Category — Technical Writing

Title: PerfectIt
Developed by: Intelligent Editing
Price: 1 License ($90); Bundle of 5 licenses ($250); Bundle of 20 licenses ($650); Site license ($1,490)
Website: http://www.intelligentediting.com/default.aspx
Reviewer: Eddie Gear

PerfectIt is an excellent tool for users of the Microsoft Office Word application especially writers, editors, and others who are in the field of authoring and who need an easy-to-use proof reading tool. Although PerfectIt does not offer spell check or grammar check options, it includes several key tests that help you to create professional looking documents. PerfectIt can be easily installed in MS 2000, 2003, XP and 2007 as add-ins.

Writing is one of the most effective tools of communication. But how well do we communicate our thoughts to others? A good writer is one who uses simple lucid language, is able to convey ideas clearly, grab the reader’s attention and keep him coming back for more. Sometimes in our eagerness to write concisely, we overdo things, with the result that we end up with a poor draft. In this article, we will have a look at some of the areas where we can improve our writing skills.

Convey Ideas Using Short Paragraphs

You can create styles by formatting text and base a style on the formatted text. If you want a higher degree of control over style creation, you might want to consider creating styles using the New Style dialog box. By using the New Style dialog box, you can easily incorporate alignment, paragraph spacing, indents, line spacing, font colors, and many more into your style.

To create a new style using the New Style dialog box, follow the steps below:

After extensive research and analysis of your proposal, you have just completed one of your best writing ever. Now its time to make sure that your proposal is well formatted. Formatting is an essential and key aspect of every client proposal. Your clients will appreciate and read a proposal that is presented in a visually pleasing manner before they try to read a proposal that looks cluttered or unorganized.

There are four guidelines you should follow in order to make your proposal visually pleasing. You should use headings and subheadings, an easily readable typeface, consistent margins, and consecutive page numbers.

Writing client-friendly proposals can be tricky if you don’t do it right. There are various aspects involved in proposal writing and when it is focused to a particular client it is important that all your client needs are addressed. Let’s take a look at the points that you will need to consider while writing a client-friendly proposal.

Starting off with a quick introduction, what is a proposal and what is its purpose?

What is a proposal?

Before attending an interview for the position of a technical writer, you should anticipate the interviewer’s actions. Be prepared to respond to any issues that might arise. Interviewers always have some hidden agenda behind their questions. Interview questions are more or less designed around the specific position you are interviewed for; however, expect some common questions irrespective of the job description. Below are a few commonly asked questions during a technical writing interview and a few questions you can ask the interviewer.

Interviewer to technical writer

1. Why do you want this job?
2. Why do you want to leave your present employer?

Before you form an opinion about technical writing, let me share some information with you that will change the way you think about technical writing. Even though technical writing has been around for a long time, it was never much spoken about until recently. Some people consider technical writing as a boring profession and technical writers as rigid individuals because of the type of work they do.
So what is technical writing? What do tech writers do? Is technical writing really that boring?  You be the judge. Let us take a deeper look into these points. I’m sure that you will have a different opinion after you have read this article.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations are shortened from of a word. Some of the commonly used abbreviations are e.g. for example, cont for continue or continued just to name a few. Even thought abbreviations are not often used by technical writers during the documentation process it is basic for any writer to know.

Acronyms

Acronyms are composed from a group of words or a phrase.  Sometimes they are pronounced as words or spelled out. They are normally formed by placing the first letter of every word in the phrase together.
During the writing process, especially if acronyms are used for the first time, it is better that they are spelled out within parenthesis and can be used as acronyms thereafter in the document. Acronyms when written in their plural form do not need an apostrophe.

During the course of your work you may be required to prepare and submit both technical and non-technical reports. Examples of such reports include annual report, audit report, project proposals, tender documents and journals. This article focuses and briefly examines the common features and conventions used by technical writers to prepare these reports.

Components of a report

Depending on the purpose of the report be it technical or non-technical the report may include the following components.

1. Title page
2. Disclaimer
3. Abstract (optional)
4. Acknowledgment
5. Table of contents
6. Table of figures and tables
7. Introduction

Technical communicators often use specialized tools in the preparation of their documentations. Today, there is a tool for almost every type of documentation. There are tools available to prepare user guides, proposals, brochures and other types of documents.

Documentation tools play a key part in the field of technical communication; it is a requirement for every technical writer to know the tools related to the documentation they prepare. A technical writer who writes online help manuals is most often expected to have knowledge of tools like RoboHelp and Doc-to-Help. These tools are industry standard and most widely used by companies across the world. Only some of the best tools are listed in this article.