Facttactic
Corporate and technical writers
Our technical writing services now live on their own website. The site has the very original name of www.technical-writer.co.nz!
The aim of www.technical-writer.co.nz is just to give our technical writing services their own identity. They’re a very important part of what we do but very different from our PR activities.
If you’re in Wellington (or anywhere in New Zealand, for that matter), check out our new website, or even visit our original technical writing web page.
Ever struggled with how to best structure your writing? Here are some style guides that may be useful. Some are free online tools; some are available to purchase online.
(Dear readers, this list was updated in April 2014, June 2015, August 2017, April 2018, May 2021)
The contents of this page have been moved to the Facttactic technical writer website here.
Congrats to the organisers of the TCANZ conference for 2010 … great speakers, good turnout, comfy, well-serviced venue and interesting discussions.
Read a summary of each of the main talks here under ‘Recent Posts’.
The write-ups come from Sarah Maddox, a tech writer from Atlassian in Sydney and one of the speakers at the event, who blogged her way through the two days as the rest of us sat and listened to the speakers. Thanks, Sarah, for getting it all down for the record and for access to some really useful tech writer resources.
(Note: if you’re reading this post some time in the future [!], the posts will likely have moved on from ‘Recent Posts’ — search for “TCANZ” in Sarah’s blog ‘ffeathers’. All the conference posts are tagged.)
The world’s oldest profession has long been a euphemism for a very particular job but now a London researcher has found that technical writing is right up there, having traced the history of the user manual to a 4BC Babylonian clay tablet that details a step-by-step “guide to inducing dreams”.
And … not quite so old, but full of contemporary history, this Wired photo essay of classic instruction manuals from the 1960s is a good read, especially if you are looking for the air-con on a spy plane or the start button on a nuclear power plant.
I’ve found a pen that records and remembers what it writes and also records sounds and then links the recordings to the words that were being written at the time … when I first read about it I was blown away by the concept.
We don’t generally use this blog for product promotion, but as a writer and a regular interviewer who needs to record conversations, the Livescribe pen is one very cool piece of high-tech equipment.
But at $500 I won’t be buying one. Why? Well, when I can buy a full-spec computer for less than twice the price and a good quality digital voice recorder for well under half the price, I can’t see the value in that price point. If I could I would snap one up because it’s a neat toy, but unless the price drops a bit below its new-technology price, I’ll be sticking to my trusty blue biros and my hard-working, hard-wearing voice recorder.
Last week we talked about one of the icons of modern technical communication design — the London tube map — and how its simplicity and readability was key to its success. Thanks to a reader for this week pointing us towards the Londonist and its take on an even more pared back approach to a pared back approach!
