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Tech Writer Voices is a podcast about the latest trends in technical communication. I interview tech writing luminaries around the world as well as record STC presentations and other audio content. You can subscribe to podcast specific feeds using the subscription information below.Review of Word 2007, Tool vs. Industry Experience, the Slow Movement, E-mail Tips, and More
February 27th, 2007 | Posted in Tech Writer Voices 3 Comments »
Download the MP3 file
Duration: 33 min.
In this week’s Tech Writer Voices podcast, Heidi and I talk about some innovative research from Microsoft, Word 2007, convincing upper management you’re not a cost, focusing on information users actually want, tool versus industry experience, the curse of knowledge, the slow movement, and a tip for handling your e-mail inbox.
Links mentioned in the Show
- Tom’s blog
- Heidi’s blog
- Innovative Microsoft Research
- Other Microsoft site
- Curse of Knowledge
- Doug Davis article on Tool vs. Industry knowledge
- Music is from Al Stravinsky
About Tech Writer Voices
Tech Writer Voices is a podcast specifically for technical communicators. The weekly show features interviews, conversations, tips, and other information for those who write help content. To stay updated with the latest podcasts on technical writing, be sure to subscribe to Tech Writer Voices using the e-mail subscription feature in the top-right corner of the site.
Send your feedback, comments, or suggestions to tom@idratherbewriting.com.
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Another enjoyable podcast! A few comments…
The SIGCHI meeting sounded very interesting. I am a member of SIGCHI here in Denmark, and we have the EMEA Microsoft up the road. I think I’ll investigate whether we can get a similar topic for a future meeting.
The topic of tech communications adding value is big (Sakson talk) and rightly so. I attended the Region 2 conference in London in October, and the theme was “Making Cents of Making Sense”. You can get a taste of the topics in their November 2006 newsletter:
http://www.stcuk.org/newsletters/Nov2006/index.htm
I SO loved Sakson concurring that metrics are tricky. I find them a nightmare! I love TimeStamp from Syntap (http://www.syntap.com/) – excellent tool. I use it to record the time it takes for certain tasks. For example, I once timed me taking 1.5 hours for me to prepare the PDF for a final publication, which involved getting it checked into Documentum and filling in all required reports. This was important for me to know so I knew when I had to start this process in the day if I wanted to leave work on time, or if I couldn’t do that, how late I would be there. It was important to know all the steps for this one task of “submitting to Documentum”. I use Documentum remotely, which means I take longer for this process than colleagues who sit in the same office as the Documentum server. I also included the steps for completing all paperwork. This means that when I say 1.5 hours, I am then truly done when that time has passed. This is just one step, and it was something I could document. I hope that by having certain routines documented (at least, in my mind), I can get a slightly better impression of the total amount of time to commit to a project. Other projects, such as editing a chunk of material handed to me by an SME, can vary immensely depending on the SME’s quality of writing. Evaluating the time that such a task takes is what I call a nightmare!
You had other great discussions about the value of industry experience and the “curse of knowledge”. Before this comment grows too big, I think I’ll blog about the former and comment about the latter on Tom’s blog – or maybe I’ll blog about that as well.
Oh, the slow movement is related to “simple living”. Google “simple living”. It’s been around for quite a while according to wikipedia. Think Thoreau or Shakers in more recent history. Personally, I think some take it to an extreme, but don’t knock stress. Stress is a killer, and simple living concepts can help some people, like the woman you describe who needs a kind of prescription to make her stop work on her computer now and then. This type of software is actually good for everyone. I’m thinking of the exercise-related tools that are screensavers (I think you can find some with timers so you can schedule them). When they flash on your screen, you are supposed to stop and do some exercise. Your body cannot cope with sitting stiffly in front of the computer all day. You need to get up and stretch your limbs to avoid stiffness in the neck (which can lead to headaches) or arm pains, which can involve carpal tunnel problems. You may not feel symptoms when you are young, but once you get carpal tunnel problems, they are irreversible. So stress and physical pain are possible results of sitting at the computer for long stretches of times.
Again, very enjoyable listening to both of you during my daily commute!
Thanks for the comment, Karen. I really appreciate the feedback. I didn’t know about the screensavers that are exercise-related tools. I’ll also have to check out http://www.syntap.com. Thanks for listening.