TechWhirl: Technical Communications Recap for March 16, 2012

[TechWhirl Admin <admin -at- techwhirl -dot- com>]

This week’s update on technical communications and the TechWhirl community
is supported by Platinum sponsor ComponentOne & their Doc-To-Help Help
Authoring Tool <http://goo.gl/QcMWA>  http://bit.ly/doc-to-help



The TechWhirl gang has returned from a great WritersUA conference in
Memphis, with pages and pages of notes that are already being turned into
articles about the latest and greatest in user assistance, lots of photos
on Pinterest <http://pinterest.com/techwhirl/writersua-conference-2012/>,
good memories of the home of the Blues, and newfound appreciation for the
role of ducks in modern society.

Meanwhile back on the home front, Geoff Hart provided an informative Primer
on Gestalt Theory and Visual
Design<http://techwhirl.com/ecosystem/info-design/technical-communications-primer-gestalt-theory-and-visual-design/>,
and Whirlers engaged in discussions both practical and conjectural on the
email list<http://www.techwr-l.com/about-technical-writing-discussion-groups.html>
.



You still have plenty of time to vote in this week’s technical
communications poll on factors impacting your user assistance
work<http://techwhirl.com/business/polls/technical-communications-poll-factors-in-user-assistance-development/>—feel
free to add comments on any or all of the listed factors, or tell us what
we missed.



Have a great weekend.


In Case You Missed it: This Week  @ TechWhirl

*New features and articles on http://TechWhirl.com <http://techwhirl.com/>**
:*


   - WritersUA Session Summary: Embedding User Experience in the Product
   Development Life Cycle, by Lauren Hart | http://bit.ly/wbxLps
   - WritersUA Session Summary: Getting Started with User Assistance (UA)
   for Mobile Applications, by Ashley Brown | http://bit.ly/yY7KuI
   - Technical Communications Poll: Factors in User Assistance Development
   | http://bit.ly/wWSFVR
   - WritersUA Conference: The Story of User Assistance, via Storify |
   http://bit.ly/wBiPZI
   - Technical Communications Primer: Gestalt Theory and Visual Design, by
   Geoff Hart | http://bit.ly/wFLlZV

*Tech Comm News:*


   - *T*ech Writer This Week: March 15, 2012 | http://bit.ly/z6UYjn
   - Corel Releases VideoStudio® Pro X5 with HTML5 Support |
   http://bit.ly/xFdHPr
   - Colosa Introduces ProcessMapper for Social BPMA| http://bit.ly/wgZyLn
   <http://bit.ly/z0gGel>
   - ECM Provider DocFinity Signs Alliance Agreement With Xpertdoc |
   http://bit.ly/zvqO1Z

Technical Communications: What You’re Talking About

A quick *shout out* to our Technical Writers and their discussions in our email
discussion group <http://goo.gl/YUrbb>:


   - Craig Cardimon wanted some opinions “Regarding the "Next" button,” and
   Whirlers were more than willing to oblige.  What might have been a rehash
   actually brought up some points some of us might miss, such as handling
   these references when the UI contains both buttons and links, whether the
   button is a “standard” on the UI, if it’s part of a wizard, and yes, the
   experience level of the audience.
   - Jeff Scattini needed to know “Is "untar" an acceptable verb?” within
   the context of software delivered by TAR files.  Consensus by responders
   was that among UNIX/Linux veterans, it would be well understood, but that
   outside that arena, not so much. Particularly since “untar” has specific
   meanings in languages other than English.  The more generic, and completely
   understandable “extract” was the most popular recommendation.
   - Stephen Arrants unearthed an example of “More Low Paying Jobs” that
   raised the eyebrows of quite a few list members who wondered about a rate
   of $13 an hour for a technical documentation editor.  Perhaps it pays to
   think about several alternatives before passing judgment: it may be an
   entry-level or low-skill position with a misleading title; the recruiter
   may be low-balling, or the company may have an internal candidate in mind.
   Nonetheless, it’s at least anecdotal evidence that many companies still do
   not value technical communications at the same level as other professions.


*Social Media and the Chance to Follow TechWhirl:*

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   - Or, try our RSS feed (great on Flipboard) | http://goo.gl/msLzu

SPONSOR-Luv

We want to send a very special “thank you” to our sponsors for their
support.



*Platinum*: Adobe Systems
Incorporated<http://www.runaware.com/clients/adobe/techsuite/>

*Gold: *ComponentOne Software <http://bit.ly/doc-to-help>,* *Madcap
Software<http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/flare/overview.aspx#whatsnew>
**

*Silver*: Society for Technical Communication (STC)
<http://www.stc.org/>, Vancouver
Island University <http://pr.viu.ca/techcomm/>


-- 



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