ITauthor

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       Ellis Pratt is Sales and Marketing Director for UK documentation specialists, Cherryleaf. He joined me via Skype to talk about Cherryleaf and to discuss questions such as:

• What kind of skills do you need to be a technical writer?
• What's the difference between an information designer, a technical communicator and a technical writer?
• Which is the worst of the "six biggest mistakes project managers make with documentation"?
• Is there still a demand for printed manuals, and if so, why?
• What does Cherryleaf offer as a recruitment company that other, bigger recruitment companies can't?
• What does the future hold for technical writers?

I encourage you to have a look at the Cherryleaf website. The monthly newsletter is well worth signing up for. There are a number of interesting articles and there's also a blog (for example, you might want to check out the post Ellis referred to on the secrets of effective technical authors). By the way, I claimed during the conversation that there's no degree course in technical writing. What I think I meant was that in all the many, many CVs I've read while trying to recruit a technical author, I've never come across a candidate who has been formally trained in technical writing. However, as Ellis mentions, Coventry University run several courses in Media and Communication. Also, Sheffield Hallam University offers a postgraduate distance learning course for a diploma in Technical Communication.

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I'd love to know who's listening, where you are and what you think of the podcast, so contact me at:
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The music I play at the beginning and end of the show is by Amplifico. You can hear more of their music by going to the Podsafe Music Network.

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As an antidote to podcast #10, which dwelt a bit heavily on problems in Madcap Flare, this time round I talk about some of the things I really like about Flare.

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I'd love to know who's listening, where you are and what you think of the podcast, so contact me at:
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Or just let me know you've listened in by putting a pin in the ITauthor map at:
http://www.frappr.com/itauthor

The music I play at the beginning and end of the show is by Amplifico. You can hear more of their music by going to the Podsafe Music Network.

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So remind me: Why do we use Flare? In this podcast I talk to fellow technical writer Graham Campbell about Madcap Flare. Graham is relatively new to Flare but has been using Flare 3 in anger recently and went on a training course run by Mike Hamilton of Madcap in London a few weeks back. He talks about his first impressions of Flare, the training course, what's good and bad about Flare, and comparisons with Adobe FrameMaker. Flare gets a little bit of a bashing, but we love it really - or at least I do. I'm not so sure Graham does though - not yet anyway.

Get in touch!

I'd love to know who's listening, where you are and what you think of the podcast, so contact me at:
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Or just let me know you've listened in by putting a pin in the ITauthor map at:
http://www.frappr.com/itauthor

The music I play at the beginning and end of the show is by Amplifico. You can hear more of their music by going to the Podsafe Music Network.

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What does it take to be a technical writer? What should you be looking for if you're recruiting a technical writer? In this podcast - recorded while driving home from work – I describe some of the skills and personality traits I expect in someone who wants to spend their working life documenting software products.

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I'd love to know who's listening, where you are and what you think of the podcast, so contact me at:
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Or just let me know you've listened in by putting a pin in the ITauthor map at:
http://www.frappr.com/itauthor

The music I play at the beginning and end of the show is by Amplifico. You can hear more of their music by going to the Podsafe Music Network.

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The dogcast (from an original idea by Tom Johnson). In this episode of the ITauthor podcast I puff and pant my way up the Pentland hills just outside Edinburgh, walking my dog, thinking back to my first impressions of computers and software, and talking about documentation. This stream-of-consciousness, 43-minute podcast rambles on a bit, but it more or less gets across some of my thoughts about the direction software documentation is heading and the reasons why people like me might want to stop talking about technical writing and documentation and start talking about explaining and user assistance.

Get in touch!

I'd love to know who's listening, where you are and what you think of the podcast, so contact me at:
comments==AT==itauthor==DOT==com

Or just let me know you've listened in by putting a pin in the ITauthor map at:
http://www.frappr.com/itauthor

The music I play at the beginning and end of the show is by Amplifico. You can hear more of their music by going to the Podsafe Music Network.

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