Techcraft e-Newsletter Volume 38 June 2008.
Contents
1. Disadvantages Allows mapping of documents with the document process owner Existing documents can be re Difficult to search for informa tion requires users to open individual Word files to search for specific information Method 3 Link Word files to main topics on Wiki Disadvantages Method Advantages Create high level listing of topics on e Documents are accessible e Documents have to be versioned the Wiki interface and then link each through the Wiki and stored on servers topic to the corresponding docu e Existing documents can be re e Documents have to be main ments used tained in the same location on the server with the same file name Otherwise documents may not open from the Wiki and require re linking Method Chosen After considering the advantages and disadvantages of the three different methods of organizing and porting content to the Wiki Method Create topics on Wiki was followed in order to optimally utilize all content Towards the close of 6 weeks by identifying the optimal solution that included concepts of re use and the effective deployment of existing hardware and software resources we had successfully developed the Installation and Deployment documents We had also successfully migrated the content on to the client s customized Wiki Needless to say the client was delighted with the results achieved by us in a short span of time Yamini N2. companies offering the biggest hikes courtesy International Herald Tribune When compared to China which reported an increase of 7 5 per cent the average pay increase in India during the last five years stood at 1 5 per cent Since compensation pays a pivotal role in attracting talent and determining ongoing employee engagement many local and multinational companies in India have started to render competitive remuneration Typically in India the take home salary comprises the basic salary dearness allowance commissions and bonuses paid as a percentage of profits and retrials Other perks and incentives include allowances for housing conveyance medical leave travel and so on ead Techhraft FROM THE EDITOR S DESK The latest trend adopted by local and multinational companies is to extend sign on bonuses performance based bonuses festival bonuses and company stock options Here have tried to determine which companies pay the hottest bonuses in India have whittled down my research to the top seven companies in India which pay the highest bonuses courtesy PayScale The term bonus continues to remain undefined in any legislative enactment According to Chamber s Twentieth Century Dictionary bonus is defined as a premium beyond the usual interest for loan an extra dividend to shareholders a policyholder s share of profit an extra payment to workmen or others a douceur or bribe It
3. s perspective in mind You have to learn an application in depth to write about it Once you become a power user it is hard to write for the novice since you no longer see the application for the first time through fresh eyes That initial perspective is hard to recapture Impossible actually Another difficulty is organizing a large body of material into a logical structure It takes a while before the document or online help begins to take shape and actually look like an intelligible file Once it does that s when it feels good In the beginning it s just a conglomeration of topics that don t fit together in any compelling way 5 What efforts did you make to overcome these obstacles The way to regain the initial impressions of the application similar to a first time user is to watch a new user try to perform the steps of your documentation remember the first time did this told the user that just wanted to watch her try to go through the steps to see where it was confusing There were so many problem areas that originally thought were clear Observing someone use your documentation is always an eye opener By and large think it s hard to keep the user s perspective in mind You have to learn an application in depth to write about it Once you become a power user it is hard to write for the novice since you no longer see the application for the first time through fresh eyes That initial persp
4. and HTML tags You have the following possible solutions e Send across the source text in a format that is editable by the majority For example Notepad Word or Excel and budget for the effort needed to rework the translation in the format that you want e Pay the translator for buying the software and train the translator to use that software e Look for a translator who can handle the file formats you use Each of these options has a cost time trade off which you have to evaluate 7 Share your glossary with the translator This is the equivalent of speaking the same language If you think that trend graph shows the changes of more than one Y against time X and your translator thinks that trend graph is a graph that shows the change of one Y against time X then we are not speaking the same lingo Similarly if you have a terminology in the target language share it with the translator 8 Provide for text expansion and contraction This is the equivalent of building in buffers Be aware that translations to other languages may take up more space or less space than the source English text Arrange your page and document layout to accommodate the variation This may be important if your manual gets packed in the same carton as the software and suddenly you find that the document is bulkier or larger than what you planned The same holds true for User Interface UI elements If you can have a say in the UI design arra
5. comment In reality people are reading fewer print publications these days Or they read them during the month the issue is current and then the article disappears With online content such as a blog readers continue to Writing for publications is a bit boring get a much better response online with my blog For example spent a long time on my podcasting article in Intercom Only one person wrote G in to comment TechQraft SPOTLIGHT 21 22 23 discover you months or years after you published the post And having Google SEO power is pretty cool Most companies don t understand how powerful bloggers are For example if you write a post with the words Madcap Flare in the title and first sentence you become an influencer when people search for the same topic online If you write the same article but bury it in a printed PDF often times it s not even visible My experience in the blogosphere has given me new aspirations as a writer want to eventually become a full time blogger perhaps There are a handful of probloggers out there who not only make a lot of money blogging but are also blogging celebrities Their influence is huge much larger than with some print publications and think they have a lot of fun doing it A good blog post is often just a personal essay Who are your favorite bloggers I like Susan Wu at Shanghai Tech Writer also like Anne Gentle just write cli
6. featured as the Writer of the Month in TechCraft June 2005 edition Volume 13 She also wrote an article for The Master Speaks section in TechCraft June 2006 edition Volume 24 She has published articles in INDUS STC India Chapter Newsletter about Readability and Client Interfacing adhavi Manne is a Senior Technical Communicator with CDG at Infosys Bangalore CDG specializes in user research user interface design user assistance usability evaluation multimedia and graphic design 2 DIRECTIONS Documentation on Customized Wiki Veni Vidi Vici Working with ambiguous requirements is a scenario that most technical writers face today Unclear expectations from a technical writing project and the lack of background project information or of future requirements are examples of ambiguities that surface frequently Technical writers must face the challenge of unraveling the requirement before being able to suggest optimal documentation solutions We just ran into a similar situation at a client location recently As two technical writers assigned to this project the only information we had before beginning work at the client site was that we had to author process documents Other details like the specific domain for which process documents were required the applications which used these processes or the tools to be used to create the documents were not known We had 6 weeks to complete the proj
7. for all documents available One central location to go to access multiple types of content One interface to use making it easy to find the required information Collaborative editing enabled where all stakeholders associated with a specific document on the Wiki could directly edit it Documents made easily accessible from all client centers Documents made easy to author edit and manage well structured and consistent in presentation People dependency reduced to a large extent Organizing Documents on Wiki At the time of migrating content from Word Excel PowerPoint etc to the Wiki we proposed three different methods based on project specific requirements Method l Create topics HTML pages on the Wiki restructuring the content from Word documents Subsequent content updates to be made directly on the Wiki doing away with Word and other legacy documents Method 2 Provide access to the documents by attaching all doc files to the main page on the Wiki Subsequent content updates to be made in the Word documents and again uploading them on to the Wiki Method 3 Create a document structure on the Wiki and link topic names to individual documents stored on different servers Subsequent content updates are made to files on the server Continued on the next page At the time of migrating content from Word Excel PowerPoint etc to the Wiki we proposed three different _ methods based on project specific requirem
8. is believed that the practice of paying bonus in India started during the First World War when a few textile mills granted 10 per cent of wages to their workers as war bonus In 1950 the Full Bench of Labor Appellate Tribunal developed a formula for calculating bonus Nine years later a plea was made to raise that formula On December 6 1960 the Government of India appointed a Bonus Commission Four years later it agreed to few recommendations made by the commission subject to certain modifications To implement these recommendations the Payment of Bonus Ordinance 1965 was formally made public in May the same year It was replaced by the Payment of Bonus Act 1965 on September 25 1965 For more information refer to the Payment of Bonus Act 1965 A recent Bonus Survey Report for India by PayScale revealed the median bonus paid by top employers in India According to this survey report the first four companies that pay the highest bonuses in India are all America based multinationals Accenture Oracle Corp Cognizant Technology Solutions and Hewlett Packard Co In fact the only company of Indian descent to feature in this report is Wipro Technologies Ltd Accenture India To render a rewarding place to work Accenture offers a competitive Total Rewards Program to all its employees This helps employees reach their individual goals It is believed that the practice of paying bonus in India started during the Fir
9. From the Editor s desk 1 1 In Focus 11 15 Directions 16 20 Legally Bland 21 23 TechCraft The Master Speaks 24 25 Spotlight 26 34 Writer of the Month 35 June 2008 his column is written by Rahul Prabhakar a leading member of the technical writing community in India Rahul is employed as a senior technical communicator with Samsung Electronics Company Limited in South Korea He has spearheaded several initiatives to elevate the profession in the Indian subcontinent Rahul has a Bachelors of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering and a Diploma in Advertising Management You are free to send your comments feedback or suggestions for his column to rahulprabhakar msn com Summer Issue Volume 38 FROM THE EDITOR S DESK These Companies Pay the Fattest Bonuses in India Everyone seems to be raving about the sudden economic surge in the Indian subcontinent With high labor turnovers in the country s Business Process Outsourcing and technology sectors Indian workers are more likely to see sharp wage increases than any other Asian country in the world It also comes as no surprise that India topped the list of world s top 10 nations with the highest forecast real wage increases in 2007 courtesy The Times of India According to an annual survey conducted by Hewitt Associates last year Indian salaries were likely to grow at an average of 14 5 per cent with banks and financial services
10. India s leading eNewsletters on technical writing It is our own way of communicating with the technical writing fraternity throughout the world In case you wish to submit an article for the upcoming issues email to rahulprabhakar msn com This forum reaffirms that we are because of your undying faith in us We sincerely hope that with each passing day you are able to associate with us in a better way Since this forum is growing by the day with new and experienced writers joining in from all walks of life more and more people will definitely be benefited by this enriching experience Tech raft CONTRIBUTORS 4 Anindita Basu e Co editor 5 Abha Iyengar e Co editor 6 Elizabeth Richardson e Co editor TechCraft is one of India s leading eNewsletters on technical writing It is our own way of communicating with the technical writing fraternity throughout the world In case you wish to submit an article for the upcoming issues email to rahulprabhakar msn com This forum reaffirms that we are because of your undying faith in us We sincerely hope that with each passing day you are able to associate with us in a better way Since this forum is growing by the day with new and experienced writers joining in from all walks of life more and more people will definitely be benefited by this enriching experience TechQ raft CONTRIBUTORS 1 Venkateswara Subramaniam Iyer e Quizmaster TWI Bimonthly Quiz TechCraft
11. This is the equivalent of speaking slowly A sentence that is long winded has to be read more than once to be understood A translator works under deadlines and re reading takes away that much of the translator s time Consider the following sentence The YST server ensures that all hosting servers of a YST product or service always sync with each other with respect to product versions of the services hosted by them Phew 2 Do not use compound nouns that have more than two words This is the equivalent of being clear A noun phrase that has more than three words is often ambiguous Consider the following sentence The ABC file configuration program was not installed on this computer simship simultaneous shipment of various language versions in all key markets A sentence that is long winded has to be read more than once to be understood A translator works under deadlines and re reading takes away that much of the translator s time TechQaft IN FOCUS can interpret this sentence in several ways e The configuration program of ABC file was not installed on this computer e The program of file configuration of ABC was not installed on this computer e The program called ABC of file configuration was not installed on this computer If clarity requires a few more words use them 3 Do not begin a heading with a conjugated verb Consider the following sentence Print t
12. afde and Madhavi Manne Towards the close of 6 weeks by identifying the optimal solution that included concepts of re use and the effective deployment of existing hardware and software resources we had successfully developed the Installation and Deployment documents We had also successfully migrated the content on G the client s customized Wiki his article is written by Gautam Soman Gautam started his professional life as a NET programmer in 2005 However a year down the road he found his true calling in technical communication Since then he has been working for Infospectrum s offshore development centre located at Nagpur India Gautam has hands on experience in projects related to marine logistics and port management systems Last year he got an opportunity to work onsite in Norway for documentation project related to radars His hobbies include reading blogging traveling and listening to Hindi oldies You can read his technical writing blog at http bytespace blogspot com and contact him at gsoman gmail com LEGALLY BLAND Love Thy Work Not the Team A few months ago read an interesting article by N R Narayan Murthy co founder and the Chief Mentor of Infosys In the article Murthy advised his employees to love their work and not the company found the advice a bit pessimistic that was until met Arvind name changed a friend who works as a technical communicator Arvind loo
13. and or warring with their erstwhile competitors in the Microsoft operating systems group ensures that WindOS X dominates the market for desktop operating systems relegating Linux to a historical footnote Apple Microsoft hires spokesman Vin Diesel for a well received advertising campaign that announces the impending release of WindOS XXX Theme music for the campaign the Rolling Stones You Can t Always Get What You Want 3 The single sourcing revolution is over with all text everywhere in all genres produced using single sourcing techniques lt include if publication TechCraft gt Technical writers everywhere rejoice knowing they can safely write once use many Global workplace productivity increases by 0 versus 73 in the technical writing sector lt include gt lt include if language French gt Vive le fin de empire am ricain Vive Jerry Lewis lt include gt lt include if language Spanish gt Donde esta Ia traducci n lt include gt There are some initial glitches but they are generally easily spotted and fixed by eagle eyed technical editors 4 Apple Microsoft offers a free version of Microsoft Office compiled in such a way that the same version will run simultaneously under Windows WindOS XXX and Linux in its final scorched earth attempt to eliminate OpenOffice once and for all Their strategy backfires when the clever folks at OpenOffice org announce 10 new commercial versions of OpenOffice rangi
14. centives lyer added Suhasini Tenneti Computer Associates Hyderabad stated I think the concept of bonus programmes is not encouraged at The company that pays the hottest bonuses in India grossly varies but think BPOs such as EXL and Genpact will lead the pack Sales and marketing professionals normally get the best and highest bonuses across the industries sectors even today The next category in this segment are HR recruiters The insurance telecom and FMCG sectors offer high bonuses incentives Many companies have replaced bonuses with incentives Techhraft FROM THE EDITOR S DESK MNCs in India was working for this small services company before CA and they were very particular about these bonus programmes In fact we used to look forward to those special months Looking at the bigger picture now the industry is clearly divided into service based and product based Now get to see the real difference Bijoy BG a senior technical writer with Nokia Seimens Networks Bangalore shared an insight with me via e mail jNautix Technologies Chennai offers over 100 per cent of the bonus amount mentioned in a worker s CTC letter The concept of bonus programmes is extremely popular in the West If you remember Google had launched a new executive bonus programme in February 2005 that would have given each of its senior executives as much as 3 million provided the company
15. ck Scott Nesbitt DMN Communications Sarah O Keefe Palimpsest and dozens of others The thing about blogs is that am subscribed to 150 plus blogs and then scan down the titles for interesting posts If you go to http idratherbewriting com blogroll you can see all the people read Have you interacted with technical communicators from a different geographical location like India If yes how has your experience been like interviewed two technical communicators from India for podcasts last year Moreover am subscribed to a handful of Indian blogs although the names don t come to mind right now The experience Good think India is quickly becoming a huge hub of technical writing Do you read a lot of books If yes who are your favorite authors and why used to read a lot more print than currently do As transitioned from a more creative writer to a technical writer began to see that technical know how and IT skills were more important than reading Chaucer Now when I read a book it is often something technical e g The CSS Cookbook I ve found the Online Safari library is excellent for technical material because it aggregates the entire library by chapter based on what you re reading My experience in the blogosphere has given me new aspirations as a writer want to eventually become a full time blogger perhaps There are a handful of probloggers out there who not only make a lot of m
16. cy wWwop aj ss PayScale Median Bonus by City Employer Oracle Corp India PayScale survey finding Oracle workers in Bangalore and Hyderabad receive the highest median bonus than those situated in different offices spanning other major Indian cities Cognizant Technology Solutions India Cognizant has offices in Chennai Bangalore Kolkata Pune Hyderabad Mumbai and Kochi Cognizant also offers other benefits such as healthcare benefits personal health care educational benefits kit allowance wedding day gift employee referral programme paid days off medical leave maternity leave gratuity and an employee stock option plan for its Indian employees More details about these benefits available here Cognizant also offers other benefits such as healthcare benefits personal health care educational benefits kit allowance wedding day gift employee referral programme paid days off medical leave maternity leave gratuity and an employee stock option plan for its Indian employees FROM THE EDITOR S DESK Chennai Madras 220 g e9SAby Bangaiore 75 Kolkata Calcutta 42 MAMA 0 DUT Pune 31 Hyderabad 14 Mumbai Bombay 4 wor sjeashed Cochin Kochi Suppressed to protect privacy bd 3 PayScale O 10 000 20 000 30 000 40 000 50 000 60 000 70 000 Median Bonus by City Employer Cognizant Technology Solutions India PayScale survey finding Cognizant wor
17. e documents they were responsible for the owners were located at different geographical locations e Identify the client s existing customized internal Wiki as the ideal interface for employees to access all the required documentation e Migrate all the documents to the client Wiki So far although the Wiki was available it was used by the project teams only to share scripts development tools project plans and other files The Challenge Once we identified what we wanted to do there were multiple other challenges to overcome to execute the same e Gathering information from the technical team by overcoming resistance to share information for this was perceived by them as time consuming and irrelevant e Working with existing inadequate and inconsistent documents Multiple documents existed for some procedures and some procedures were not documented e Completing the remaining activities in just three more weeks including authoring a comprehensive deployment manual as well as moving all the documents on to the Wiki Once we identified what we wanted to do there were multiple nother challenges to overcome to execute the same DIRECTIONS TechQaft Convincing the development teams that documenting the entire set of processes and providing them through one central repository would in time benefit their work The Benefits Having implemented the solution the benefits were Single point of reference
18. e of technical writing But to convince an employer of your ability you need to produce some technical materials for your portfolio Find an open source application such as WordPress org and write some tutorials for it Download Flare or RoboHelp or even just use Word and create some instructional content that demonstrates your ability Once you get started in your career keep learning Start a blog and focus it on technical communication You ll be surprised how your blog acts as a tool for professional development not only keeping you enthusiastic and engaged but also showing your expertise to others This interview was conducted by Rahul Prabhakar Once you get started in your career keep learning Start a blog and focus it on technical communication You ll be surprised how your blog acts as a tool for professional development not only keeping you enthusiastic and engaged but also showing your expertise to others A4 G trained to become a network engineer and have 5 years of industry experience behind me A good friend of mine told me about this fascinating world of technical communication and immediately took the plunge am only a few months old in this field and am presently freelancing to gain more experience intend to apply for a technical communicator job in a good software company once learn the ropes on my own The profession of technical writing appeals to me because it combines the two
19. ect Analyzing Requirements Evidently we had to do a ground up requirements study in the first 2 3 days of the 6 weeks We got to know that the client had numerous offices in the US and had to repeat the deployment of many applications from time to time These applications were developed by different teams and they were all deployed together at frequent intervals after upgrade DIRECTIONS lechen The process that was followed to deploy these applications was more people dependent so far Documents that were referred to during deployment were scattered across various servers and locations making find ability of documents a difficult task Again the deployment documents existed in various formats like Word Excel Visio and PowerPoint Some of the processes were not documented at all and static knowledge was available only with a few employees who were familiar with those processes In short initially we were to develop the Deployment Manual only in MS Word and that was to be placed at one location The Solution Having identified the issues and pain points that employees faced while authoring updating sharing and accessing the deployment documents we found the following specific solutions to each of these issues e Organize the existing documents and move them to one central repository e Identify missing documents gather requirements for these documents and author them e Map document owners to th
20. ective is hard to recapture G Impossible actually SPOTLIGHT Techn 6 That s rarely the case in a typical software development setup isn t it Where do you get the users of the product you are documenting think interaction with users is one of the most important and neglected aspects of technical writing am talking about software documentation but the same could apply for hardware as well In my environment have access to users Nevertheless do have to reach out to them contact them and set up times to do the observation don t do it as much as need to but when do it s always revealing Interacting with users always makes me realize a couple of things First need to include a lot more images than think because readers don t read they scan and they often scan while looking at the computer screen and the help Second make the instructions simpler than am inclined to Because readers scan and flip back and forth between the computer screen and my instructions they need instructions that are readily understandable If can lower the comprehension level to grade school level or something similar that s the way to go 7 Tell us about your work experience List the companies you have worked with to date As a technical writer have worked for three distinct companies Raymond James in Florida EMC in Dugway Utah a military contract and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Sain
21. elp and blogging podcasting am done with presentations for the time being However just recently accepted an invitation to present on the Top 10 Myths of Technical Writing at a professional writing conference for students at BYU Idaho Should be fun How was the response from the audience at both these places Good response for the sessions People get excited about social media The presentation on WordPress was more challenging because people have differing technical levels and interests My favorite however was my presentation on podcasting at the Summit and my blog panel at DocTrain Were you able to touch base with other podcasters at any of these events Yes am friends with Scott Nesbitt and Aaron Davis the guys who run the DMN Communications podcast am also friends with Rahel Bailie who is resurrecting The Malcontents podcast am telling you there aren t a lot of podcasters out there Oh wait forgot one Mark in Canada is a new podcaster He was at DocTrain but didn t get the chance to meet him Tell us something about your literary accomplishments as a writer I ve published a couple of articles in Intercom some obscure literary journals an article in Tieline and Techwr magazine but to be honest writing for publications is a bit boring get a much better response online with my blog For example spent a long time on my podcasting article in Intercom Only one person wrote in to
22. ents TechQaft DIRECTIONS Method Create topics on Wiki Method Advantages Disadvantages Create topics on Wiki with content All content available on the Wiki e Additional effort involved to taken from existing Word documents no need to maintain Word docu move content from existing ments documents e Easy to search and locate infor e Effort included administering mation access rights to control content e Version control provided by de updates fault e Limited formatting options avail e Graphics stored in a separate able options are limited by the location on the Wiki facilitating template global access e Strictly enforced templates thereby ensuring structure and consistency in format for future enhancements e Access to edit existing topics provided only to authorized per Method 2 Attach Word files to Wiki pages Method Advantages Disadvantages Provide access to individual Word e Documents accessible through e Embedded graphics in Word documents by attaching the files to a the Wiki documents increases file size topic on Wiki e Version control provided by the and requires individual file up Wiki dates to accommodate global changes Continued on the next page Method Create topics on Wiki and Method 2 Attach G p Word files to Wiki pages DIRECTIONS Method 2 Attach Word files to Wiki pages TechQaft Method Advantages
23. est MadCap Flare or WebWorks The virus which will link thousands of zombied Engineering Research Institute Wind Pepe Paranal i Fae ab Canada Since 2004 hes indows computers around the globe will quietly replace all computer hardware been a freelancer and only and software documentation with random fragments of text from the world s hard occasionally stops complaining drives moments before the documentation is FTP ed to the packager to be burned about his boss Geoff has worked primarily as a technical editor but also does technical writing and French translation world continues much as it formerly did onto the final distribution DVD or shipped to the printer for printing and binding leaving the original files intact so as to avoid detection Nobody notices and the He claims to have survived a few bouts of managing publications groups with only a minor need for ongoing P therapy Contact him by e mail at ghart videotron ca or geoffhart mac com Sty s A TechCraft THE MASTER SPEAKS 2 Microsoft fed up with the constant games of one upmanship buys Apple and fires everyone outside the user interface group In a surprise coup Steve Jobs uses his severance package to buy up all seats on Microsoft s Board of Directors fire everyone inside the user interface group and install himself as Chairman Within 2 years the rehired former Apple programming staff synergizing
24. for backwards compatibility TechCraft SPOTLIGHT Interview with Tom Johnson ial om Johnson writes a popular blog I d Rather Be Writing and also interviews technical writing luminaries for his podcast Tech Writer Voices He is a senior technical writer for the User Education team at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and is also a member of the Society for Technical Communication Intermountain Chapter in Salt Lake City Utah He is interested in combining social media with online help to change the way users experience and interact with help He can be reached at tomjohnson 492 gmail com Tell us something about your education Did you study to become a writer earned a BA in English at Brigham Young University in Utah then studied literary nonfiction at Columbia University s School of the Arts in New York City and earned an MFA originally wanted to become an essayist for a magazine of some kind When did you realize you were a writer at heart lm not sure remember writing a story in 7 grade and really enjoying it My father was on track for a PhD in English so he brought us up with a love of literature One evening he was reading excerpts from Paradise Lost to us and was nearly in tears He conveyed a passion for literature that was contagious In college worked as a writer for my alumni house also worked as a writing fellow tutor helping groups of students
25. he Expense Summary Are you telling a reader to go ahead and print the expense summary in which case the heading is fine but it is in imperative which brings us to point 4 below or are you trying to tell a reader how to print an expense summary Again consider the following sentence Printing the Expense Summary Are you printing the expense summary or the printer Do you want to say something about printing the expense summary 4 Avoid the pronoun you Be very clear which you you are referring to the casual you or the formal you and clearly mention to your translator which you is to be used In some languages even the formal you can be conjugated in more than one manner 5 Do not embed text in images Embedding text in images take that much more time to extract the source text from the image create a duplicate image minus the text and insert the translated text back into the image If you cannot avoid doing so be aware of the extra effort needed to localise the images gt If clarity requires a few more words use them IN FOCUS ido 6 Do not expect the translators to be familiar with all the content authoring tools You may have Vista equipped workstations that run Structured FrameMaker Your documents may be stored as XML modules But do not expect all translators to have all the software that your company uses or to be familiar with XML
26. hurch of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints has 13 million members spread out across the world in about as many countries as is possible Most people don t really consider the IT side of the organization but it is one of the coolest behind the scenes things about where work It s a unique environment that s somewhat hard to describe The camaraderie dedication and talent of my colleagues make me want to stay there forever Are you passionate about blogging and podcasting Yes have a blog at http idratherbewriting com where write about topics in technical communication also publish podcasts that are often interviews with technical writing luminaries discussions with other technical writers or my own musings What inspired you to become a part time podcaster There aren t many podcasters focused on technical communication Besides me you can go to DMN Communications and The Malcontents currently defunct but soon restarting first got into podcasting because was writing an article about podcasting for Intercom as part of the Trends issue and wanted to better understand what was writing about didn t feel could write about something had no personal experience with never intended to keep the podcast going as long as did gt I never intended to keep the podcast going as long as did Techhraft SPOTLIGHT Mainly there is just a huge gap in
27. indita was born and brought up in Allahabad She has lived in different Indian cities like Ranchi Delhi Mumbai and Bangalore her current abode where she earns her living as an information developer with IBM She has a masters in business administration and has been working since 1995 but it was only in 2006 that she became a full time technical communicator Her professional interests include DITA translations and etymology Her other interests include films music books and photography She maintains two blogs Refer to Blog and Blog 2 You can also contact her at ab techwriter gmail com IN FOCUS Words for All Nigella Feasts Is it Nigella who feasts upon the spread wondered or does it mean the feasts of Nigella No am not culinarily inclined just that Travel amp Living happens to be one of my frequently watched channels So when saw the caption Coming up next Nigella Feasts couldn t help but wonder what it was all about And even after watching the programme was none the wiser Is the programme so called because the feasts are created by Nigella since she was the one cooking or is it because Nigella herself feasts upon what she cooks Or both What does this have to do with technical communication you ll ask Well ever since I ve handled localisation projects have been kind of paranoid about ambiguities Translators keep getting back to me with questions want my translators t
28. is one of India s leading eNewsletters on technical writing It is our own way of communicating with the technical writing fraternity throughout the world In case you wish to submit an article for the upcoming issues email to rahulprabhakar msn com This forum reaffirms that we are because of your undying faith in us We sincerely hope that with each passing day you are able to associate with us in a better way Since this forum is growing by the day with new and experienced writers joining in from all walks of life more and more people will definitely be benefited by this enriching experience
29. ked depressed Upon inquiry he described his solitary occupation He increasingly felt left out by his team members most of whom were developers Recently his team won an award for the best project and as part of the felicitation a group photo was included in the company newsletter The problem was Arvind was not a part of that photo I have been proactive when it came to team tasks he said I helped my team members in every possible way often beyond the call of my duty In fact spent half my time doing tasks that weren t even reported or logged And they didn t bother to inform me a group photo was being arranged If this had happened just once would ve let it go by but time and again get a feeling that my team doesn t treat me as one of their own he lamented I am considering leaving the project and joining another team No point in working with people who don t even recognize your presence TechQaft LEGALLY BLAND I asked Arvind if he enjoyed his work to which he replied in the affirmative Your role as a technical communicator is to communicate effectively with the product stakeholders and the end users not to build interpersonal relationships Of course it s always a good thing if the latter happens but it shouldn t be a mandate you see At the end of the day everybody works for himself As long as you enjoy your work there isn t a need for you to step
30. kers in Mumbai get the highest median bonuses than those situated in different offices spanning other major Indian cities Hewlett Packard Co India Hewlett Packard has offices in Bangalore Chennai and New Delhi HP believes that extraordinary efforts merit their rewards They have special rewards and recognition programmes including cash awards to recognize exceptional contributors More details about these benefits are available here HP believes that extraordinary efforts merit their rewards They have special rewards and recognition programmes including cash awards to recognize exceptional contributors FROM THE EDITOR S DESK 3 Bd gt Bangalore 177 NPIS Iu o Chennai Madras 26 New Delhi 5 wot seosh ed MMM ss PayScale Median Bonus by City Employer Hewlett Packard Co India PayScale survey finding HP workers in New Delhi get the highest median bonuses than those situated in different offices spanning other major Indian cities Wipro Technologies Ltd India Wipro has offices in Bangalore Chennai Pune Hyderabad Mumbai Kolkata and New Delhi PayScale survey finding Wipro workers in Bangalore receive the highest median bonuses than those situated in different offices spanning other major Indian cities More details about these benefits are available here Wipro workers in Bangalore receive the highest median bonuses than those situated in differen
31. loves of my life reading and computers The reading bug bit me quite early in life love computer programming and am an amateur hacker My other interests include movies music and graphic designing tees p WRITER OF THE MONTH Name Swapnil Gupta Email Address geekyworld yahoo com Current Organization Not applicable work as a freelance technical writer Technical Writing Experience Have just completed my first project Awards and distinctions in technical writing None so far but hoping to bag a few in the years to come Are you proactive on TWI Do you read the group mails regularly Yes TWI has become a part of my life have learned a lot from this group and have made many good friends in the process Do you believe in community service How do you wish to contribute as a technical writer Yes do believe in community service try to share tips and tricks that have learned with other members My network engineering experience helps me to troubleshoot the problems faced by other members hope to use my technical knowledge to produce better documentation intend to invent a new help format that will have the pros of all existing formats but none of the cons TechQaft CONTRIBUTORS 1 Rahul Prabhakar e Chief Editor e Layout and Design e Graphics e Interview Coordinator 2 Mousumi Rao e Copy Editor 3 5umedh Nene e Co editor TechCraft is one of
32. met its financial targets In India this programme is slowly but surely catching up Take the classic example of the highest paid employee of Infosys in 2006 2007 TV Mohandas Pai director human resources Pai earned 58 263 Rs 2 297 240 the highest remuneration in Infosys per annum In addition to the salary Pai drew a fat bonus incentive of 117 336 Rs 4 626 530 with other annual compensation of 21 779 Rs 858 744 and received 15 287 Rs 602 705 accrued for long term benefits It seems more and more companies in India plan to offer variable cash incentive programmes to their workers to encourage them in achieving the company s financial and other performance objectives and to reward them for their achievements when those objectives are met Eventually it will be a win win proposition for both parties Disclaimer While efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided in the content shall not be held responsible for any loss caused to any person whatsoever who accesses or uses or is supplied with the content consisting of articles and information Rahul Prabhakar It seems more and more companies in India plan to offer variable cash incentive programmes to their workers to encourage them in achieving the company s financial and other performance objectives and to reward them for their achievements when those objectives are met his article is written by Anindita Basu An
33. n neglecting some basic things that need to focus on Like tracking finances getting more exercise spending more time with my kids going to bed earlier and so on think we can get carried away with our blog posts or online exchanges and forget the priorities of our lives The burnout feeling is a roller coaster Writer River is a social news site much like Digg You can submit links to articles and vote on articles that others submit As more people vote on articles they move from the Upcoming Stories tab to the Front Page You can sort the articles to see the most popular articles of the day week or year It s a better system than simply bookmarking the sites in your browser or marking them in your feedreader It allows you to discover new authors and it s fun to collaborate also want to showcase the bloggers Techhaft SPOTLIGHT 20 I try to post on my blog every couple of days But that s because have a goal to write and like writing Blogging gives me a creative space to publish my thoughts and interact with others Have you ever presented at technical writing learning sessions or annual conferences presented at DocTrain West 2008 on WordPress and Blogging At the STC Summit 2008 presented on marketing yourself on a Web 2 0 world and podcasting also gave a couple of presentations to local chapters on roughly the same topics integrating social media into your h
34. ng from the US 90 student teacher edition to the US 499 corporate edition which also includes a full install of Linux and the Linux version of Microsoft Office on the DVD Apple Microsoft stock plunges and OpenOffice joins the Fortune 100 5 And one final prediction since even pundits should be right once in a while In 2028 Microsoft Word will still be 4 unable to correctly number headings automatically will still not have a reliable Master Documents feature and in response to criticisms of the fragile ever changing doc file format will announce its universal file exchange format ASCII text which will of course be incompatible with everyone else s implementation of this file format Word s spellchecker will still not recognize standard plurals formed by adding an s at the end of nouns and menus will have been totally eliminated replaced by a new precognitive interface Apple Microsoft technical spokesman Steve Wozniak publicly admits that menus never were a good idea but had to be retained for backwards compatibility This article has been reprinted with permission from the author Previously published as Hart G 2008 Eschatological prognostications for the 2028 technical writing in dustry Intercom April 44 Geoff Hart Apple Microsoft technical spokesman Steve Wozniak publicly a r admits that menus never were a good idea but had to be gt retained
35. ng there listening to a tutorial on their new company s application it would be better delivered visually using Captivate or Camtasia However I ve found that podcasting is a skill that goes well with video tutorials use full motion recording and my own voice when create video tutorials Podcasting has given me a lot more confidence doing that Other companies hire out voice talent or stick only with text captions But when record video tutorials often don t have a pre written script that read gather my thoughts speak a few sentences pause gather my thoughts again and so forth can create a decent three minute video tutorial in two hours If were creating the tutorial through a voice talent using a script the same tutorial would take me two days Text captions are something I m not a fan of It takes a lot of time to correctly sync up the captions with each slide You either need Continue buttons or you have to guess how fast your readers read the captions I ve found that podcasting is a skill that goes well with video gt tutorials SPOTLIGHT TechQaft More importantly people connect more with the human voice once created a dozen caption based tutorials without voice and my program manager came back and asked if could create some video tutorials as if what I d delivered weren t video tutorials at all think so often we are afraid to just be our human selves wi
36. nge the buttons and captions in such a manner that expansion and contraction of text is taken care of You may have Vista equipped workstations that run Structured FrameMaker Your documents may be stored as XML modules But do not expect all translators to have all the software that your company uses or to be familiar with XML and HTML tags TechQraft IN FOCUS 9 Be available to answer queries This is the equivalent of reaching out to a virtual team Your translators are not subject matter experts They may often stumble upon words and phrases that are not clear to them Budget for time zone differences and let the translators know when they can expect a response to their queries Remember that translators are as much pressurised by deadlines as you are and their output is directly dependent on the feedback they get from you Writing for a global readership is a topic that has more facets than those mentioned in this write up but these simple guidelines go a long way in taking us on the path of speaking to the world Anindita Basu Writing for a global readership is a topic that has more facets than those mentioned in this write up but these simple guidelines go a long way in taking us on the path of speaking G No the world TechCraft Madhavi Manne his article is co written by Yamini Nafde and Madhavi Manne amini Nafde works as a Technical Writing Manager at Avaya India Pune She was
37. o spend their time translating instead of waiting for my response sometimes time zones away which was why this article came about In this write up l Il jot down what to do and what not to do while developing in English documents such as user manuals and online help files Which begs the question why should I the writer bother am well versed with the English language document the product well and cannot be expected to know or deal with what happens after the document is accepted by Quality a TechQaft IN FOCUS Consider the following The openness of trade and business across the world has resulted in a globally synchronised market where simship is more the norm than the exception Most big business houses such as Microsoft and IBM report that a substantial portion of their earnings is through overseas sales 2 The laws of several countries like France and Russia require the documents of products sold in that country to be in the country s official language 3 Almost 85 per cent of user documentation and 52 per cent of software is localised into languages other than English Refer to The Globalization Primer of LISA at the LISA website www lisa org As a direct corollary there might be a need to translate your English documents into other languages The tips in this write up helps you in developing the content for translation and managing the translation Write short sentences
38. oney blogging but are also blogging celebrities Their influence is huge much larger than with some print publications and think they have a lot of fun G doing it A good blog post is often just a personal essay SPOTLIGHT 24 TechQaft also read Intercom glance at the Technical Communication Journal and browse some other online content One of my favorite books is Malcolm Gladwell s Blink also liked Krug s Don t Make Me Think thought Managing Enterprise Content was twice as long as it needed to be In other genres Authentic Happiness is an excellent read as is Kerouc s On the Road But my favorite genre is the personal essay which includes writers such as Joseph Epstein and Phillip Lopate Finally any words of wisdom for fledgling technical communicators If you re just starting out it can be overwhelming what you re expected to know recommend that every writer learn at least three tools a help authoring tool such as Flare a graphics tool such as Snaglt and a video capture tool such as Camtasia If you can master these three tools you ll be able to produce the core help deliverables online help printed manuals and video tutorials One Catch 22 about technical writing is that you re expected to have experience in technical writing before you get your first job as a technical writer That s a little silly in my opinion If you re a decent writer you can learn the styl
39. out retorted Technical communicators are perhaps the only people in a project other than project managers who interact with the entire team This interaction usually happens as one to many more so if you are the lone writer in a team If you are working closely with the same bunch of people for a long time you are bound to see their faces for as long as it is required to get the work out of sight Naturally it gets worse if those people do not speak the same language as yours To avoid disappointments as in the case of Arvind here are some quick pointers Do not let your interpersonal relations with peers influence or affect your work Keep friendships and animosities at bay while deciding upon your priorities at work 2 Ifyou need to perform any other official chores apart from those that are assigned to you choose the ones that would add to your learning curve 3 Make sure that all the tasks accomplished beyond the call of your duty are duly reported Also log the time spent on these tasks This helps during the performance appraisals and salary negotiations 4 Never allow others to take you for granted Create awareness about technical communication as a profession within your company Request product stakeholders to consult you before they decide on any critical milestones and delivery dates related to internal or external documentation Get rid of the dependency The more you depend on developers for
40. podcasting for technical communication topics don t have impressive audio talent in my opinion but it s a fun side hobby The tech comm audience is too small to do much with unfortunately get 200 600 downloads per podcast but the big shows like This Week in Tech Boagworld or Diggnation get thousands of downloads Do you think podcasting works well for knowledge dissemination I think it does but there are two problems First many people don t know how to listen to podcasts and second the instruction has to be conceptual If you try to teach someone nitty gritty technical how to it won t work To be honest have not implemented podcasts as part of my help deliverables at work because don t think my audience would know how to absorb the material But may be underestimating them do intend to create some podcasts have a product blog that recently started It s integrated with my help If more users actually used help could provide more feedback about the results of the blog How do you envision podcasts becoming as an end user deliverable I m not sure Here s one problem with podcasts If you re creating a help podcast for software that company employees use how likely are they to listen to it outside of work hours If you re creating help for a web application used by people outside of work sure the appeal is there But think employees are 8 5 p m workers If they re going to be sitti
41. s in New Delhi get the highest median bonuses than those situated in different offices spanning other major Indian cities More information and region wise benefits available here Infosys workers in New Delhi get the highest median bonuses than those situated in different offices spanning other major Indian cities FROM THE EDITOR S DESK Bangalore 231 Aey G ayes Pune 56 Duy Chennai Madras 47 Hyderabad 45 SACd MAMMA D Mumbai Bombay 20 yajej ey New Delhi 11 uk Delhi 7 t PayScale 0 10 000 20 000 30 000 40 000 50 000 60 000 70 000 80 000 Median Bonus by City Employer Infosys India Bonus Trends During my research on this article interviewed people from different walks of life Some responses were startling to say the least For instance Venkateswara S lyer Staff Documentation Writer at Eclipsys India Pvt Ltd Vadodara said My company does not have a bonus programme do not have any idea about the sales marketing section of my company The company that pays the hottest bonuses in India grossly varies but think BPOs such as EXL and Genpact will lead the pack Sales and marketing professionals normally get the best and highest bonuses across the industries sectors even today The next category in this segment are HR recruiters The insurance telecom and FMCG sectors offer high bonuses incentives Many companies have replaced bonuses with in
42. st World War when a few textile mills G granted 10 per cent of wages to their workers as war bonus TechQaft FROM THE EDITOR S DESK Every year Accenture conducts a market benchmarking study to understand the trends and look at the global strategies to design a suitable Total Rewards Strategy The aim is to provide a competitive rewards package for all employees that not only motivates but also retains and attracts the best and the brightest people More details about this programme are available here Accenture has offices in Bangalore Mumbai Chennai New Delhi Hyderabad Gurgaon and Pune d a Bangalore 148 SIPISAP Mumbai Bombay 44 DUT Chennai Madras 25 ay Dethi 17 Hyderabad 16 yBlessAed MMM New Dethi 11 wo Pune 9 Median Bonus by City Employer Accenture India PayScale survey finding Accenture workers in New Delhi receive the highest median bonus than those situated in different offices spanning other major Indian cities Oracle Corp India Oracle has offices in Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Mumbai and Delhi Accenture workers in New Delhi receive the highest median bonus than those situated in different offices spanning other major Indian cities FROM THE EDITOR S DESK d Bangalore 175 IJLIS E Hyderabad 72 syt Chennai Madras 5 Mumbai Bombay 4 eoshed mmh Delhi Suppressed to protect priva
43. t offices spanning other major Indian cities FROM THE EDITOR S Bangalore 159 faeoshey Chennai Madras 45 Pune 34 Hyderabad 32 Aed MMA D DUT Mumbai Bombay 22 woo aje9s Kolkata Calcutta 11 New Delhi 10 3 PayScale 5 000 10 000 15 000 20 000 25 000 30 000 35 000 Median Bonus by City Employer Wipro Technologies Ltd India IBM Corp India International Business Machines Corp India has offices in Bangalore Pune Kolkata Gurgaon Hyderabad New Delhi and Mumbai IBM compensation and benefits figure among the best in the industry More details about these benefits are available here PayScale survey finding IBM workers in New Delhi get the highest median bonuses than those situated in different offices spanning other major Indian cities IBM workers in New Delhi get the highest median bonuses than those situated in different offices spanning oe other major Indian cities FROM THE EDITOR S DESK Bangalore 270 eosed G Pune 55 Kolkata Calcutta 50 AM Du Gurgaon 24 Aed san S Hyderabad 20 Wo s e9 New Delhi 18 Mumbai Bombay 17 710 000 20 000 30 000 40 000 50 000 60 000 70 000 Median Bonus by City Employer International Business Machines IBM Corp India 7 Infosys India Infosys has offices in Bangalore Pune Chennai Hyderabad and New Delhi PayScale survey finding Infosys worker
44. th video tutorials People aren t concerned if you don t have a radio broadcaster s voice They just want to learn how to do a specific task Tell us about your newly launched website Writer River is a social news site much like Digg You can submit links to articles and vote on articles that others submit As more people vote on articles they move from the Upcoming Stories tab to the Front Page You can sort the articles to see the most popular articles of the day week or year It s a better system than simply bookmarking the sites in your browser or marking them in your feedreader It allows you to discover new authors and it s fun to collaborate also want to showcase the bloggers How did the idea of a social news site for technical communicators come to mind Who is involved with this site wanted to try something different I m not entirely sure how came up with the idea but there are a lot of Digg clones out there used Pligg to make the site It was easy to be honest About 100 people have joined the site so far am the only administrator of the site think that if it were to become a heavily used site by technical communicators it could gather readership that will compete with other publications How do you intend to get the site going especially with a daytime job Maintaining the site is not difficult at all except for the occasional spam posts But this morning realized that I ve bee
45. their inputs the more they ll tend to ignore you Learn the ropes to succeed as a technical communicator Get rid of the dependency The more you depend on developers for their inputs the more they ll tend to ignore you gt Learn the ropes to succeed as a technical communicator Techhraft LEGALLY BLAND 6 Be proficient in the application you are documenting Reserve the trickier questions for SMEs This will not only make your documentation look more comprehensive but will also help you win respect of the SMEs Do not be content with documenting just the user interface Dig deep into the software architecture Look at code if you can Understand how the backend works and how the different systems in a complex network work in tandem Walk a step further and understand the business logic Try to deliver more than what is expected of you If the Software Requirement Specification SRS specifies that only Installation Manual and User Manual are required to be delivered in the documentation suite see if you can come up with a short training manual as well Finally do not become a jack of all trades but a master of your own craft Technical communication requires as much skill and talent as any other profession Be proud of what you do and make sure that others realize the value you add to the project If the team ends up liking you consider that as the topping on the cake Needless to say do not forgo the cake i
46. ts in Salt Lake City Utah Like others did not start out doing technical writing taught English in Japan writing in Egypt and then worked as a copywriter in Florida 8 Describe a typical day at work for you _ work in a unique environment right now Our group has an open floor which means no cubicles sit next to an interaction designer a quality assurance engineer and a lead programmer My main task is to create the help deliverables that users need so create quick reference guides online help and video tutorials get to define the formats and the styles Right now although work for a huge organization the IT department s technical publications group called User I think interaction with users is one of the most important and neglected aspects of technical writing am talking about software documentation but the same could apply for G hardware as well SPOTLIGHT TechQaft Education is still defining its best practices so get to be part of that process We have a team of four technical writers but numerous other groups function outside our department In addition to creating help materials also log bugs in the JIRA tracking system for quality assurance relay feedback from users to product management give my advice on features and user interface design and provide training to new users Tell us about your present company My organization The C
47. tself Gautam Soman Be proficient in the application you are documenting Reserve the trickier questions for SMEs This will not only make your documentation look more comprehensive but will also help G yo win respect of the SMEs TechQraft THE MASTER SPEAKS Eschatological Prognostications for the 2028 Technical Writing Industry Every time grow smug about my understanding of our work take steps to correct the problem before someone less enamored of me than am has a chance to do so In the spirit of learned humility therefore descend into the rut well trodden by his article is written by generations of pundits before me and speculate upon the future of our profession Geoff Hart Geoff has reputedly been telling tales sometimes ending up in considerable trouble thereby only predict our future for the next two decades thereby ensuring lII still be around Having learned the lesson of previous eschatologists throughout history none of whom survived long enough to be mocked for their predictions l Il stay closer to home and since he was 6 but took nearly to learn wisdom from my inevitable comeuppance 25 years to realize that he could earn a living at this trade Since 1987 he s worked for l A technical writing computer virus created in an anonymous developing nation IBM the Canadian Forest infects only computers that contain a copy of Word FrameMaker RoboHelp Service and the For
48. write essays Later taught composition in graduate school and then English in Japan and writing at the American University in Cairo Egypt However eventually realized that teaching was a career that was going nowhere wanted to write more than grade others writing That s when veered into professional writing TechQaft SPOTLIGHT 3 How did you secure your first gig as a technical communicator worked as a copywriter for a health and nutrition company for six months and then decided to go into technical writing at the encouragement of a friend who said l d be a perfect fit for it Even though was creating websites from scratch for my classes never realized that had a passion for technology as well as writing Merging the two turned out to be ideal didn t have any experience as a technical writer so to get my first job downloaded RoboHelp and made a sample help file also had an article on protein l d written as a copywriter that impressed my hiring manager who had a PhD in Biology That was enough to get me in the door 4 What challenges did you face as a fledgling technical communicator As a new technical writer had a hard time dumbing down my documentation to the lowest user level remember one time a senior writer explained had to write step by step instructions on how to print something and thought that was ridiculous By and large think it s hard to keep the user
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