The Language of Learning introduces the field of education to business professionals through the terminology that defines the field. It includes definitions of 52 terms that business professionals need to know about business education and training. Each term has a definition, a description of why that term is important, and an essay about why business professionals need to know this term and how they can use it. Each of the 52 terms was contributed by a leading expert in that specific area.Businesses need to ensure that their employees have the skills they need to be effective in their jobs. Education and training are a critical part of ensuring this is the case. The Language of Learning provides the vocabulary and concepts professionals need to understand so they can work with learning specialists to design training and education programs that are effective and efficient.In addition to the 52 main terms, there is an extensive glossary with more than 90 additional terms and more than 150 references for further exploration. The Language of Learning is a must-read for business professionals and learning and development specialists.
Successful content strategy projects start with a thorough assessment of the current state of all content assets: their quantity, type, and quality. Beginning with a data-rich content inventory and layering in a qualitative assessment, the audit process allows content owners and business stakeholders to make informed decisions.Content Audits and Inventories, by veteran content strategist Paula Land, shows you how to begin with an inventory, scope and plan an audit, evaluate content against business and user goals, and move forward with a set of useful, actionable insights.This practical, tactic-filled handbook walks you through setting up and running an inventory using an automated tool, setting the stage for a successful audit. Specific audit tactics addressed include auditing for content quality, performance, global considerations, and legal and regulatory issues. You will also learn how to do a competitive audit and incorporate personas into an audit. Tips on presenting audit results to stakeholders will help you deliver effective strategies.
Over the course of a career, every engineer needs to communicate, in both written and oral form, with other engineers and non-engineers. Yet, too many engineers never develop this basic skill. Engineering Words draws on the authors' extensive experience as technical communicators and teachers of a popular class in technical communication for engineers at the University of California, Riverside, to present a comprehensive introduction to communicating in the business world. This book covers everything from the basics of clear writing to résumés to cover letters to requirements documents to presentations and much more.Engineering Words can be used as a textbook for classes that train engineers to be effective communicators. It can also serve as a self-study text that even experienced engineers will find useful for improving their communication skills.
Schematron is a validation language that checks XML documents against business rules. It extends the validation provided by languages such as Document Type Definitions (DTD), W3C XML Schema, and RELAX NG, giving you the ability to check your XML documents for compliance with rules that can be difficult, if not impossible, to check with the other validation languages.Schematron: A language for validating XML is aimed at programmers and others who process XML. It explains the language in detail along with many examples. Anyone who uses Schematron or who would like to begin using it will find a wealth of information in this book.
Every complex product needs to be explained to its users, and technical writers, also known as technical communicators, are the ones who do that job. A growing field, technical writing requires multiple skills, including an understanding of technology, writing ability, and great people skills.Whether you're thinking of becoming a technical writer, just starting out, or you've been working for a while and feel the need to take your skills to the next level, The Insider's Guide to Technical Writing can help you be a successful technical writer and build a satisfying career.Inside the BookIs This Job for Me? What does it take to be a technical writer?Building the Foundation: What skills and tools do you need to get started?The Best Laid Plans: How do you create a schedule that wont make you go crazy? How do you manage different development processes, including Agile methodologies?On the Job: What does it take to walk into a job and be productive right away?The Tech Writer Toolkit: How do you create style guides, indexes, templates and layouts? How do you manage localization and translation and all the other non-writing parts of the job?I Love My Job: How do you handle the ups and downs of being a technical writer?Appendixes: References to websites, books, and other resources to keep you learning.Index
Outsourcing stirs strong emotions. Employees associate it with layoffs, reduced quality, and plummeting morale. Managers often don't understand the potential, thinking either that it will reduce their costs by large amounts or that it will make them obsolete, too. The truth is that, when done correctly, outsourcing often does not lead to layoffs, can lead to increased quality, and can even boost morale. Although the inflated savings that some managers have been led to believe are untrue (outsourcing can rarely, if ever, reduce content development costs by more than 60 percent), outsourcing can still be a win for both a company and its employees.Outsourcing Technical Writing: A Primer provides a comprehensive introduction to outsourcing technical writing. Barry Saiff, who has had extensive experience with outsourced content development, provides a roadmap for outsourcing success along with cases studies, a sample outsourcing agreement, and a sample plan. He also connects the success of outsourcing with management excellence and process maturity.
Structured writing has never been more important or more confusing. We keep trying to do more and more with content, but we give ourselves less and less time to do it. Structured content can help keep your rhetoric on track and your processes efficient. But how does it do that and what is the relationship between rhetoric and process? It is easy to get lost in sea of acronyms and buzz words: semantics, XML, metadata, DITA, structure, DocBook, hypertext, Markdown, topics, XSLT, reuse, LaTeX, silos, HTML. Structured Writing cuts through the noise, explaining what structured writing is (you have been doing it all along) and how you can use different structures to achieve different purposes. It focuses on how you can partition and manage the complexity of the content creation process using structured writing techniques to ensure that everything is handled by the person or process with the skills, time, and resources to handle it effectively. Most importantly, this book shows you how the right structured writing techniques can improve the quality of your content and, at the same time, make your content processes more efficient without sacrificing quality for efficiency or vice versa. There are so many options available in the structured writing space today. This book will show you where each of them fits and help you choose the approach that is optimal for your content.
In recent years, information architecture and user experience have become recognized fields with mature methodologies, What has been lacking in the world of content strategy has been attention to the foundation these disciplines are built on: authors.Author Experience focuses on the value of managing the communication process effectively and efficiently. It deals with this process from the point of view of those who create and manage content.This book defines author experience, outlines the challenges that stand in the way of a good author experience, and provides a set of design patterns that will help you define and implement an author experience that improves content quality and author efficiency.
The Language of Technical Communication has a dual objective: to define the terms that form the core of technical communication as it is practiced today, while predicting where the field will go in the future. The choice of terms defined in this book followed two overarching principles: include all aspects of the discipline of technical communication, not just technical writing, and select terms that will be relevant into the foreseeable future.The Language of Technical Communication is a collaborative effort with fifty-two expert contributors, all known for their depth of knowleEA Digital (delivered electronically)e. You will probably recognize many of their names, and you will probably want to learn more about the ones who are new to you. Each contributed term has a concise definition, an importance statement, and an essay that describes why technical communicators need to know that term. You will find well understood terms, such as content reuse and minimalist design, alongside new terms, such as the Internet of Things and augmented reality. They span the depth and breadth, as well as the past and future, of technical communication.
Il web cambia il modo in cui usiamo i contenuti, non solo quelli presenti sul web, ma i contenuti in generale. Se i vostri contenuti non sono facili da trovare e utilizzabili velocemente, il lettore se ne andrà praticamente all'istante. Siamo tutti figli del web e, quando abbiamo a che fare con le informazioni, inclusa la documentazione dei prodotti, cerchiamo il campo di ricerca e ci aspettiamo che ogni ricerca funzioni come Google. Non c'è più primo o ultimo, prima o dopo, su o giù: ogni pagina è la prima.Per i comunicatori tecnici, questa situazione di "ogni pagina è la prima" costituisce una grande sfida: come possiamo documentare un prodotto di ampia portata e complessità usando solo moduli di informazione, e come possiamo mettere il lettore in grado di trovare e navigare con efficienza contenuti scritti in maniera modulare?In questo libro innovativo, Mark Baker spinge lo sguardo oltre i soliti consigli su come scrivere per il web e oltre la concezione della scrittura modulare intesa semplicemente come un mezzo per perseguire efficienza e riutilizzo, al fine di esplorare dal vero il modo in cui il lettore usa le informazioni nell'epoca del web e per elaborare un metodo di pianificazione, creazione, gestione e strutturazione della documentazione modulare che sia veramente efficace per tale lettore.
When Bette Frick wanted to transition her live training to a webinar platform, she searched for advice on managing the technology and maximizing learner interaction. She found plenty of books about presenting marketing webinars but only a few books for trainers. She longed for simple tips to help engage participants in her technical and business writing webinars. So, she had to learn by doing; she experimented with high- and low-tech strategies for keeping learners involved and enjoying her classes. Webinar School presents her practical tips for offering flawless webinars, keeping participants engaged, and having as much fun as the learners do.
A Practical Guide to XLIFF 2.0 introduces the OASIS XLIFF standard. Companies use XLIFF to standardize the exchange of source and localized content with localization and translation vendors.You will learn how to get the most from the XLIFF standard, use best practices in your translation workflow, extend XLIFF, and use the XLIFF modules.This book is for localization coordinators, technical writers, content management system vendors, localization service providers, and consultants who want to incorporate XLIFF into their customers' publishing workflow.Getting Started introduces XLIFF, the translation process, and the major parts of XLIFF, including the core and modules.Applied XLIFF describes how XLIFF supports translation of XML (including DITA), websites, office documents, graphics, and software user interfaces.XLIFF Core: introduces the XLIFF core features, including: Preserving document structure Marking up text for translation Segmentation and sub-flows Fragment identification Extensibility XLIFF Modules: introduces the XLIFF modules, including: Translation Candidates Glossary Format Style Metadata Resource Data Change Tracking Size and Length Restriction Validation XLIFF 2.0 Structure: describes the XLIFF 2.0 schemas, including the core structural and inline elements and module schemas. Examples: detailed examples, including XSL code, for transforming XML source files into and out of XLIFF.
The Language of Content Strategy is the gateway to a language that describes the world of content strategy. With fifty-two contributors, all known for their depth of knowleEA Digital (delivered electronically)e, this set of terms forms the core of an emerging profession and, as a result, helps shape the profession. The terminology spans a range of competencies with the broad area of content strategy.This book, and its companion website, is an invitation to readers to join the conversation. This is an important step: the beginning of a common language. Using this book will not only help you shape your work, but also encourage you to contribute your own terminology and help expand the depth and breadth of the profession
MadCap Flare for Programmers shows how Flare manages and parses content and how you can interact with Flare outside the user interface. It introduces the structure of Flare content files and Flare output files, such as HTML5 help, and shows how you can manipulate those files.With more than 50 examples in languages such as JavaScript, C#, Java, XSLT, and Visual Basic, this book covers most of the ways you can programmatically interact with MadCap Flare. This book is for programmers who support Flare, technical writers who want to look under the hood, and managers who would like to know what possibilities exist beyond the Flare UI.
When Bette Frick launched her freelance writing and editing business in 1990, not having completed formal business training meant she would make more than a few mistakes. But not applying MBA models meant that as her company grew, her business model fit her rather than some business-school template.As Bette learned her (sometimes) painful lessons, she shared them in her column, Business Matters, in Intercom, the magazine of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), from 2003 to 2012. Business Matters republishes those articles, substantially revised and arranged thematically, along with several new chapters.
The Web changes how people use content; not just content on the Web, but all content. If your content is not easy to find and immediately helpful, readers will move on almost at once. We are all children of the Web, and we come to any information system, including product documentation, looking for the search box and expecting every search to work like Google. There is no first, last, previous, next, up, or back anymore. Every Page is Page One.In this ground-breaking book, Mark Baker looks beyond the usual advice on writing for the Web, and beyond the idea of topic-based writing merely as an aid to efficiency and reuse, to explore how readers really use information in the age of the Web and to lay out an approach to planning, creating, managing, and organizing topic-based documentation that really works for the reader.
DITA expert Eliot Kimber takes you inside the DITA XML standard, explaining the architecture and technology that make DITA unique. Volume 1 of his two-volume exploration of DITA starts with a hands-on explanation of end-to-end DITA processing that will get you up and running fast. Then, he explores the DITA architecture, explaining maps and topics, structural patterns, metadata, linking and addressing, keys and key references, relationship tables, conditional processing, reuse, and more.DITA for Practitioners Volume 1: Architecture and Technology is for engineers, tool builders, and content strategists: anyone who designs, implements, or supports DITA-based systems and needs a deeper understanding of DITA technology. Kimber's unique perspective unwraps the puzzle that is DITA, explaining the rationale for its design and structure, and giving you an unvarnished, detailed look inside this important technology.
When you want to engage customers, you must have great content that speaks to them in their language. Success in foreign markets takes research, planning, and sensitivity regarding the culture, expectations, and buying habits of each target customer.Because of this, more and more companies are translating more content into more languages every day.Global Content Strategy: A Primer gives you the information you need to get started navigating the global content landscape. From tips on making your global content more accessible to details on how to ensure that your words and images are prepared for the world, this book provides information every global organization needs to be successful.
The Secret Life of Word looks at Microsoft Word from the perspective of technical and other professional writers. It gives writers an in-depth look at the hidden capabilities of Word, and shows how to take advantage of those capabilities without being a programmer. The Secret Life of Word will help you master the full gamut of Word mysteries, including AutoCorrect, QuickParts, BuildingBlocks, macros, Smart Tags, program-less VBA programming, and much more. There's something here for everyone who uses Microsoft Word, from new users to experts.Inside the BookPrefaceIntroduction to Word AutomationCreating MacrosFind and ReplaceFields, Form Fields, and Content ControlsAutoCorrect and AutoText/Building BlocksSmart TagsExchanging DataCode SamplesAutomation Related TopicsGlossary, Bibliography, and Index
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