certain instances here. Let me see if I can analyze it in a better tone.

It has been 50 years and more now, since Jawahar Lal Nehru gave that famous speech in Parliament, "At the stroke of midnight, when the whole world sleeps, India will rise to freedom." I am not sure, the freedom that Mr. Nehru than spoke off smelt of agony and disdain of lower castes the so called SC/sets. I am not against an OBC fight here, but I guess a lot of work has had done off-late for the OBCs. And there have been less dividends out of it. The OBCs or other backward classes have not been come upto the standard, and I don't find the reason to be a social stigma rather than consequences.

My question is though why does the Government' have the impulsive nature of correcting it by forcing reservation? In this case, can the government not look into the reasons as to what are the OBCs drawback? I'm sure,there have been multiple committees formed to justify and come out the cases-but you and I know the best--the diary is full and all the reports are dumped into the garbage can. So, now the government has decided to come up with another solution--that is enforcing OBC reservation as if it's giant to deliver this time?

Politics plays a whole set of cards in India. Knowingly or unknowingly, you'll be engulfed in a storm of politicians who are braving their wits for a game of votes. The much respected and beloved minister for human resource and development, who at an age of 82 has decided to call an act has brought nothing but inhumane reaction from the different sections of society. Why did ARJUN play this gamble? Well, 1) he was upset that the veto power was vested in Manmohan Singh's cabinet for sometimes now, thought for a change 2) getting popular 3) Vote banks of Congress and 4) what else he could do?

The OBCs reservation policy has perhaps made the country witness the most volatile and inspired upheaval (if I may call it). I do see Rakesh Mehra's Rang De Basanthi doing some tricks out there, but it was a phenomenon nonetheless to see people scathing high and beat to stop this agitation. I was wondering how beautiful and strong are we when we get united. Doctors from all lore beated their hearts to join the agitated. IITs and IIMs took their prestigious lore into action as they activitely raised their voices, ongoing hunger strikes and lots more going on as I write this piece on May 23rd 2006 at Bangalore.

Questions were poured on Arjun Singh by the extreme Karan Thapar and mind you! Karan is not an easy joke. It was his interview that her Excellency Aama Jayalalithaa walked off as she felt that she was dragged off into an unnecessary controversy. Arjun Singh however, chose to remain tight-lipped during the interview and one point of time admitted the fact that the ordinance will be passed in the parliament irrespective of the fact that people like it or not. I don't see any reasons to talk to him on any matter!

The inhuman nature of the government could be understood more vividly as the government was busy in celebrating its 2nd anniversary, while atrocities were carried on large section of students point here is that not many people are affected by this. Would it culminate into an action, that

The feel good factor!

2006-05-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

Hi Rajdeep,
Thanks for that elaborate reply. It really helped a lot! Actually my company is of a medium size and I am the only TW here.At times, it gets difficult for me to learn new things. Even to begin with them. I feel that weird thing called Writer's block, which actually is a *technical* writer's block. I know what is to be written and how, but I
don't know how to present it and in which format! TWIN and seniors like you are making life easier for me.
I took a lot of keywords from your mail and googled them for more info. Got quite a lot. Thanks again for being so supportive. I hope I didn't annoy you with such basic questions.

Thanks and Warm Regards,
Mugdha

-----Original Message-----
From: Rajdeep Gupta [mailto:holypriest1@lycos.com]
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 10:27 AM
To: Mugdha Kulkarni
Subject: Re: [twin] Process for creating Application Help

Mugdha,

I hope you have gone through the links that Guruji has send across to it.Anyway, I'ld like to share a little insight on Help Application, primarily due to the reason that I actively started my Technical Writing career developing online help application and than scaled up doing other things.Please see my responses in-line.

Is there any standard process for generating Application Help?
Rajdeep:yes, there is. Based on the requirement set fort, an Online help is developed to cater the online audience. So, in general, you'll have the following things in your help--welcome note, about the help, audience of the help, logging into the application/system (since it's an online help,), features and task centric wise, Index and a question tag. Note that the help will have more screenshots than a PDF document has.

What are the steps that you guys generally follow?
Rajdeep: I'll tell you how I develop an Online Help. Primarily using Robohelp HTML, I import the Word document into the Robohelp application and the generate the Help. You can use Robohtml tutorials to get more insight on it.

What all comes as an input and in what format you are supposed to deliver the output?
Rajdeep: If you are using Robohelp, you can have multiple help outputs aka Webhelp, javahelp, flash help,webhelp pro, Oracle Help, WinHelp 2000,WinHelp 4 and WinHelp 3.

Who are the other professionals involved in this process?
Rajdeep: So far I have come across, I have worked with the developers for generating Online Help. The developers take all the map ids that each html file and corresponds it to the application for context-sensitive help. The quality assurance team will come later for testing the documentation.

What are the available tools and when do you choose each one of them?
Rajdeep: Using htmlhelp workshop(free tool), Roohelp, Madcap and etc you can generated online help. If you want to purchase a tool, I suggest Madcap or Robohelp.

Hope this helps!
Rajdeep

Documentation and QA-Two sides of a coin

2006-05-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

Summary: This article written by Kumar Raman is all about wearing your documentation cap with pride as you do your other technical and quality caps. Documentation is as important as any other aspect of a project, like analysis, design, coding, testing, etc. The problem is that we do not realize its importance. Once we do, we can deliver products with a higher level of perfection. This has to be understood, appreciated, and infused into our system.

About the Author- Kumar Raman was a business journalist with a leading national economic daily in India. He has varied newspaper experience, picking up knowledge in domains such as finance, banking, insurance, stock markets, etc. In information technology, he has worked on both Microsoft and Java platforms, playing a variety of roles from analyst programmer to quality facilitator to project leader.
_________________________________________________

Before joining my current organization, I had never heard people talking about documentation as a separate area worthy of much attention. The general opinion was that anybody who was free could do it—whether creating plans (e.g., the QA plan, test plan, or SCM plan), templates for reviews, status reports, time sheets, or the user manual. Having special technical writers was considered a good idea, but a luxury.

An Eye-Opener
During the interview for my current job, I talked at length about everything from software process to management and metrics collection. I did not stress documentation, even though it is my core area. I felt that talking about documentation would sound like I had no other skills, because I considered it the least marketable skill. Even when my interviewer asked about my documentation work and experience, and then started to tell me why he thought that documentation can make or break a project, I did not think he took it seriously. Nevertheless, I joined the company to head the documentation area.

The day I joined, our managing director sent a message to everybody saying that no documents—internal or external—would leave the company without my review. He gave an example of how a well-written, thirty-page document fetched us a million-dollar project. “We knew we could deliver if we got the project, and the bridge between us and the project was our proposal. We understood this and worked hard on this. We took extra efforts to express ourselves fully with a professional and holistic appeal and that paid off. We got the project,” he told me later. This was a first for me: I saw someone at the top who felt documentation was an important part of quality assurance!

Documentation? What’s That?
We have all read a lot about technology, quality, certification, testing, automation tools, and processes. But how many of us have seen articles on documentation? There are few, not because documentation is not important, but because we have not yet realized its potential. There is still a perception in some that documentation is less significant than analysis, design, or coding.

But we should appreciate that fact that documentation projects have levels of maturity, just like the software process. The book Managing Your Documentation Projects by Joann T. Hackos is one of the best books on how project documentation can be standardized and how standardized project documentation improves a project’s quality. When compared to those levels, many software companies would not qualify as low-level documentation organizations, having only ad hoc documentation practices and no documentation experts. Most companies do not give a fraction of the importance to the documentation process that they give to their software development processes.

The fact is, careful documentation can save an organization time and money. Unless you are able to produce a document that makes the user comfortable and agreeable, no matter how superior your product might be, people will refuse to accept it. In my opinion, Microsoft’s MSDN is one of the finest product guides ever produced. Given the scale of products they offer, they would be lost without an established documentation standard. Today, even with their massive size, Microsoft launches products with professional documentation. Some may dismiss this by saying they have the resources that others lack. But did they always have the resources? At some point they placed a priority on documentation. That is one of the reasons that all their products are self-contained and successful. That saves millions of dollars, not only for Microsoft, but also for all kinds of businesses today.

Small companies also can gain by developing good documentation staff and practices. Often, a proposal fails to convert to a project because the proposal documentation lacks concise and expressive language, professional organization and polish. It may not be their inability to deliver, but their inability to express their capability.

For many, documentation is only about creating user manuals and online help, and even that documentation lacks an established process. When a project nears completion, a writer is called upon to document it. Someone sits with the technical writer and quickly runs through the application, telling the technical writer to prepare a user manual and to “please call on me if you have any questions…” The technical writer does their best to prepare a manual for the application. Then come the calls for more training or help over the phone, and half of the support staff will be answering queries on the user manual itself. Think how much time would have been saved if the documentation had been considered an important part of the process from the beginning.

Doing it is important!
It’s not that we don’t know how to do the documentation right. We just don’t think it’s important. The simplest thing one can do is to involve documentation people from project initiation and let them understand the project dynamics, technology, domain, and objective. We need to make sure the person who does the documentation—whether internal or external—understands the document audience well, and the purpose and objectives of creating the document. Once this is done, the documentation will be organized and articulated in a way that makes sense to the readers. The idea behind this is to take a proactive approach toward documentation. We will surely be better off planning our project documentation and executing it when the writers know the purpose and stay involved throughout the lifecycle.

To set our documentation standards in place, we need to integrate our software processes with our project documentation requirements; specifically, the various documents and records we create for our quality conformance purposes should adhere to set document standards. There might be the understanding that “we already have templates that we follow.” But I am not talking about the process we follow for certification’s sake (e.g., ISO or CMM). I am talking about synchronizing our real quality assurance with our documentation standards and other processes. Hence, it is very important that both our QA and documentation processes go hand-in-hand and that both departments work in synchrony. It actually has to be a synchrony triad—the processes defined by QA, followed by the technical people, and documented as per the standards.

Remember that change happens slowly. This morning, I spoke to our team of project owners and told them it is important to follow whatever standard templates and styles we publish. As I was enjoying my cup of coffee with a sense of satisfaction thinking about the morning session, I received a call from one of the project owners. He congratulated me on all my endeavours to bring order to the chaotic environment, and then he came to the point: “Kumar, I have a document to be reviewed. I wish I had time to format it in line with the dot template you sent me the other day; but I think you will appreciate that I have an important design review to attend. Can I send you the document and ask that one of your technical writers format it according to our style before it is reviewed?” I hung up the phone with a very hesitant “Yes.” Old habits die hard, but if we are persistent and patient, our efforts will pay off, and others will appreciate the importance of documentation to quality assurance.

Open source does not make better code!

2006-05-08T23:57:00.000-07:00

Open Source Does Not Make Better Code. Better Programmers Make Better Code.

Every now and then, I will see a "dispelling the myths of open source" type of article, blog, discussion, or whatever come my way, and it always seems to come around to the "more eyeballs means less defects" idea. For whatever reason, many open source proponents seem to believe that there is this rear guard of closed source folks spreading FUD about open source (even Microsoft has toned down their rhetoric lately). I think that less than 10% of the knowledgeable people out there actually claim that closed source is inherently more secure than open source. It definitely seems that most people (at least amongst those that voice an opinion) believe that open source software is inherently more secure than close source software.

In reality, what matters much more than "open" or "closed" source, is who is writing and reviewing the code, why they are doing it, and how long they are doing it. If I compare OSS project "Project A" to closed source project "Project B", and "Project A" is being written by five 15 year olds who just wrote "Hello World" last week for the first time, and "Project B" is being written by twenty crusty old timers, and "Project A" has a three person "community" and "Project B" has zero community inspecting the source, I still guarantee that "Project B" will blow "Project A" out of the water. Open source, closed source, it really does not matter.

Another thing that I find fallacious about this argument is the continual assumption that "open source" means "free." The two are not mutual ideas, not by a long shot. Nor are they mutually exclusive. Historically speaking, UNIX is "open source," but hardly "free." Indeed, the original BSD386 project was due to the desire for there to be a free UNIX. One of the reasons why so much System V source code has ended up in various UNIXs over the years is precisely because Sytem V was open source, and SCO’s lawsuits exist because System V was not free! On the other hand, there is plenty of free software that is not open source. Just got to any shareware repository and find a piece of freeware that is pre-compiled and that does not include source code.

What really matters is who is writing and reviewing the code, and money tends to attract the continued writing and review of code much better than whatever it is that actually motivates FOSS coders. Sure, some FOSS projects (Apache, Linux, BSD, MySQL, etc.) attract top talent, but just taking a look at Source Forge shows that the vast majority of Open Source projects go nowhere. To decide that FOSS is the best possible method of development and quality control based on Windows vs. Linux or Oracle vs. MySQL or IIS vs. Apache or PHP vs. Java, or whatever is silly. That is like saying that "a Dodge will always be faster than a Chevy" based upon a comparison between the Viper and the Corvette.

One of the reasons why these projects are able to attract such a large pool of developers and testers has less to do with the fact that they are "open source," but the fact that they are free. Only a minute percentage of Linux users ever touch their source code, let alone look at it (or even care about it). They are attracted by its phenomenal price/performance ratio. The same can be said for any FOSS project. Thanks to the widespread usage of various package managers, it is fairly uncommon for most mainstream Linux users to even compile from source, let alone modify compiler flags or make changes to source code. If these packages were closed source but still free, most of their users would still use them and be testing them.

The vast majority of lines of code are written under the radar of most people and do not get any attention. Try comparing a small sample of each type of software. Take a few dozen random items from Source Forge that are in at least a "release quality" state and compare them to a few dozen freeware applications. Then evaluate the difference between closed source and open source. I really cannot tell you what the results will be, but I do know that many of the open source pieces of code that I have used, outside of the "big stuff" (various UNIXs, Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL) are not so great. For a project that lacks glamour, it is hard to attract someone to spend a large amount of time seriously working on it. It is that simple.

Mind you, I am not against open source or free software whatsoever! I use it all of the time in my day-to-day life, especially FreeBSD, Apache, MySQL, and Perl. But I also use a lot of paid and/or closed source software as well, like Windows, IIS, Oracle, Microsoft Office and so on. Some of my favorite pieces of software are simple shareware applications: Notetab Pro and ThumbsPlus immediately come to mind. It is very rare that I have ever wanted or needed to "look under the hood" of a piece of software. Tomcat/Jakarta required me to do so to find out why it was not behaving as documented. Indeed, most of the time that I have had to look at source code, it was to compensate for poor documentation, not to actually make any change or satisfy a curious itch. I was grateful to be able to inspect the source code, but I would have preferred better documentation instead.

Many of the arguments that I hear in favor of open source compare Windows to Linux, or Internet Explorer to Firefox. Windows vs. Linux just shows that the Linux coders are better, smarter, and more well organized than Microsoft's Windows coders. Microsoft has had something like ten years to get Internet Explorer right, and they still have not managed to get it nailed down. This is not news. The fact is, closed source shops consistently crank out many products better than Microsoft’s too. One can just as easily compare OS/2 Warp or BeOS or MacOSX to the version of Windows from the relevant timeframe, and Windows still falls short on many (if not most) benchmarks like security, stability, usability, and so on. I note that it is rare for someone to compare MySQL or PostgreSQL to Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server in an "open source versus closed source" debate. Why do we never hear ".Net versus Mono?" Even comparing Apache to IIS is difficult, because IIS is a significantly more ambitious piece of software than Apache.

Open source, in and of itself does not produce better code. Better coders and better testing produce better code. It is that simple. When a closed source shop has the better coders and better testing, they write the better software. When an open source project has better coders and better testing, they write better software. To think that just because a piece of code can be modified or inspected by anyone and everyone means that the best coders and testers will be modifying and testing that code is just not correct

--Article Written by J.JA

Blogger's Introduction

2006-05-05T06:12:00.000-07:00

An Indian by birth and a Bengali by choice, I believe diversity can be a source of strength rather than division, which is why I chose this profession- technical writing. As a technical writer I not only get a chance to write and work on diverse products and services but get a chance to mingle with various like minded folks from various communities. Knowledge shared is knowledge gained, and to a large extent my blog’s objectives is to share and learn technical writing knowledge amongst various quarters.

To speak a bit about myself: I am currently pursuing an Executive degree in Management from Alliance Business school, Bangalore and have a degree in Communications from Bangalore University. I started my career as a content writer for a portal called Indiainfo.com; my job responsibilities included planning, creating and managing portal news, editing articles and writing features for the portals’ Movies and Eves. I graduated myself from content writing to technical writing mainly due to my interest in technology related services. The first manual that I worked on was on a pocket calculator; it brought me a job and the company who took me on their hold was Xora Software Systems. I was with Xora for a year and a half wherein I learnt the intricacies of technical writing mainly the processes. During my stint in Xora, I developed user manuals, administrative guides, release notes, online help, marketing papers, build docs etc.

Success brings a lot of responsibilities, and my proactive nature was noticed by folks to entrust me to lead Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup. I took the onus and have been leading the group for a year and half now. It involves me in scheduling the meeting venues, topics, speakers, emailing the mailing list servs, managing the meetup website etc. Refer the meetup website for further details http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/; we are a group of more than 550+.

With two and half year of work experience, I find myself with Infosys Technologies as a Technical Communicator doing documentation alongside with Usability Testing. Also, I have done some work on Usability Testing of Documentation too. Apart from all this, I am a quizmaster and run the quizzing shows in Infosys, compose poems etc. Various articles of mine have been published online. In case, you are interested to have a brief look into my portfolio, please tinkle me sometimes. You can find me at holypriest@gmail.com

Happy Blogging!