Technical writing

10 Kickass Resume writing tricks for technical writers A resume for technical writers is considered a work sample, so we must do our best and avoid common mistakes. I hope the following suggestions will help you to create a kick-ass resume. 10 tips on what makes a technical writer CV hot: 1) Stick to a maximum of two pages. Always remember the CV hotspot – the upper middle area of the first page is where the recruiter’s eye will naturally fall, so make sure you include your most important information there.UX concept. 2)You can use two types of CVs – chronological or skill-based. For the former, use the last job as the starter and move to academic qualifications; for the latter, describe the skills earned from different work experiences and education. 3) Always include Your name, address, date of birth (in some countries this is not required due to age discrimination laws), and contact details (telephone number and email). For educational qualifications, state your degree, subject, and name of the school, college, and university, plus grades (if you were a topper). Flaunt what you have. 4) Work experience: This is the most important part of the CV because most employers try to select for the current job opening as close as possible to the previous work experience of the candidate This should have two parts – name of employer, roles performed in the company, and duration. 5) Be sure to highlight what you did – quantifiable achievements.  Also, do mention promotions and awards. 6) Part of the Work Experience section should include the skills required for the job. The reason I highlight this separately is so you don’t miss it.  7) Skip “Interests”. Unless this in some way reflects the value you will bring to the job, I would suggest you skip this. However, if you insist, interests like “networking”, being part of diverse clubs (golf, theatre), sky-diving, mountaineering (displays you move out of your comfort zone), and being captain of the hockey team (team skills, leadership) can be added to bring some color into your CV. 8) References: Again, I would suggest you skip this until you have been called for the final interview. During your interviews, you will realize you need a reference who would be able to substantiate a certain aspect of your experience important to this role. You can then provide relevant names for reference. Usually, a previous supervisor, direct reportee or peer is a good reference. 9) Covering letter: this should accompany your CV. The letter must be addressed to the Recruitment Manager/Hiring Manager/HR Head and should explain in a short paragraph your career objectives and the reason for applying to the company for the particular role.  10)Avoid “Cut, Copy, Paste”– While you may be applying to different companies at the same time, it’s very important to avoid “Cut, Copy, Paste”. Each covering letter and CV must be customized for the company and role that you are applying. If you expect to be selected amongst hundreds of other CVs, this investment is critical and worth it.  So what makes a good CV? The CV is easy to read, well laid out, and not over-crowded. It’s customized for the job you are applying to  You highlight the relevant skills you have for the job It is a concise document with no grammar or spelling mistakes It is not exaggerated and reads honestly What are the common mistakes candidates make on their CVs? One survey of employers found the following mistakes were the most common Spelling and grammar: 56% of employers found this Not tailored to the job: 21% Length not right and poor work history: 16% Poor format and no use of bullet points: 11% No accomplishments highlighted: 9% Contact and email problems: 8% The objective/profile was too vague: 5% Lying: 2% Having a photo: 1% Download some cool resume templates. Be positive. Your acceptance of the CV is just the beginning. Soon it will be time to start getting ready for the interview. Good Luck!

Information Developers Meetups Snaps of Information Developers Foundation meetup on 22 August 2015. It was attended by top-notch technical writers of NCR and the presentations were truly amazing.The best part was it was interactive. Interactive technical writing session in progress Bipul presented a very interesting talk on the importance of UX in developers guide. Bipul from GlobalLogic talking on UX in documentation Ankur Srivastav guru of DITA talk about the information mapping through DITA. DITA man Ankur   Rinni talk about one of the latest concept of documentation DocOps. Rinni still try to find out why tech writing? Puja Gandhi from Agilent and Ankur Srivastava from Freescale   Rinni Mahajan From Inteera System and Manisha Khurana from Comviva   Dipti sharing pain point of technical writers   Dr.Anu from Fiserv and Dipti Sehgal from Pitney Bose   Participant of the Information Developers Consortium- August 2015   Rahul Karn- Co-Founder of ApraDocs Information Developers  

Top 3 Best Technical writing Institutes in India If you are planning to take a technical writing course in India and want to compare technical writing institutes in India this list will help you. We have listed it city wise. Bonus! Get your FREE Membership Now of Information Developers Foundation. We strongly recommend you to know the mentor's credibility and the syllabus before joining any course. Download the syllabus of all the national and international institutes, read famous blogs, and figure out what you have to learn. Before joining talk to the mentor and clarify how and what will be the outcome of the course. Technical writing course provider in India  Before contacting any institute we recommend you to read this blog post. ( How to Become Technical writer). Top 1 recommended Institute for technical writing training in India is Information Developers Foundation Information Developers Foundation    (Premier Technical Writing Institute provides training PAN India..) Due to excellent placement, latest syllabus, and different types, of course, this institute is awarded as the best institute. You can see the complete course details. 3 Best Technical writing Institute in Mumbai Information Developers Foundation- Most respected institute of India, this institute is run by Rahul Karn (no hired trainer), provide the best training, best placement, FREE membership, Lifetime access to course materials. Call 7840841999 or write to rahul@informationdevelopers.in for details and FREE counseling. ibruk -  Very old and reliable technical writing institute in Mumbai. k3infotech 9 Best Technical writing Institute in Bangalore Information Developers Foundation- Most respected institute of India, this institute is run by Rahul Karn (no hired trainer), provide the best training, best placement, FREE membership, Lifetime access to course materials. Call 7840841999 or write to rahul@informationdevelopers.in for details and FREE counseling. TWB (Bangalore)- Information Developers Foundation (Bangalore) Pioneer in technical writing training in Bangalore. Yorke communications Write-concept Informationmapping Technopointindia Winprotech Technokraftindia 4 best Technical writing Institute in Hyderabad Information Developers Foundation- Most respected institute of India, this institute is run by Rahul Karn (no hired trainer), provide the best training, best placement, FREE membership, Lifetime access to course materials. Call 7840841999 or write to rahul@informationdevelopers.in for details and FREE counseling. Tech total systems (Hyderabad)- One of the oldest and famous technical writing institutes in Hyderabad. They also provide training in Bangalore. Confai Aerotechtps- Consider this institute if the aerospace domain is your choice. 3 Best Technical writing Institute in Pune Information Developers Foundation- Most respected institute of India, this institute is run by Rahul Karn (no hired trainer), provide the best training, best placement, FREE membership, Lifetime access to course materials. Call 7840841999 or write to rahul@informationdevelopers.in for details and FREE counseling. Technowrites (Pune)- One of the oldest technical writing institute in Pune. Worth exploring before taking a decision. Metapercept - Now they are into software development and consultancy. 5 Best Technical writing Institute in Chennai The Techscribes K buffer Icontechinfo Integwrite   Now, it is your turn to take action see the complete syllabus of Information Developers Foundation. We are not limited by boundaries we are derived from the latest technologies. Am I missing any Institute? Did you find any information that’s incorrect or obsolete? Please help me to keep this page useful and up to date with your valuable comment. Over time, we will add more.   If you are confused to join which institute you can call us on 7840841999. We can recommend you as per your requirement. Call us 7840841999 or write rahul@informationdevelopers.in if you want to pursue writing as a full-time career or want to do it for passive income.

MS Word TOC Issue Recently one of my students asked me to fix her auto-generated table of contents (TOC) in Word. Somehow she ended up with a picture and text in there and she don’t have any clue, and it keeps coming back when they regenerate the TOC. Let us dive deep, how we create auto-generated TOC. The default behavior of Word is to use Heading styles to create the TOC and the Caption style to create lists of figures and tables. The paragraph, picture and text is in a Heading or Caption style applied to it. Find the picture in the body of the document. Replace the Heading or Caption style with a standard paragraph style. Regenerate the TOC/list of figures/list of tables and the picture should be gone forever! Do you want to learn the nitty-gritty of Word 2013. Contact ApraDocs Information Developers.Technical writing training Institute.

Copy/Paste vs Inserting Images I’m assuming that a lot of images used in PowerPoint or Word come from the web. I’m also guessing that most people may realize that most images on the web have been compressed in anyhow to provide a balance of quality and maintain small file size. What I don’t think many people realize is that when you copy & paste images directly from the web into PowerPoint that you lose much of that compression and wind up with a bigger file size than you need to have. The reason is that whenever a picture is copied to the computer’s clipboard and then pasted into PowerPoint (or Word, etc) the picture is pasted as a bitmap—regardless of the file format of the original picture. Bitmap file sizes are much larger and have less detail which leaves you with a much larger Word or PowerPoint file than necessary, particularly if you have used multiple images this way. So instead of copying & pasting directly from the web into your document, you should save them first and then Insert them via the Insert menu instead. I did a quick test with the following results: Method File Size (kb) Copy & Paste 2,027 Copy & Paste (Compressed) 440 Insert 300 Notice that even after using PowerPoint’s option for compressing the pasted images, the file size was still larger than the file using inserted images. .

So, as a Technical writer, it makes sense to make sure the font you or your clients use does not hinder sales. Font size also impacts the reliability and overall experience of the reader. Correct Font can also impact the cost of documentation, think how 🙂 Let us talk about it: The difference between ‘serif’ and ‘sans serif’ fonts Serif fonts have little feet and embellishments on the tip and base of each letter, making them more distinct and recognizable. Popular serif fonts are Times New Roman, Palatino, Georgia, Courier, Bookman, and Garamond. Nearly all books, newspapers, and magazines use a serif font. It’s popularly accepted that – in print – serif fonts are easier to read. The idea is that the serifs make the letters flow together – and subsequently easier on the eyes. As the name states, ‘sans serif’ fonts are fonts without serifs. While some sources say sans-serif fonts have existed since the 5th century BC, it wasn’t until the 1920s that they became somewhat popular – mostly being used in advertisements. One of the reasons for their lack of popularity was that typographers stuck with serif fonts because they felt they were easier to read. It’s been said that serif fonts are for “readability,” while sans-serif fonts are for “legibility.” This is why, in print, sans-serif fonts are often used as the headline font, and serif fonts are used for the body text. Some popular San Serif fonts are Helvetica, Arial, Calibri, Century Gothic, and Verdana. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more information like this. Best fonts for print In his book Cashvertising, Drew Eric Whitman cites a 1986 study of fonts (printed on paper) that found only 12 percent of participants effectively comprehended a paragraph set in sans-serif type versus 67 percent who were given a version set in serif typeface. Those who read the sans-serif version said they had a tough time reading the text and “continually had to backtrack to regain comprehension.” In a test of three different fonts, two serifs (Garamond and Times New Roman) and one sans serif (Helvetica), he found 66 percent were able to comprehend Garamond; 31.5 percent Times New Roman, and 12.5 percent Helvetica (out of a total of 1,010,000 people surveyed). The conclusion being that serif fonts are easier to read when it comes to fonts on paper. So, if you’re sending out a sales letter or brochure in the mail, you probably want to use serif font (but, as mentioned in the first point, you could use sans-serif font for your headlines). Here are the print font preferences of three of the copywriting greats: 1) advertising great John Caples liked using Cheltenham Bold for headlines; 2) advertising legend David Ogilvy preferred the Century family, Caslon, Baskerville, and Jenson; and 3) direct marketing guru Gary Halbert used Courier in his sales letters. Best fonts for online Now, one might assume that what works on the printed page will be similar to what works on the computer screen. But that’s not the case. To make the little serifs appear legible, a high degree of resolution is required. The more pixels, the more details of the font you can display. Back 10 or so years ago, the best computer screen resolution was 800 x 600 pixels – which wasn’t great for defining the intricacies of a serif font. Screen resolution has increased through the years (resolutions of 1024 x 768 pixels or greater have become the norm). This makes serif fonts more legible but still generally not as easy to read as sans-serif fonts. Plus, now you have to consider how your site or email will look on handheld devices, such as the BlackBerry and iPhone. The latest model of iPhone 4 has a screen resolution of 960 x 640 pixels. The BlackBerry Bold 978 has a screen resolution of 480 x 360 pixels. So online, the best font to go with is sans serif. A 2002 study by the Software Usability and Research Laboratory concluded that: The most legible fonts were Arial, Courier, and Verdana. At a 10-point size, participants preferred Verdana. Times New Roman was the least preferred. At 12-point size, Arial was preferred and Times New Roman was the least preferred. The preferred font overall was Verdana, and Times New Roman was the least preferred. So here are your marching orders: For easiest online reading, use Arial 12-point size and larger. If you’re going smaller than 12 points, Verdana at 10 points is your best choice. If you’re after a formal look, use the font “Georgia.” And for older readers, use at least a 14-point font. Best fonts for email Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, an e-commerce consultant, did a series of tests in 2001. He also came to the conclusion that the sans-serif fonts are more suited to the computer screen. Some of the highlights of the test results were that at 12 points, respondents showed a preference for Arial over Verdana – 53% to 43% (with 4% not being able to distinguish between the two). Two-thirds of respondents found that Verdana at 12 points was too large for body text, but Verdana at 10 points was voted more readable than Arial at 10 points by a 2 to 1 margin. In conclusion, for the best font readability, use Arial 12 point or Verdana at 10 points and 9 points for body text. For headlines, he suggests using larger bold Verdana. Deciding on a font So the next time you submit a sales letter or email to your client, it might be a good idea to ask them what font they intend to use. If they plan to use a serif font online or in an email, you might want to gently nudge them away from it and recommend a more easily readable sans-serif font. If they also plan to send your copy to their list via regular mail, it’s not a bad idea to suggest they switch over to a serif font at

Technical writer salary Salary Survey 2017 Interested to know in which direction the salary of technical writers is going. Here is a good news at the starting of the year 2017. Technical writing in the highest paying jobs in India claims Economics Times. Excerpt from the Newspaper Technical writer 2 January 2017 Technical writer While writers and content writers are one thing, technical writers are completely different. They also write but their focus is mostly on technicalities related to an IT firm or programming company. For companies specializing in technology like Adobe, Oracle, and similar brands, a technical writer is a must. Minimum Qualification: Graduate Salary range: Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.7 lakh a month To read more click here. You can read the detail salary survey of the year 2017 on the STC-India website. Salary Survey 2014 STC India chapter recently released their salary survey results for 2014 in 16th STC annual conference at Bangalore which provides an insight about the technical writer’s salaries in India and also about the technical writing industry growth in India. This valuable and benchmark is the result of  Paresh Naik. Kudos to Paresh’s indeed a great job in publishing this salary survey! So what do you think about your salary!!! Have a look before you change in 2015 so that you can make maximum from the new market recovered from the recession. For me, the good news is my area (NCR) is the highest paying area in India followed by Pune for the same experience level. On the other hand, this year salary decrease by 11.9% compared to the same in 2013. Really sad. For international friend  1USD = 67 INR Some Interesting Findings from the data Measures used in this report Survey according to experience Click to Zoom         Base:   The total responses in a given category. Mean: The value computed by averaging the tabulated responses. 10%: Ten percent of the responses were below this value; ninety percent were above this value. 25%: Twenty-five percent of the responses were below this value; seventy-five percent were above this value. 50%: Fifty percent of the responses were below this value; fifty percent were above this value. This is also called the median. 75%: Seventy-five percent of the responses were below this value; twenty-five percent were above this value. 90%: Ninety percent of the responses were below this value; ten percent were above this value. TrimMean: This value is the mean taken by excluding 10% of data points from the top and bottom tails of a data set. In other words, this is an average of values excluding the extreme cases. Salary/year of experience: Most of the tables also indicate the measures for salary/year of experience. This parameter is included to compare the influence of various factors on the salary on level grounds, i.e. to exclude the effect of experience. If all or most of the survey participants from a specific category have a higher number of years of experience, the average salary in that particular category may be reflected as very high. In such cases, the salary/year of experience parameter will give a more realistic comparison of salaries in related categories. All the salary figures mentioned in this report are in Indian Rupees unless specifically mentioned otherwise

Hi Folk, One of the irrepressible skill of technical writers is good English. We can achieve this by practice. In this series, we are trying to share some good rules of writing. This is a brief about “Gerund Rules”. Hope you all like the post!! Gerund looks exactly the same as a present participle, and for this reason, it is now common to call both forms ‘the -ing form’. However, it is useful to understand the difference between the two. The gerund always has the same function as a noun (although it looks like a verb) so it can be used:   Rule1: As the subject of the sentence: Eating people is wrong. Hunting tigers is dangerous. Flying makes me nervous. Rule 2: As the complement of the verb ‘to be’: One of his duties is attending meetings. The hardest thing about learning English is understanding the gerund. One of life’s pleasures is having breakfast in bed. Rule 3: After prepositions. The gerund must be used when a verb comes after a preposition: Can you sneeze without opening your mouth? She is good at painting. They’re keen on windsurfing. She avoided him by walking on the opposite side of the road. We arrived in Madrid after driving all night. My father decided against postponing his trip to Hungary. Note:  This is also true of certain expressions ending with a preposition, e.g. in spite of, there’s no point in..: There’s no point in waiting. In spite of missing the train, we arrived on time. Rule4: After a number of ‘phrasal verbs’ which are composed of a verb + preposition/adverb Example: to look forward to, to give up, to be for/against, to take, to put off, to keep on: I look forward to hearing from you soon. (at the end of a letter) When are you going to give up smoking? She always puts off going to the dentist. He kept on asking for money. NOTE: There are some phrasal verbs and other expressions that include the word ‘to’ as a preposition, not as part of a to-infinitive: – to look forward to, to take to, to be accustomed to, to be used to. It is important to recognize that ‘to’ is a preposition in these cases, as it must be followed by a gerund: We are looking forward to seeing you. I am used to waiting for buses. She didn’t really take to studying English. Note: It is possible to check whether ‘to  is a preposition or part of a to-infinitive: if you can put a noun or the pronoun ‘it’ after it, then it is a preposition and must be followed by a gerund: I am accustomed to it (the cold). I am accustomed to being cold. Rule5:  In compound nouns Example: a driving lesson, a swimming pool, bird-watching, train-spotting It is clear that the meaning is that of a noun, not of a continuous verb.   Example: the pool is not swimming, it is a pool for swimming in.   Rule6:  After the expressions: can’t help, can’t stand, it’s no use/good, and the adjective worth: She couldn’t help falling in love with him. I can’t stand being stuck in traffic jams. It’s no use/good trying to escape. It might be worth phoning the station to check the time of the train.   

One of my friends asks me the importance of preparing TOC  (Table of Content) before writing. My answer was it is “like a restaurant without a menu”. Jokes apart below are the reason. TOC is a tool to Plan Documentation Project. The table of contents — is technical writer’s best tool for organizing the document, planning and project scoping. Your proposed table of contents not only shows your stakeholder or project manager that you have understood the material well enough to know how to organize it into effective sections, but it also gives them a chance to test whether or not you’ve included every important aspect of the project/product. Table of contents is considered to be a fluid document. That’s because new information that arises during the research and writing phases may result in sections being added to cover the new material. Your stakeholder may decide on a different focus for the project after viewing your initial drafts. You may later realize that additional subheads are needed to explain something within the context of the document itself rather than relegating that information to an appendix.Truly agile!!! A proposed table of contents should contain your outline of the numbered chapters, parts, or sections and the heads and subheads within those parts. Depending on the style guide provided for submitting your table of contents, with the help of TOC you can also estimate approx total page or word counts. Conclusion In short, your planned table of contents is the concrete face for your vision on how the document should be organized and what it will say. This also saves you from any further dispute. P.S-You can always take a reference to the previous or existing document, definitely, this will ease your life.

Collect all the existing information on a product, such as: • Client need • Marketing logic and requirement • Product plans • Task analysis • Evaluation reports • Customer feedback • Previous versions of the product and product documentation Find out the objectives for the following: • The product • Release Scheduling • Usability • Accessibility • Future customization • Internationalisation, localization, and customisation • Translation • Packaging • Legal requirements • Security • International Standards and conventions • Costs • Documentation delivery and viewing mechanism Then write the Documentation Proposal

Introduction Most of us have heard very vaguely about e-Learning and very less about Instructional Design. This article is an attempt to clear few myths about this highly popular domain and describe e-Learning and Instructional Design in a nutshell. Myth: Any web content is e-Learning. Reality: Any web content is not e-Learning. It’s a highly specialized field. Myth: The primary job of Instructional designers is to replicate content. Reality: Absolutely incorrect. This is the highest form of insult to a highly creative and skilled domain. Never ever try to undermine the capabilities of an Instructional Designer (ID). Highly passionate about their creative and out-of-the box thinking capabilities, this light-hearted comment about their profession is not taken very well by the IDs. Myth: Instructional Designers and Technical Writers are same. Reality: With due respect to Technical Writers, Instructional Design is a different function altogether. Though we are basically writers, we focus on creating learner-centric content and applying various theories of learning. Statutory Warning: Challenging an ID to a verbal duel can be injurious to your vocabulary ego. What Is e-Learning? e-Learning has been around for more than a decade, but it has seen an exponential growth over the last few years. It can be either in the form of Computer-Based Training (CBT) or Web-Based Training (WBT). CBTs are delivered to the prospective students in CD format while WBTs are hosted on a Learning Management System (LMS) where the learners taking a course are tracked and their scores are managed. In e-Learning, few things are very important: Self-paced: Looking at the busy schedules of corporate life, these trainings can be taken at learners’ own convenience.    Absence of the trainer: The training has to be interesting to keep the learners engaged. How many of us wouldn’t actually doze off in a classroom training? Then, a training without any trainer needs to be engaging to hold the interest of the learners. Media rich: These courses are media rich with animated graphics to explain concepts and contain interactive practice session in a simulated environment (for application based-courses). Who Are Instructional Designers (IDs)? IDs are people who design, develop, and visualize a course. They work in collaboration with graphic designers and multi-media programmers to create a WBT/CBT. Take the example of an architect who designs a building. They visualize and create the skeleton of the building which is then materialized with the help of the builder and other workers who actually put them into shape. The architect monitors every phase of development of the building and sees to it that the building is turning out to be the way he visualized. We, the Instructional Designers, popularly known as IDs are the architects of a course.  When designing a course we understand the need of the learner, the knowledge gap, their role, and the purpose of learning. Following are the questions we ponder over when we design a course. Who are we teaching? Why are we teaching? What are we teaching? What is the expected outcome? What Do We Do? Our task involves lot of procedures and sub tasks. In a nutshell, we create training materials. Though we create training materials and online training, we are not trainers. Apart from creating WBTs/CBTs, we also create Instructor-led Trainings (ILTs). ILTs are used by actual trainers in classroom training. Complex content requires direct interaction between the trainer and students. For example, back-end configuration of a complex application needs lot of explanation and hands on training and hence a classroom training would be more beneficial than a WBT. Depending on factors, such as complexity of the subject, availability of trainers, and cost-effectiveness, we suggest a WBT/CBT, classroom training, or a mix of both (Blended Learning).

Sumit has set up the “body text” style in his word document so that it only has “space after” and has zero “space before.” This works great for laying out his document, except when it comes to tables. The paragraph following the table ends up being too close to the table, and Sumit wants some space between the table and a “body text” paragraph following the table. He wonders if Word can put “space after” a table. Not really, in the sense of “space after” for a paragraph. This can cause some issues when it comes to vertical spacing after tables, as Brian points out. There are two things you can do to work around this problem. First, you could define another style, perhaps called “body after table,” which is based on the “body text” style. The only difference would be that the “body after table” style would have space before the paragraph, not just after. This style can then be applied to the first paragraph after any tables, with the “body text” style used for the rest of the paragraphs. The other option is to insert an extra row at the end of your tables. This row should have no text and should be formatted so that it has no borders. You can adjust the row’s height to reflect the space you want between the main portion of the table and your following text. Information Developers is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word and technical writing training. This tip applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. Subscribe to the Information Developers YouTube channel for more tips and tricks on Technical Writing.

Most of us directly get to the Google search engine and look for solutions whenever we encounter problems related to Google’s services including Gmail, Maps, Chrome, and YouTube. We visit various websites and keep hunting them until we get the best solution to our problems. But to facilitate your experience with its products and services, Google has come up with a website – Google Tips – that includes tips related to its wide range of services. Users can search for tips on a service/product. Tips are presented in the form of cards. Find a card based on your needs and flip it over to learn more. For instance, one of the tips under the Android sections is “Never lose contact with your contacts.” The moment you click on any card, it turns over and comes up with a detailed tutorial describing how to use a particular tip. Tips are presented in the form of cards. Find a card based on your needs and flip it over to learn more. Users can share tips with their friends and can also suggest tips to Google if they have any. You can simply click on “Suggest a card” button suggest a tip.

Education initiative in New Delhi   Rahul Karn and Rajeev Jain talking with students Going in the colleges and interacting with the new generation is really a very awesome experience. Recently STC I gave me this golden chance to talk about technical writing in RDIAS college, Rohini. Sharing report of Rajeev Jain who really did a very commendable job by organizing this event and warm thanks for inviting me to this wonderful event.  This is a report of education initiative circulated by Rajeev Jain.   About STC India education initiative Roli Sinha sharing her experience This is the first time in the history of  STC-India that the education team is reaching out to college and universities to conduct awareness sessions about technical communication, and help the students understand the career opportunities in the field of technical communication. STC India is making an attempt to bridge the Academia-Corporate gap by conducting FREE mentoring and guidance sessions.  IDF India team is extending all possible help to students, faculty, and colleges to: – Conduct awareness sessions on technical communication – Explore job/career opportunities in this field – Create curriculum for the short-term Industry-Ready courses – Help them understand the corporate needs and expectations from a Fresh Graduate – Enhance students employability and make them corporate ready and even connect them with the recruiter – Invite them to attend STC India conferences, seminars, workshops, and other events Event Update Venue: Rukmini Devi Institute of Advanced Studies (RDIAS), Rohini, New Delhi. Date: April 6th, 2013 STC India Education team of 3R’s (Rajeev, Roli, and Rahul Karn) travelled from different locations to reach the venue on time. Roli and Rahul travelled all the way from another end of Delhi to reach the venue on time. STC team was greeted by dean-academics, director, and the senior professors of the college. All three of us were excited and were hoping at least 50-55 students (since it was a weekend, and the college was open only for this event). We were surprised to see almost 80+ MBA and MCA students. The session started around 10.15 am. Rajeev started the session by asking questions, such as ·         what made students attend this event? ·         why did they opt for the Master degree in management or computers? ·         What are the different job opportunities they are aware of? We were surprised to know that many students had heard about technical communication but till date, they had no-one who could explain and guide them. Rajeev gave a brief introduction to technical communication. He shared many Bollywood and real-life examples to explain the concepts in simple language. Roli shared her hiring experiences and what are the corporate expectations from a fresh graduate. She gave excellent examples of why certain skills are necessary to excel in this field. There were many lighter moments when Rahul started asking questions as a fresher who is looking for the first job. This helped students to open up and they started asking more and more questions. Rahul added more spice by sharing his valentine competition story. Some of the questions asked by students were related to: 1.       Starting salary and growth opportunities. 2.       Skill set required to excel in this field. 3.       Corporate expectations from a fresher 4.       Differences between technical writer and content writer. 5.       Work-life balance and work timings. 6.       Why don’t companies come for campus placement to hire fresher as writers? We anticipated that the event may get over by 12.00 o’clock, but we had to finally stop at 1.00 pm. We promised them to come back again to take up their remaining queries and conduct more sessions. Feedback Rajeev hosting the talk The college management shared instant feedback and informed us that the students were extremely happy and they found the session to be very good, interactive, and useful. The students wanted more sessions from the STC India team. The college management also invited us to conduct one or more event for students of other colleges of their group. Thank You Note: I take this opportunity to thank Roli and Rahul for all volunteer help and making it to the venue on time. The college academics and management team showed interest in introducing business communication and technical writing course for the MBA and MCA students on trial basis. Rajeev also checked their interest in hosting STC India conferences and other events and they happily offered their premises to conduct more such events. Next Event STC-India team is committed to conducting more such awareness sessions and workshops in colleges across the country. The next event is scheduled for April 13th at KIIT engineering and management college, Gurgaon. You are most welcome to volunteer and share your experiences with the students in future events. For more queries or information If you have any queries or need more information or know of any college or university interested in conducting such events at their premises, please contact  Rahul Karn (rahulkkarn@gmail.com) . Let’s work together to promote technical communication and contribute our niche to bridge the Academic-Corporate gap.  

In an initiative to encourage ADID Alumni and other technical writers to share technical writing knowledge, ADID invited Neha Srivastava to share her understanding on the documentation development life cycle and she comes up with well-knit and researched post. You can write to her or post a comment to ask anything dropping from your mind on DDLC. Introduction to Document Development Life Cycle The Document Development Life Cycle (DDLC) is the process of developing documents. It is necessary to follow DDLC to enhance the quality and optimize timely delivery of the document. The Document Development Life Cycle is mainly comprised of steps which are given below, it can vary company or project-wise also:            Requirement Analysis            Designing            Developing the Content            Editing/ Proofreading            Publishing            Maintenance  Requirement Analysis During the Requirement Analysis process we gather the information of the product from SMEs, available documents, online search etc. We analyze the criteria of producing the product according to the audience. In Audience analysis, we analyze who will use this product, what is the need of creating the product, and measures of skill and expertise of the audience etc. We also figure out what tools we are going to use like RoboHelp, Framemaker etc.  By understanding the product requirement, we can easily estimate the time, resources and cost of the product. Designing In Designing phase, we design the document we create templates, master page etc.We take approval of design like fonts size and style, list, table, numbering and look and feel approval is taken from concern person.  Developing the Content We develop the content according to the product features and requirement. We analyze the product, run the product and write the draft according to the product. We create user manual, user guide, reports, and online help etc. We add a title, copyright, content, index, glossary, and appendix etc in the manual.This is actual content development phase.  Editing/ Proofreading Editing is the process in which we test the creating project according to the requirement, and product features. We check the first draft through Technical Writer-editor, peer review or the technical review etc. In this phase, we check the technical part, grammar mistakes, figures, and format etc. Proofreading is the final testing of the project by checking proper layout, style and grammar mistakes etc. In this phase, we check the draft entirely. Our main purpose is to remove the bug from the draft, so that document is clear and understandable.To read more on proofreading click here.  Publishing In this phase, we publish the document as online help, and print document etc. Print documents are the hard copy in which all the content may be in long sentences or paragraph, and screenshots. In online help, we add hyperlinks, and content is in short sentences. These documents are useful to end users to determine the exact use of the product.  Maintenance Maintenance is the process in which we add updates, create versions after modification in the project. When a new product comes into the market, the user manual is updated according to the added new feature. Companies also spend cost in creating Support Centers for enhancing user satisfaction.

Technical Writing Course/Training Delhi (NCR), Bangalore, Pune, and Hyderabad Welcome, Information Developers Foundation is a premier Technical writing training institute not only in Bangalore but our students are from Delhi NCR, Pune, Hyderabad, and other parts of the globe. Technical writing is a fast growing sector in India and abroad. It creates the need for professionals delivering quality information.  If you have the desire to make big in industries like IT, Pharmaceutical, Telecom, Aerospace etc. this course is designed for you.  If you want to know about the technical writing we highly recommend you to read our “How to become a technical writer- Step-by-Step Guide“. In this guide, we have discussed almost all the questions spilling from the mind of someone who wants to know about technical writing? It is a comprehensive step by step guide. We have written the similar Definitive guide for the content writers and Business Communication. Career growth, the job opening is similar to software developers and engineers. For salary survey of technical writer 2012 click here  The salary survey of Technical writers 2017. Information Developers Foundation is a premier institute of online technical writing in Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad offering Diploma in Technical Communication and along with many other customized courses like Content writing and Blogging.    Information Developers Foundation (IDF) is pleased to announce its  Highly paid accelerated Technical writing program commencing every first Sunday of the month. Visit our Technical writing Training page for more details.  Who Can Apply: ·         Graduates/BE/MBA/Diploma ·         Professional with good English and computer knowledge. Our success rate is approx 100% just because our training method is inspired by corporate and by training industries. Our technical writing syllabus is the most advanced in the industry and the whole course is imparted by corporate mentor Rahul Karn. Apart from the course we also help our students to shine resume, prepare for the interview, and provide complete tips and tricks to outperform in the job interviews. Do you want to know what you should do before a foray into technical writing? To know more about course content, admission procedure contact us at- 07840841999 or log on to http://informationdevelopers.in/  

How To Estimate  Time For Technical Writing Projects? Estimating time for a technical writing project is an art or craft that I do not know but surely it is one of the significant and core skill, yet most of the technical communicator find it one of the most daunting tasks because it relies on many conflicting, delicate and external factors. Why estimate time? Either you are a freelance or permanent employee if you can effectively estimate the time commitment required to complete a project, you can safely meet your clients’ needs while maintaining balance in your schedule. If you can’t do this, you won’t know how much to charge for your work or how to best schedule your time and wind up costing you time and money. Unfortunately, it is difficult but essential. With the spirit of sharing, I thought to post a few tips on what to consider while estimating time for the technical writing project. Nothing revolutionary. There are many sites and resources available, but it is difficult to say what is the exact method, probably that’s why it is an estimation. End of the day, it will be your experience which will make you the guru of this gyan.   Pre Kick-off meeting preparation time is important for freelancers to take into consideration. You can also consider the time required in preparing of the quote, MOU, negotiation time, preparation of the agreement. Know what you have to estimate before estimating you should be familiar with what you are giving estimation because sometimes documenting one menu may take one hour and sometimes it may run in many hours. Knowing the scope is the most vital part of the estimation. So do not forget to allocate time for meetings to evaluate project details. To conduct information-gathering meeting is essential for estimating, raise questions until you are sure you understand the application. It should be a red flag if a client or developer is not willing to define the project for you. Try to understand the difficulty of the project during your research. Have you worked in this domain earlier? Is it a simple topic or complicated? Do you know and have the knowledge of the tools which are required to complete the project. Give yourself permission to have a greater learning curve than for projects similar to your past work. Check the availability of the finished project, specification requirement docs, and other information availability? Also, find any existing document you have to update, or you have to do it from scratch, Are templates ready or you have to create? These are the small things you should consider before estimating actual writing time. Guestimate time for actual work-After understanding the complexity of the project and knowing the real number of windows and menu option make a high-level view of topics now you can guesstimate the actual time you will take to write. Keep in mind apart from the actual flow you have to write an index, appendices, and many definition and introduction. Also keep time for graphics, formatting, editing, and self-proofreading and generating output. Revision-Make it clear in advance with the client about the number of revisions the client keeps changing his or her mind or code allot time for each round. This avoids the endless cycle of minute detail changes that end up adding hours and hours to your total time commitment Buffer-This time cushion you when the unknown problem suddenly emerges like delay in getting feedback, hardware or software problem or your guesstimate deviate from the path, Extraneous Hours-This time is important when you have a very demanding client who needs you to revolve around them answering call writing emails remember all these takes time To learn more concepts of Freelancing visit www.informationdevelopers.in

NEWS- Adobe Release Technical communication Suite-2019 Adobe released a new version of the technical communication suite. Last week I was introduced to it in a partner program and found it impressive. A lot of improvements are in the FrameMaker. Hopefully, this release will be a game changer for the Adobe and will make the life of technical writers easier. Professional writers will be able to generate output fast and will able to produce more customized content. Use this link to download free tail, join webinars and find yourself what is new in this release. It was fun to be the part of AdobeDay 2018 at Bangalore What is a help authoring tool? A Help Authoring Tool or HAT is a software tool used to create, manage, and publish all Online or Offline business-critical documentation. Example of HATs- Adobe RoboHelp, Madcap Flare, AuthorIT, HelpNDoc, etc. Help authoring tool are an integral part of the technical writer's toolbox. I do not see it fading anytime soon. Knowledge of at least one help authoring tool is compulsory for technical writers and content writers. Basic features of Help authoring tools If you are new to the field of technical writing, consider reading our introductory guide for technical communicators. Input Help authoring tools obtain their source text either by importing it from a file produced by another program or by allowing the author to create the text within the tool by using an editor. File formats that can be imported vary from HAT to HAT, though they can include such formats as HTML, OpenOffice Writer, and Microsoft Word, and compiled Help formats such as Microsoft Compressed HTML. Output The output from a Help authoring tools can be either a compiled Help file in a format such as Microsoft Compiled HTML Help (*.CHM) or non-compiled file formats such as Adobe PDF, XML, HTML, JavaHelp, EclipseHelp and so on...    Help authoring tools Beyond Help Most help authoring tools provide extra functions such as:  Automatic or assisted Index generation  Automatic Table of Contents  Spelling checker   Image editing   Image hotspot editing     Why do you need help authoring tool? Authoring and content reuse. Reduce Authoring time & Cost. Importing and Publishing. After a document is finished, reviewed and approved, we can quickly produce: Print/PDF Web (Context Sensitive help) Help XML DITA   List of Help authoring tools I can bet you will be surprised to know that in the market there are more than twenty help authoring tools providers. How many of them do you know, try to recollect the name before you proceed? Here is the list of more than 20 best help authoring tools : Adobe RoboHelp          One of the best tools, recently RH-17 is released. This is one of the most widely used help authoring tools. You can watch the latest RoboHelp capabilities on our YouTube Channel. MadCap Flare-Respectively new to RoboHelp, but equally effective. AuthorIT- This component authoring tool is a robust alternative to RoboHelp.  WinCHM Doc-To-Help HelpNDoc-  This is free for personal use. Now part of Madcap Flare. Helpinator Dr.Explain   -This is available in 9 languages. HelpConsole HelpServer Help & Manual HelpSmith HelpScribble HelpStudio Doc-O-Matic-  Version7 is available. I have used this tool for writing API tool, later switch to swagger. FarHTML Help Generator HyperText Studio HelpMapper Precision Helper Sandcastle-    It is a documentation generator from Microsoft that automatically produces MSDN style reference documentation. Shalom Help Maker Helpmatic Whatfix If I'm missing any help authoring tools, kindly let me know. Unbiased Comparison of  Help authoring tools A downloaded trial version of all four software packages (RoboHelp, Flare, Author-IT, and HelpNDoc).Compared and evaluated them based on several factors including my personal experience with the program; program size; learning curve; user interface and usability; and bug encounters.   Used the trial version Learned and compared features Match with our requirements, resource, and expertise Ask for demo and price quote       Comparison Brief Before Comparison get sure your parameter because there are many parameters to compare like context-sensitive help, content management, Import feature, support workflow, price, hyperlinks, single sourcing features and more.... One of my clients, he was majorly concerned with the Simple features, Price, and support.     Recommendation:   After reviewing the four programs, I recommend Adobe RobrHelp.  The easy user interface and excellent tutorial were by far the best of the four tools I used.   It is easy to use, cost-effective and people are willing to sell it, and I found Adobe very prompt in replying mail and solving quires. Adobe sponsors and hosts a lot of webinars for information sharing.   Like any tool, it can be learned and used. A lot of free resources are available. Finding and hiring RoboHelp expert is never a challenge.   You can learn more about the HAT comparison. Other good resources you can consider to read. Which authoring tools do you need? You are the perfect person to answer which tool is best for you. Before jumping to the conclusion or asking anyone about the best HAT, please do keep these things in mind. About Your Authoring Environment  1. What operating system do you use? 2. How many authors are--or will be--working on the project? 3. If the content already exists, what format is it in-- (i.e., Word, FrameMaker, HTML)? 4. Do you use any  Help authoring tool(s) y? 5. How familiar are you with HTML, CSS? 6. Do you have any budget constraints? (i.e., how much can you spend on a help authoring tool?) About Your Help System:  1. How will the Help be delivered? Will it be printed, installed locally on users' machines, or delivered on the Internet or enterprise intranet? 2. Do you need to deliver your content in multiple formats--for example, print or PDF and HTML Help? 3. Do you have any special look and feel requirements? 4. Do you need to create context-sensitive Help? 5. What operating systems do your users use? If you identify your need, you will be able to choose your dream tool for online

Best Metrics for Annual Appraisal/Review of Technical writers In the office, I hate doing three things firing, interviewing, and appraisal. Unfortunately, these are an integral part of people management and we have to live with them. Can we make the appraisal process stress-free? Through this post sharing my views on the appraisal process and the parameters to be considered while appraising technical writers. Hope this can help you to set your goal as a technical writer. This is a very vast topic to discuss, so this post is limited in scope and depth. Most of my HR friends admit that they never find perfect metrics or parameters for any role which can satisfy both employee and employer during the evaluation process. The surprising fact revealed, according to a recently released survey by the Society of Human Resource Management and Globoforce, an employee recognition company nearly half of human resources managers don’t think annual performance reviews are accurate appraisals of employee performance During Chanakya era (2000B.D) doctors would puncture their patients’ veins and let them bleed out in order to rid them of their diseases. Today we laugh at the practice of bloodletting. I’m sure our future generation will come up with some new formula (or maybe it is existing I’m not aware) and laugh at ours, but we have to face appraisal as it is one of the necessary evils of the company.   Why I don’t like to do the appraisal? Few things which I never able to understand and still searching for answers. Do you have it?  5 Point Someone: How can I measure myself on a scale of 1-5? I believe 5 can be assigned to Lord Krishna, not to me. Why these processes of appraisal happen once in a year, half-yearly or even quarterly: My manager has a bad memory he forgets what I did ten months earlier. Why matrices are so generalized for technical writers, where shorter is better. How can we do the appraisal on the basis of a 10-20 odd objective that is vague and subjective? Why most appraisal matrices revolve around writers’ attributes while their effectiveness is almost ignored. Basic appraisal metrics for a technical writer An appraisal is a very delicate issue, and setting detailed, measurable, holistic, and well-considered objectives, in the beginning, is very critical. The following are samples of rating factors and example standards taken from a variety of sources for a technical writer. Please feel free to combine or modify them to fit your needs. The below list is indicative only, however, if you can be specific and tailor expectations and results to custom fit your team, by all means, that is the perfect way to go. The toughest part is coming up with specific and correct ways to measure these parameters, those are very much variable by the organization and role. Broadly dividing the attributes into four competence: Project  Execution Competence Knowledge/Functional competence Behavior competency Management competency Task/Core/Project execution Competence Dependability/Initiative Tool Knowledge Language Knowledge Timeliness in Deliveries Productivity Knowledge/Functional competence Subject knowledge Technical competence Process compliance Understands requirements Ability to capture technical depth accurately Feedback from tech / editorial reviews / clients Develops and implements new solutions, procedures, and concepts Demonstrates accuracy, thoroughness, and reliability Pays attention to detail The quantity of Work The volume of work produced by the employee, along with his or her speed, accuracy, and consistency of output. Produces necessary results in spite of unforeseen changes Alerts appropriate team member if deadlines need to be re-negotiated to accomplish work with higher priority Behavior competency Communication Skills – Oral communication/Body Language – The effectiveness of written communications (emails, status reports…) Self Development – Enhancing Product and Domain knowledge – Training and development (passionate about continuous learning) Adaptability: Efficiency with which employee works under stress and responds to change. Assertiveness/Motivation Attendance Judgment Interpersonal Relations Management competency Problem Solving & Decision Making Clearly defines the responsibilities and authority limits of subordinates Makes effective assignments to subordinates based on demonstrated skills and knowledge. Motivates employees to think and work independently  Recognizes individual capabilities and assigns work accordingly Each of the above parameters can be given low to high ranking, which can be appropriately tweaked as per the seniority of the writers. For example, for a Junior writer, Management Skill maybe 5 or 10, while for a Doc Manager it can increase substantially. Let us make a culture where we sit to discuss regularly how to improve and avoid waste basically effective retrospective culture. Where is customer satisfaction? Ooops!!! I might be missing many, Please let me know in the comment.

How to estimate the rate for freelancing writing projects? Undoubtedly freelancing gives you priceless freedom of working and choosing your type of work, boss-free life, work from anywhere but it brings a lot of responsibilities and should be done with the discipline to be your own boss. My first triage with cost estimation as a consultant: 🤔 The year 2008, my client asked me how much you will charge? Hmm, I can complete this work in 1.5 days and I m earning 30k/mo so 1k will be the correct figure. If I ask for more he may not give this project to me and finally, after deep thinking  I quote INR999. Do you think it was the correct approach? NO-It was a disaster even he sign 5 more projects with me. To estimate the per hour rate for a freelancing project is one of the trickiest questions that come to our mind before taking any consultancy project? Continue reading otherwise your situation will be something like mine 🙂 🔥Not only in technical documentation, but you also face similar trouble in any freelancing work. In this blog post, I have written 💯 about the significant challenges and solutions for freelancing cost estimations. Share your experiences about cost estimates in the comment section. How to estimate the per hour rate for freelancing technical writing project is one of the tricky questions that come to the mind before taking any technical documentation project. Not only in technical documentation, but you also face similar trouble in any freelancing writing assignments like content writing, medical writing, and blogging. In one of my blog posts, I have written about the significant challenges of freelancing. Read the post before you foray into technical writing. I do not oversell freelancing for technical writers because freelancing work is limited in technical writing. You will get plenty of work in content writing, resume writing, Generally you will get contract technical writing work n which client will ask to write from client premise. There are many calculators available to calculate per hour rate for a freelancing project, but I firmly believe that you are the best person to judge “What should be your value”. In our content charcha (webinar) we recently invited Scheely to talk about her journey of freelancing. You can enjoy the recording of the webinar. Yes, there are many parameters which you should take into consideration before you fix your freelancing price. Pricing is one of the crucial aspects of any right business price that can win or lose you a project. Read “Pros and Cons of Contract Technical Writer Work” consider the points mentioned in it before doing any math for your rate. Math for calculating the hourly price for content freelancing work Simple maths you can do is take your monthly gross salary before deductions, round it up to an even number, and divide by 176 (the average hours per month,22×8). Suppose you want to earn INR 100000/month. In this case divide 100000/176=568.18. So, you should never ask anything less than INR 750 after negotiation you can quote a minimum INR 600. I will suggest quoting INR 1000 because you cannot work for 8 hours and many unseen issues can do your math wrong. Keep reading to know those unseen issues. By now your freelancing resume is ready and shortlisted by the client. If you want to learn about freelancer resume consider reading. Hope you get a rough estimate but before finalizing the rate consider the few points also. Points to consider for estimating the freelancing price of writing work- How many of your daily working hours are billable? How many days off do you need for holiday.s, sick days, and personal days each year? How much vacation time do you want each year? The number of visits and duration of meetings with the client. Make sure who is going to pay for this. Travel cost, phone bills, and courier charges if any. Investment in hardware, software, electricity, Internet bill even on coffee or water. Insurance cover, EPF, marketing, promotions, taxes, etc. Be ready for the negotiation, so always have Negotiation buffer. The duration of the project also matters. You can reduce the hourly rate for larger assignments. What kinds of documents will you be writing? Online help, Print docs, Web articles, Newsletters, Website content etc…? What kind of skill set is required? General or Rare? How desperately you want this project. Is it going to be an entry for you in a new line of business? If yes, quote less. Your existing or future relationship with the client. What is your expertise and experience level and how clients value that? Marketing expense. Like chasing the client, writing emails etc. You can get good freelancing work from the website like Upwork, e-lance,freelancer.com, etc. You can also contact agencies like Technowrites, Commit, ibruk etc. I got my first work through my friend Jeno Joy who was working with Dots consultancy in Mumbai (W). His company was in need of a freelance content writer and my journey started. It was the year 2008. Conclusion In freelancing it is also very important to estimate the time. If you have a correct estimation of time, you very quickly calculate the cost. Do not forget to fix the payment terms and conditions like advance and full payment duration. The client may ask for GST and invoice. So be ready with all these. Acceptance criteria and definition of done should be clear. How the quality of content will be measured and how many times you will rewrite the content should be clear during price and time fixation. Read how to estimate the time for a freelancing writing project. Always keep adjusting your fee, after all, you deserve increment:-). I’m eager to listen to your freelancing story please share in the comment.