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When UX and information development partner together, the result is a stronger, richer product experience because content is an important part of that experience.

You’ve probably heard about Acrolinx and Schematron for evaluating content for style and grammar. These tools work well for structured content, but what about API documentation that is outside of your control? Can you still provide feedback to engineers and developers to ensure that they follow corporate writing guidelines? You can apply your same style and grammar rules using the Vale linter, which works on API documentation formats, such as Markdown.

At VMware, we needed to know whether our content met user needs, what was missing, and what we should change. We ran simple to complex usability tests, which enabled us to gather data, recommend best practices, iterate, and create educational materials that support our writers to do it too. We discovered that we can improve the user experience! Discover what your users think by testing your content! To learn more, this article is for you!

There is a lot of confusion about how difficult writing in DITA can be and this article’s goal is to clarify the challenges for information developers and technical writers alike. It is part 1 of 3 on learning how to author in DITA which focuses on Learning reinforcing best practices and highlighting unconscious practices and knowledge the authors are already familiar with.

GitHub has many uses but there are limitations - this webinar will introduce some work arounds and help you identify when it might be time to consider a fully functioning CCMS (Component Management System).

Before you proceed, think about how the conversion could help you derive the benefits of DITA that you expect.

In this presentation, we will explore a few collaboration scenarios that show how to implement continuous improvement loops for published documentation, how to integrate documentation as part of the product development workflow, and how immediate collaboration can take place.

Three things which will increase the value of your content strategy--articulating how your vision will accomplish your specific goals and ultimately save money for your company, creating a set of compelling slides tailored to your stakeholder audiences, especially upper management, and using the terminology of your organization's mission statements to frame the discussion.

In this presentation, Stefan Gentz will give insights from the Adobe Technical Communication Worldwide Survey 2019/2020. TechComm professionals from 60 countries participated in the survey. He will discuss the driving factors for enterprises around the world when it comes to technical communication.

Jim will begin with an overview of the localization process, of how content flows across systems and organizations. In this context, we will discuss techniques and also wins and pitfalls in automating and streamlining the localization process.

A recap of the BOTI 2019 Conference including comments from the attendees and highlights of the presentations.

We will analyze a working Docs as Code setup that will be freely available on GitHub afterward so attendees will be able to fork it, work with it, gain a deeper understanding and apply these concepts into their own documentation projects.

A step by step guide to getting started with Schematron and Schematron Quick Fixes.

In this webinar, Sabine Ocker discusses some top hidden costs and provide insights on how to identify, plan for, and mitigate the impact of common examples such as changes to project scope, lack of appropriate standards, and content conversions.

How people learn and consume information is swiftly changing and we, as technical communicators, must adapt. This article explores changes over the past decade in how people live and think, how these changes impact our role as technical communicators, and how UX and a modernized approach to content can help us thrive in this new world.

Implementing DITA with a small team of technical writers does not have to be expensive or difficult to set up.

Digital Natives have fundamentally different content requirements and preferences than digital immigrants. In order to be able to meet those needs, Technical Communications organizations must gain deeper understanding of user preferences such as visual learning, user generated text, and mobile device access via multiple first hand feedback mechanisms.

A tribute to Marie-Louise Flacke, a Comtech colleague from Lannion, France passed away on January 16, 2020.

We are still waiting for the chatbot revolution in technical product documentation. Breaking down enterprise content silos and challenges with discovering user intents may be two reasons why chatbots are not ubiquitous yet.

Engineering teams focus hard on the quality of their release. Writing teams work hard on their documentation. But release notes never seemed to get the same level of attention from either group. When workspace ONE UEM team made the extra effort to communicate the value and customer impact of new features, in plain language and in multimedia, customers were happier! Don’t sell yourself short with boring release notes.

A look at the Taxonomy Trends based on data from our CIDM Member Annual Survey.

Technical writers and content strategists don’t always work with their company’s UX team. This article describes how one company’s UA team works hand-in-hand with UX, details the processes and procedures they follow and lists the associated pros and cons of the working relationship.

How do you measure the effectiveness and success of your documentation? This article includes concrete examples on how to collect actionable data, get buy-in from other departments, and become a data-driven documentation team.

Adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" (with apologies to Dickens) - Scrooge, a technical writer, is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.

In this webinar Bluestream will show how advanced integration with oXygen Author and Editor throughout the content lifecycle can greatly help everyone involved in creating content.

Suyog Ketkar reckons that we, technical communicators, refer the users, customers, and consumers by but one name: the seeker. He explores the core purpose of technical communication through the notes that he took during a coffee-table conversation and joins the dots to match up to the seekers' requirements

There are known costs associated with converting source content to DITA. This article delves into costs that may not be identified at the onset of the conversion project, namely additional writer and other team member cycles.

Did you know there are many free resources to help with your DITA adoption, including sample DITA content that you can download and use today?

An overview of accessibility and the importance of accessible content, reasons for stakeholders to buy in, and 5 general areas you can tackle to make your content more accessible right now.

Using a methodology called Flawless Execution, VMware describes how they define for product teams what exactly is quality documentation for the administrators, developers, and end-users who work on our complex enterprise software products.

Tips on how to have an outside-in perspective for understanding your organization's customer experience.

Whether you are looking to adopt cCMS for the first time or you’ve been using one for years, there are ways to ensure your system is optimized for success. View this webinar and find out what your plan should include.

In this webinar, Bernard Aschwanden, will take you through 10 ways in which DITA can help drive unified content strategy.

A look at how Tech-Comm users stories differ from developer user stories.

Recap of the 2019 Best Practices Conference about metrics, including keynote and presentation highlights, and attendee feedback and take-aways.

Guidelines for getting started with implementing Schematron rules and DTD constraints and how to choose the right tool for the right job in your implementation.

Inspired by the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter books, Dawn explains how we as technical communicators must create user personas and use them as a guide for the content we include, the tone and style we take, the delivery mechanisms we employ, and even the way we define quality.