Resources

We have several articles and other information we would like to share. Experienced technical communicators may not learn anything new, but the article series may serve as a refresher. The target audience for the original articles were readers of a local computer newspaper in the St. Louis area. The newspaper no longer exists and the former publisher gave me permission to use the articles as I wished. So, here they are.

Newbies to technical communication or nonwriters who find themselves assigned to write a manual of any kind will benefit from them. The series of articles starts with planning your manual and ends with creating an index and a couple of articles about online documents.

We have a reading list that we have shared with many new and wannabe technical communicators. The list is just a starting point, but if you read all of these books, you'll have a good foundation.

You may also want to check our tip archive. That page has all the tips we've posted to the site.

Information for Independents

• Society for Technical Communication (STC) Contracting and Independent Consulting (CIC) Special Interest Group (SIG)
  
  
• Getting Started in Independent Contracting and Consulting online book 

• STC Rocky Mountain Chapter (RMC) Freelance FAQ

Presentations

• Getting Started as an Independent Technical Communicator (progression session) - STC Annual Conference, May 2007 - Handout (PDF 49 KB) 
  
  
• Single Sourcing on a Shoestring with FrameMaker and WebWorks Publisher - WritersUA Conference, March 2006 - Handout (PDF 447 KB) and Supplemental Handout (PDF 97 KB)
   
  
• From the Self-Employment Trenches - Building Client Base - STC Annual Conference, May 2004 - Handout (PDF 67 KB)
  
  
• Finding Work as an Independent Technical Communicator - STC RMC CIC SIG, October 2003 - Handout (PDF 108 KB) 
  
  
• Creating FrameMaker Books and Templates for use with WebWorks Publisher - given at both the STC Region 7 Conference and the 2003 FrameUsers Conference both in October of 2003 - Slides (338 KB PDF)
  
  
• Getting Started as an Independent Technical Communicator (progression session) - STC Annual Conference, May 2002 - Handout (PDF 19 KB) 
  
  
• Three Ways to Reuse Text in FrameMaker - STC Annual Conference, May 2002 - Handout (PDF 64 KB) 
  
  
• Creating Online Help Seminar for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of STC, April 2002 - Full handout (PDF 830 KB) and just the missing tables comparing graphic formats and browsers (60 KB)
  
  
• 10 Techniques for Single-Sourcing with FrameMaker - WinWriters Online Help Conference February 2002 - Handout (PDF 67 KB) and supplemental handout (PDF 98 KB)
  
  
• WebWorks Publisher: An Overview - STC RMC Online SIG October 2001 -  Handout (PDF 23 KB)
  
  
• Autonumbering in FrameMaker (5.5.6) - STC RMC Chapter Meeting segment September 2000 - Handout (PDF 98 KB)
  
  
• Growing Your Business - STC Region 7 Conference October 1998 - Slides (PDF 190 KB) and handout (PDF 192 KB)
  
  
• Working as an Independent - Metro State College April 1998 - Handout (PDF 26 KB)

Reading List

• Reading list for novice technical communicators

Articles

• How to Make User Manuals Better

• Structuring Your User Documentation to Improve Usability

• Designing a Readable User Manual

• Who Should Write the User Manual?

• More Documentation Planning Issues? Yes!

• We're Ready to Write the Documentation

• Drafting the Manual Prototype

• Reviewing Your Manual Prototype

• Reviewer Comments: What Do I Do Now?

• Gathering the Information for Your Manual

• Writing the First Draft of Your Manual

• So I've Written the First Draft. Now What?

• The Manual Is Finally Finished

• Why Do I Need an Index?

• Online Documentation: Pros and Cons

• Online Documentation: Design Issues

• Creating Windows Help: The Basics

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Last update: July 15, 2007
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