Re: Directions for tomorrow's techwriting

Subject: Re: Directions for tomorrow's techwriting
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 19:33:34 -0300


Phil Levy wrote:

After all, don't we tech writers spend a lot of time
and get paid a lot of money for seeking information
that already exists? It seems fairly absurd to pay for
something twice. The absurdity just hasn't registered
to most companies yet.

This XML or whatever storage place can eventually,
through the work of tech writers, be made readable by
end users. It would be like a functional spec that
became transparent and intuitive enough to be readable
by anyone.

But storing and reusing information is something that many tech-writers do now. I know that, at several companies, I've put together libraries of facts that everybody in the company would be using over and over: standard language for introducing a product, feature lists, company bios and blurbs, and similar stuff.

XML may help in this task, if the company's documentation is organized properly, but I find it hard to think of it as anything more than another addition to the tool kit. I've seen the introduction of several tools, and been happy enough to have them, and I greet XML in the same way, but I don't see it as the great change in direction that many peole claim. No matter what the tools, writers seem to end up doing much the same thing. They may do them better, but the basic task doesn't seem to change.

--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"Better fail in a grand style than succeed in a mean one - you won't enjoy the successes you get the second way."
- Fritz Leiber, "The Oldest Soldier"





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References:
RE: Directions for tomorrow's techwriting: From: Phil Levy

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