clickhelp technical writing blog
Join thousands of experts subscribed to our blog to get tips, ideas and stories from us once per month. When planning taxonomy creation, it is crucial to consider the target audience. Forum threads are harder to research than support tickets. ClickHelp Technical Writing Blog: Articles and Useful Information It is the rule that can be applied to almost anything in this world. Best Technical writing, Content writing, and Blogging course of India at non-profit cost with the global leaders as a mentor.more informationdevelop.. Facebook 1.2K Frequency 1 post / month FeedSpot 1K Posts 69 DA 16 Location India Get Email Contact, My name is William McFadden and I have been a technical writer for over 19 years. This, my friends, is an example of a documentation team falling the victim to disobeying the almighty 80/20 rule. en communicating about tech and connecting people at tech companies since 2008, first as a tech journalist and content strategist, then as an API designer and tech writer. It involves categorization, classification, generalization, and other methods of organizing information. techwriting.co.uk Frequency 1 post / year Since Feb 2012 FeedSpot 1K Posts 34 DA 10 Location UK Get Email Contact, Feedspot has a team of over 50 experts whose goal is to discover and rank blogs, podcasts and youtube channels in several niche categories. You can start a free trial here. On the other hand, when users take the time to describe their experience in detail, there is a chance that we get the whole picture and can fix the problem. This is mostly due to the fact that when addressing support, users dont describe the whole experience with the documentation. They must be able to communicate well with other departments. Technical writers collaborate with other stakeholders, such as managers, marketers, and developers. Email us the type of bloggers you want to reach out for your marketing campaign at anuj@feedspot.com. You can even generate readability scores and analyses of your content. Good Luck with your technical writing! No wonder technical writing tools are designed specially for technical writing, they offer task-specific functionality alongside with just being a user-friendly text editor. Ask everyone who is concerned how they perceive the content and the terms they use to think about. Although ClickHelp is a pretty straightforward help authoring tool with an intuitive UI, it can be really hard to cover all its functionality in one go. A business requirements document (BRD) reflects the main idea behind a project. To monitor the progress of topics reviewed, you can see at a glance from the table of contents which topics have been reviewed or which have outstanding comments. This skill is optional. Easiest way to add dynamic and fresh content on your website. I've been communicating about tech and connecting people at tech companies since 2008, first as a tech journalist and content strategist, then as an API designer and tech writer. Technical writing services, and training. ClickHelp online documentation tool for technical writers and teams. You can update your choices at any time in your settings. But we live in the world of agile software development where efficiency and time frames are everything. Overall, ClickHelp provides a robust solution for managing taxonomies, optimizing search capabilities, and ensuring users can efficiently access the information they need. However, many writers tend to forget that they work primarily for theContinue reading , A business requirements document (BRD) is a reflection of the main idea behind a project. In the first case, the explanations must be really simple and somewhat down to earth. The companys technical writers constantly create content to support the product, incorporating new features and developments. In the following example, Rights of Usage is another topic that has been re-used inside this New Topic. Evolution of TC will be held in Sofia on June 67. Today we'd like to talk about good habits that technical writers can work on to improve performance and prevent burnouts. ClickHelp online documentation tool for technical writers and teams. You can then assign users to those roles. If you're interested in the world of product development, you may have heard the term "product manager" thrown around. The thing is a user guide can only be clear and make sense when its author knows how everything works. I created this digest, so if you have content suggestions, PM me onLinkedIn! A knowledge base of solutions to technical communication problems, issues, and software tutorials.more technicalcommunica.. Facebook 291Twitter 6.4K Frequency 2 posts / week Since Apr 2007 FeedSpot 1.1K Posts 226 DA 41 Location US Get Email Contact, Helping the world explore and understand content management and technical communication. Let's see how tech writers can help. This button displays the currently selected search type. Useful tips for beginners and experts. But structured authoring tools are only one of the options to advance in content management. Blogs, RSS, Youtube channels, Podcast, Magazines, etc. If youre looking for a tech doc solution, ClickHelp is definitely worth checking out. 2010-2023 ClickHelp AM, LLC. So, a good technical writer is the one who always plans the documentation structure in advance and never makes a mess hoping to clean it up later. More about Feedspot Lists and Ranking here https://blog.feedspot.com/about_lists_and_ranking/, Follow Top 20 Technical Writing Blogs from one place on Feedspot Reader. Evolution of TCwill be held in Sofia on June 6-7, Discover the program here:https://lnkd.in/dNv4SMk. For example, suppose you have a common section used in multiple topics. Remember, we live in a constantly changing world. Readability metrics will help you enhance the overall quality of your content and improve your documentation. Thus, metadata is employed to enhance findability. Being a technical writer, do you feel like a real author? It ensures project alignment and effective management of activities. Companies dealing with extensive documentation, particularly those utilizing content reuse and single sourcing, face the task of enhancing searchability of their knowledge to improve its effectiveness. Swagger is an awesome tool for API technical writers. The purpose of this blog is to describe the importance and benefits of taxonomies while offering practical tips on creating and managing them. Ideally, there should be an editor to proofread technical documentation, but sometimes it is not like that. The role of technical writers is to plan and develop content that meet the needs of the target audience. As a rule, such documentation tools feature workflows developed for tech writer teams; they support popular tech writing formats like Word, PDF, CHM. It sounds like some talent a person either possesses or not. Lets first talk about who is using ClickHelp (because you want to be sure the platform will be around for the long term). For more information, see Reporting and Analytics and ClickHelp March 2019 Release Overview - Aurora Polaris. The improvements may concern the wording: may be the language is too complicated for the users to understand, and you will have to rewrite the page. So, ClickHelp asked how technical writers would use it for their technical writing. You can either search everything or narrow the search to a specific publication. ClickHelp also provides detailed analytics and reporting tools that help in making more accurate adjustments to your technical documentation. For more information, see User Management. To get more detailed information on a particular topic that users dislike, you can use fill-in forms that pop up when users click the thumb-down button. What I'm hoping to accomplish here is to share my experiences, insights, and my philosophy of technical communication. ClickHelp - I'd Rather Be Writing Blog | Technical writing, technical And, also, it seems to be one of the most necessary skills for a tech writer. Check out my API documentation if you're looking for more info about that. As an online platform, authors can use PC, Mac, or Linux. For more information, see Single Sourcing Techniques and Content Snippets. We routinelyremove inactive blogs and those which are no longer relevant to a given list. Frequency 1 post / year FeedSpot 1K Posts 44 DA 81 Location Bulgaria Get Email Contact, Technical Writing, Business Process Analysis and Process Writing. Let's have some spooky fun! ClickHelp uses XHTML as its base format, with other standards such as JS and CSS. Technology keeps moving forward. How can a technical writing tool make the work of a tech communicator easier? We are a group of experienced technical writers from India. It is handy if you want to know the number of views a topic has received. 2010-2023 ClickHelp AM, LLC. Top Authors, Journalists, and Publishers covering Technical Writing. You can even see which search results users clicked on for their queries. Do user manuals lie? Developing technical documentation is an ongoing process. Learn more here: The ClickHelp Blossom Update: Enhancing User Experience and Productivity. (The review process was one of the major enhancements in the latest release.). But, in tech writing, like in any other professional field, theres always an opportunity to grow as a specialist. These skills and knowledge may concern any tech writer, but it probably affects outsourcers the most. This feature helps collect more feedback on a specific topic that needs improvement. And, for any human being, for that matter. You come across great content, long help topics, you see code examples, schemes, gifs. ClickHelp online documentation tool for technical writers and teams. If you are really interested in achieving a lot as a tech writer, check out the blog post we have recently published on what a technical writer career path may look like. You can create a variable (a kind of a container for keeping some data) with the product version. Typically, individuals have a fragmented understanding of information, limited to their specific areas of expertise. One more thing to mention is the importance of testing and iterating on changes. For example, metrics may help you learn which pages are the most popular with the users and how long they stay on these pages. by Tom Johnson on Jun 8, 2019 Many employers have some expectations and requirements. This blog provides insights and tips for creating a comprehensive and relevant BRD that addresses the needs of stakeholders and aligns with business goals. As a reference, you can check out a list of features offered by ClickHelp, a tool for online documentation authoring. Taxonomy labels work like tags. Author, host and deliver your documentation across all platforms and devices! If you want to be able to get more things done without additional effort, you should learn these techniques. If you want to learn more about documentation feedback, heres another article for you about user comments in technical documentation. For translation projects, you export a project to the format your translation vendor requires (usually HTML or Word). ClickHelp provides built-in metrics and analytics about the content. Time is the most valuable resource, dont waste it. Through the JS customization, you can even add your own live chat integration (from an external script) to your documentation site, as you can see any page in Clickhelps main site. For instance, try answering the following questions: would you like to describe every feature in a user manual? Each person will offer unique perspectives on the matter, which is exactly what you need to capture during this process. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google. ClickHelp has about 25k users across 93 countries. In this post, you will learn what Waterfall and Agile mean for tech writers. You can also export the content to HTML, PDF, Docx, CHM, and more. However, it doesnt work in 100% of cases. thecontentwrangler.. Facebook 518Twitter 2.6KInstagram 424 FeedSpot 1.1K Posts 1171 DA 45 Location US Get Email Contact, Technical Writing tips and tools. This concept includes gathering information, analyzing, and systematizing it. Knowing the basics of sociology is quite a useful tech communicator skill. ClickHelp lets you create context-sensitive help to integrate your content into web applications. Additionally, if you want translated docs but dont want to actually translate your content, ClickHelp lets you add a Google Translate widget to your project. Stories for technical writers, web dev. Traditionally, ClickHelp has had wider use in Europe and Asia than North America, but the company is expanding its focus to include more of a U.S.-based audience. These metadata elements assist both humans and artificial intelligence in organizing data and transforming it into valuable information. The main purpose of a taxonomy is to mirror human logic. categories: Technical Writing, Business Process Analysis and Process Writing. By maintaining the taxonomy properly, your team will be able to locate the desired content much faster compared to navigation-based search methods. Technical writers have to take into account the needs and demands of different types of readers who interact with the product support documentation. Our latest Blossom update will take your content creation to the next level with Markdown import, better PDF export, Confluence import updates, and more. Otherwise, the tags created will not effectively connect the search input (the words entered in the search bar) to the search output. Consequently, the content blocks discovered were often only partial. Aaand, you still cant find anything about the feature you need. Reach thousands of authority bloggers and social media influencers in your domain area. Who would want to lie in technical documentation and why? A special editor lets you convert your topics into a JS-based code snippet that developers can integrate into their applications. More and more online documentation tools appear on the market. A taxonomy can also be compared to an index, providing a list of reference terms that facilitate information retrieval for readers. Instant download. So, what we get in this case is just the top of the iceberg. Each product or service has its core user base and target audience. But, in terms of detailed description of the problem, forums may be much more effective, as users tend to describe their experience in full. Working in an outsourcing company means that experts have to deal with a variety of client companies you have never heard of and are unaware of their products. The following best practices can be applied when utilizing metadata: ClickHelp is a system that also serves as a powerful taxonomy management tool. Name. It cannot be considered finished after releasing the documents and making them available to readers. Check it out: https://clickhelp.com/. Basically, Single-Sourcing allows creating multiple documents using the same source. Plus, we have made the initial steps towards a complete transformation of the Contributors app that are sure to ease your work inside the portal. A well-maintained taxonomy empowers your team to maximize productivity and efficiency by leveraging existing content resources. Surely, a technical writer should have a special background to be able to describe complex things. . What I'm hoping to accomplish here is to share my experiences, i. nsights, and my philosophy of technical communication. May 2023; S M T W T F S : 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20 It describes the goals and objectives of the project and the results it's designed to achieve. Your manuals can have both public and password-protected sections, controlled through role-based access. So, youll have to tame your perfectionism to improve your documentation quality. Ideally, a technical writer should always track the latest news and trends in the spheres of science and technology to develop technological skills. Follow to keep up with my updates.more passo.uno Twitter 525 Frequency 5 posts / quarter FeedSpot 193 Posts 30 DA 1 Get Email Contact, Technical writing services, and training. Clickhelp is a browser-based documentation tool with 200+ features. Conclusion. ), content ownership, and custom reports based on other metadata (e.g., topics that havent been updated or reviewed, and so on). You can also learn more about me or contact me. This blog post will explain what a business requirement document is and give you a few tips for writing consistent and relevant BRDs: What Is a Business Requirements Document. Reality checks help restore common sense significantly. ClickHelp offers single sourcing and content re-use on par with what technical writers typically need. Join thousands of experts subscribed to our blog to get tips, ideas and stories from us once per month. Read my FAQ to learn more about me! Instant download.more klariti.com/techni.. Facebook 261Twitter 3.3K Since Jan 2006 FeedSpot 1K Posts 37 DA 43 Location Ireland Get Email Contact, On technical communication, leadership, and occasional flights of fancy. This rule is also known as the Pareto Principle. Good luck with your technical writing!ClickHelp Team Author, host, and deliver documentation across platforms and devices. Get ready to captivate your audience with compelling technical content that will leave a lasting impact. The creation of content is an on-going process. Traditionally, information search relied on a one-dimensional folder system. The long-term functionality and effectiveness of the taxonomy rely on regular reviews and maintenance. Basically, critical thinking can be explained as the ability to make reasoned and clear judgments. Primarily, this audience consists of technical writers and other stakeholders involved in content usage and development.