atw: Re: Vale technical writing?
- From: Margaret Hassall <margaret.hassall@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:45:58 +1100
Hi Geoffrey and Austechies,
Sounds like a great talking point to me, and I'll probably ask Tony some of
those questions at the presentation (when I hear more than just the
outline).
But I think the issue has been around for a while - even before XML and
DITA arrived. For a long time we have had the "content is king" versus
"quality or crappy content" versus "but it needs to be formatted"
arguments (TECHWR-L archives contain hundreds of posts on this and similar
topics).
Good format can help usability, readability, and make content far more
accessible, and crappy content is NOT better than no content at all. But I
have seen way too many people so focused on getting a format to work that
they run out of time to get the content right. Their hand-crafting produces
good looking documents but is their content up to standard and can it be
re-used?
I now have to deliver information in many different channels - old
fashioned PDFs for traditional user guides, online help (CHM, webhelp),
wikis, and now I'm looking at eReaders and their various formats. My first
efforts with eReaders sent me back to hand-crafting. With new delivery
formats coming about all the time, I don't think we have time for
hand-crafting any more.
And output is not the only issue: I have to build many documents using
input from a wide range of people - I'd like to streamline this workflow as
much as possible. I often undo their careful tweaking so that I can use
their content with other work.
What I'm looking for from the presentation is to find out if tools have
evolved enough so that they will allow me to concentrate on the CONTENT and
workflow without having to worry too much about the formatting. Like the
car drivers of old, I think it is a fair question to ask if I'd be prepared
to put up with a simpler look if it meant my information could go further.
While the output may not be as "whizz-bang" as I can create with other
tools at the moment, this doesn't mean it will always be like that.
While I agree that delivering information to people that is relevant,
readable, and usable is an overriding technical writing goal, surely we
should always be looking for ways to make that process more efficient.
I'll be at the talk, and happy to discuss this further.
Margaret - wearing her Tech Writer hat, but acknowledges her President,
ASTC Vic hat as well.
On 26 February 2012 11:33, Geoffrey Marnell wrote:
> Hi austechies
>
> Some of you will have received, as I did, an invitation to attend an ASTC
> presentation by DITA evangelist Dr Tony Self. Here is the outline of the
> presentation Tony intends to give, exactly as received in the invitation:
>
> <snip
...
> ...>
>
> We write to impart practical information to people who need it, and in ways
> that maximise their uptake of that information. That's our overriding goal
> as technical writers, and it's why most of us do fuss about issues of
> readability and usability. So why should we adopt any technology that
> limits
> us in our ability to meet that overriding goal? Technology should not be
> our
> master; it is the needs of our readers that is paramount.
>
>
>
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