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The Newsletter for technical authors, technical illustrators and information designersThis Newsletter is posted at www.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php 1© ISTC December 2004
IISSTTCC NNeewwsslleetttteerr December 2004
The ISTC is the United Kingdom’s professionalassociation for technical authors, technical illustrators,and information designers.
ISTC Office: PO Box 522, Peterborough, pe2 5wx. Tel: 01733 390141. E-mail: [email protected]: www.istc.org.uk
This monthly Newsletter is e-mailed to about 1500 people.As well as ISTC news, the Newsletter aims to coveranything of interest to the profession. To subscribe,contact the Office.
Advertising: Felicity Davie or phone 01344 466600.Editorial: Newsletter Editor. Letters: Letters Editor.Events: Events Editor.
If you’re reading a printed copy of this newsletter, go towww.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php and open it online to explore the links mentioned.
For all e-mail addresses given in the Newsletter, don’t forgetto remove the bonus amphibian before e-mailing.
In this issue:In this issue:In this issue:In this issue:In this issue:In this issue: ISTC newsMike Austin and John Crossley
It is with great sadness that we have toannounce the death of two long-standing andhighly respected members of the ISTC.
Mike Austin, a distinguished technical authorand Publications and Publicity Officer, and aformer vice-president of the ISTC, passed awayin September 2004, and John Crossley, an ISTCCouncil member until two years ago, passedaway in October 2004. Our thoughts are withthe families and friends of both of them.
In honour of all that Mike did for the ISTC, theaward for services to the ISTC will be renamedas the Mike Austin award for outstandingservice to the ISTC. Further details will bepublished on the ISTC website in due course.
Full obituaries will be published in the WinterCommunicator.
ISTC Conference 2005
The dates of next year’s Conference have hadto be rearranged and it will now be taking placeon 23–25 September 2005 and not in Octoberas previously published.
ISTC office
A reminder that the office will be closed from2–7 December (inclusive).
Links in the Newsletter
As you might have noticed, the Newsletter isnow produced using visible rather thanembedded links. This started out as a wayaround the difficulty of getting links from Wordinto Quark Xpress for Mac, in which theNewsletter is now produced; but along the wayI was advised that some people actually findvisible links more useful, so I decided to keepthem rather than re-embed them.
As some links are quite lengthy, however, theNewsletter will sometimes be using tinyURL(http://tinyurl.com/) or Make A Shorter Link(http://masl.to/).
As their names suggest, they both offer a shortlink that redirects you to the longer actual link.For instance, the streetmap.co.uk URL of amap where you live can be reduced from, say,124 characters to a 24-character one that canbe easily e-mailed. Both services say theirredirects will last indefinitely.
Make A Shorter Link is looking for volunteersto help localise it into more languages.
Communicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2Internet news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3Annual Distinguished Lecture . . . . . . . . . . . . .4SfEP news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4ISTC Conference 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Why bother with gender-neutral writing? . . . .6Manual for dyslexia sufferers . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7General news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8Members’ news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8New software releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9Training courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11The back page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
In this issue:
CommunicatorReport by Marian Newell
Editorial calendar for 2005
This time of year always sees a flurry ofmessages from media directories and pressagents, asking about plans for the coming yearin Communicator. It’s a bonus if we can givepotential contributors and advertisers someidea of what we expect to carry in each issue.Planning in advance also enables me to offer abetter balance of content.
So far, Spring 2005 is about 50% booked and I have a few items booked in each of the otherthree issues. If you would like to write for us,please download our template and guidelinesfrom: www.istc.org.uk/pages/journals.php.
These will tell you most of what you need to knowabout writing for Communicator. When youhave decided what to write about, please sendme a synopsis at: [email protected].
I can then let you know how it fits with othercontent already lined up. All being well, we canagree what form the article will take and thedeadline by which you will submit copy.
Topics on which I would like more articlesinclude: managing documentation projects,methods for improving one’s writing anddocument design skills, trends in documentproduction, usability testing, and academicresearch in any relevant field.
No time to rest on laurelsIt is vitally important for us to enlarge ISTCmembership and Communicator circulation.Council has placed the highest priority onmarketing the Institute in 2005.
I have two requests for Communicator circulation:
• If you receive the Newsletter but do not yetread Communicator, please consider carefullywhether a subscription or ISTC membershipmight be useful to you.
• If you already read Communicator, pleaseconsider whether you can identify anyone elsefor whom it should hold interest. I will beglad to send sample issues to contacts orlarger stocks for events.
A very kind offerRalph Maciejewski, a delegate and speaker atConference, has very kindly offered to scan LesBest’s Communicator library. The collection goesback almost to the birth of the journal and wehope to make the digital versions available fromthe ISTC website, complementing the existingarchive that starts with the new look launchedin Spring 2001.
Some past content will still be useful forreference purposes and the collection is evenmore valuable as a record of ISTC activitiesover the years. In the future, anyone will easilybe able to check what has been done in thepast, without needing access to physicalrecords that may be stored elsewhere.
Coming in Winter 2004INTECOMMARGERY WATSONUniting technical communicators globally
Disks ’n’ docsRALPH MACIEJEWSKIPreserving our digital heritage
A testing timeNICK ROBSONExtending the role of technical author
Does usability have to be so complicated?JODY BYRNETaking first steps towards improved usability
A Visio kit for the sales forceVIV MITCHELLCreating stencils for use in various documents
Autodesk Inventor Series 9BRIAN WHITEImproving drawing output in record time
Golden rules of online Help designMATTHEW ELLISONGuiding principles for a better help system
Doc-To-Help Professional 7.2JUSTIN DARLEYPutting the latest version through its paces
AECMA Simplified EnglishMIKE UNWALLAGiving a brief overview of this specification
The writing process: evaluationDAMIEN BRANIFFGathering reactions to your documentation
Finding FrameMaker’s featuresJANE DARDSLaunching a new series about this popular tool
The Newsletter for technical authors, technical illustrators and information designersThis Newsletter is posted at www.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php 2© ISTC December 2004 222
Internet news
WHATWHAT (Web Hypertext Application TechnologyWorking Group) describes itself as a “looseunofficial collaboration of Web browsermanufacturers and interested parties who wishto develop new technologies designed to allow[software] authors to write and deployapplications over the World Wide Web”.Ultimately, many everyday applications couldbe available from within a browser. The groupis currently working on four projects that, whenfinalised, will be submitted to the W3C.WHAT’s Ian Hickson writes, “While thedecision to operate independently of the W3Cmay be seen as controversial, many feel thatformal standards bodies move too slowly toreact to proprietary technologies such asMicrosoft’s forthcoming XAML.” You can findout more at www.whatwg.org/.
Firefox 1.0 releasedOpen-source browser Firefox was launched on9 November. It is available for the Windows,Mac, and Linux platforms in 23 languagevariants, with another 6 in the pipeline. UK readers will be pleased to know that theseinclude English (British), though the BritishFirefox Start page currently points towww.google.com rather than www.google.co.uk.
The browser’s features include pop-upblocking, better security through notdownloading harmful ActiveX controls, livebookmarks, and tabbed browsing. See theirnews release (www.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-2004-11-09.html) for more.
You can download Firefox for free from(www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/). If yoursettings are correct, then the appropriatelanguage and platform will be offered to you bydefault; otherwise, you can easily find the rightone. You can also purchase a CD andguidebook for $14.95 USD. It is doubtless alsoavailable on CDs distributed with retailcomputing magazines. Since the launch, aboutsix million downloads have been recorded fromthe official site.
BrowserCamIf you’ve developed a page and want to checkhow it will appear to different users, thenBrowserCam (www.browsercam.com/) mightbe your solution. You send them a URL andthey send back screen captures of the pageviewed under different conditions. Theysupport “virtually every version” of six browsers – AOL, IE, Konqueror, Mozilla,Netscape, Opera, and Safari – and threeoperating systems – Linux, Mac, and Windows(98, 2000 and XP). They also provide capturesthat reflect whether or not Flash might beloaded on someone’s machine.
You can also have their crawlers capture up to100 pages from your site. A new service allowsyou to use their machines remotely. This costs$10 USD per hour for occasional use:unlimited use costs $39.95 per month or$479.40 per year.
An eight-hour free trial is available of thescreen capture service.
If you’re after web design work, then runningyour potential client’s site through BrowserCammight be one way of getting some ideas topitch to them.
If, like the author, you’ve never heard ofKonqueror before, it’s a browser for the KDEdesktop environment for Linux and Unix: youcan find out more at www.konqueror.org/.Version 3.3 was released in August.
The Newsletter for technical authors, technical illustrators and information designersThis Newsletter is posted at www.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php 3© ISTC December 2004
“Save British Science”Annual DistinguishedLectureReport by Alan Fisk
The 2004 lecture was delivered on 18 Novemberat University College, London, by the Rt. Hon.Chris Patten, former Cabinet Minister andEuropean Commissioner, and currently Chancellorof both Oxford and Newcastle Universities.
The title was “Research – the European Challenge”.Although media reports of the lectureconcentrated on Mr. Patten’s defence of scientificresearch against violence by extremist groups,in fact most of it was devoted to describing thecollapse in funding for scientific research bothin the UK and in the European Union.
Mr. Patten unconsciously revealed a kinship withtechnical communicators when, in reviewing hisrecord as a Minister and a Commissioner, hesaid that he had had to explain the views ofscientists in layman’s terms to a wider audience.
Keeping to his theme of a European perspective,Mr. Patten said that three-quarters of EuropeanPh.D students in the United States now preferredto stay there, up from 15 per cent in the early1990s. This is because of much more restrictedopportunities for research in Europe. There is arapidly-growing gap in funding on research anddevelopment between Europe and the UnitedStates. This gap has doubled in the past 10 years.
Mr. Patten expressed the worry thatunderfunded research groups, forced more andmore to approach private organisations to payfor research, may become less rigorous inapplying ethical conditions to their sponsorsbecause of their desperation to obtain funding.(At the buffet after the lecture, one microbiologistspoke to me and described how even excellentresearch proposals were now routinely beingturned down for lack of funding, which he saidhad not been the case 10 years ago.)
The Sapir Report to the European Union in2003 recommended that the EU spend less onagriculture and more on R&D, but Mr. Pattenadvised us not to hold our breath waiting forsuch a change in policy to happen.
It is not only funding that is crippling researchin Europe. There is still a long way to go in themutual recognition of different countries’qualifications, and also in developing acommon patent system. The lack of a Europe-wide patent means that it costs four to fivetimes as much to protect intellectual propertyrights in Europe as it does in the United States.
Proposals have been made for a EuropeanResearch Council and a European ScienceAgency, but Mr. Patten felt that creating a newspending agency would be less effective thancreating 10 to 20 centres of excellence inexisting universities.
You can find out more about Save BritishScience at their website:www.savebritishscience.org.uk
SfEP newsThe Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP)is pleased to announce that Penny Williamshas taken over from Naomi Laredo as Chair.Penny took office on 12 September 2004,following the SfEP’s AGM. She has been afreelance copy-editor and proofreader for 19 years and a member of the SfEP for overnine years. She has served on the SfEP Councilfor several years, some of them as PR Director.
The SfEP works to promote high editorialstandards and achieve recognition of theprofessional status of its members, somethingthat Penny feels strongly about. She says:“During my term of office I hope to build on thework done over the past five years to raise theprofile of the Society among traditional and non-traditional publishers. I also want to expand ourmembership by making the SfEP the professionalsociety in the UK to which all experienced andaspiring editors and proofreaders belong.”
In another development, Professor David Crystalwill become the SfEP’s first Vice-President.Professor Crystal said in his address to the SfEPannual conference in September: “I intend to loseno opportunity to inform people about the workof the Society – and also about the workers withinthe Society, for there is no doubt in my mind thatwhat you do – what we do – is hard, essential,professional work, largely unrecognised until itis not done well. Then they moan.”
For further information about the SfEP, visitwww.sfep.org.uk.
The Newsletter for technical authors, technical illustrators and information designersThis Newsletter is posted at www.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php 4© ISTC December 2004
ISTC Conference 2004Report by Gavin Ireland
The ISTC annual Conference 2004 (Expandingyour Horizons) was held at the Oxford BelfryHotel from 8–10 October.
This is the third year that we’ve held theconference in a top hotel with relaxing andpleasant surroundings. From an organisers’point of view, there are always a few minorhiccups, but apart from that all went well. The number of delegates, speakers andexhibitors was encouraging and the hotel staffand food were very nice indeed.
Although I didn’t get to see as manypresentations as I would have liked, the onesthat I did see were very well presented and veryinteresting. The addition of an indexingworkshop this year provided more detailedinformation and learning opportunity than theusual 50-minute slot and seemed to bepopular.
The keynote speaker, Julian Murfitt, gave a veryentertaining and relevant view of the themeExpanding your Horizons‚ which went down verywell.
The award ceremonies went well, with theHorace Hockley award for considerablecontribution to the technical publicationsindustry being awarded to Richard Hodgkinsonfor his work on British and Internationalstandards. The new award for outstanding
service to the ISTC was made to Iain Wright forhis outstanding work during his time asPresident of the ISTC.
It’s difficult to demonstrate in words just howinformal, friendly and relaxed the atmosphereis at an ISTC Conference, but it really is a goodplace to meet new people and it’s not just an“old boys’ club”‚ with the same old facesgetting together once a year. Myself and theother council members present make a pointof trying to ensure that no-one is left out;however, we don’t have a lot to do in thatrespect as the rest of the delegates are doing itwithout realising it.
To look forward, we hope to have at least onedifferent workshop next year to continue fromthe success of the indexing workshop andwe’re looking into other things we can do toimprove the Conference. It will be held from23–25 September 2005 at the Royal CourtHotel, Coventry, which is as impressive alocation as ever, but we’ve also managed toreduce the costs by almost £100 for weekenddelegates without reducing the quality. As aresult of the raffle held this year and thegenerosity of our sponsors and delegates, therewill be a funded place for a deserving applicantnext year, so get your applications in.
Finally, we’ve already started receivingpresentation suggestions for next year, so ifyou have an idea and would like to present,don’t leave it too late.
ISTC Conference 2004 – a member’s viewReport by Jean Rollinson
After several years’ (well nine actually) absence I decided to take the plunge and attend thisyear’s ISTC Conference, mainly because of itslocation, only 40 minutes’ drive from home.This meant that I wouldn’t have to spend anight away from home. The other lure was theindexing workshop on Saturday morning. As a freelance author I have been asked toindex my own work and other people’s, andalthough my clients have been pleased with thework, this seemed like an ideal opportunity tofind out what I should be doing.
I spent all of Saturday morning in the indexing workshop. I was a little disappointedby this session, as the speaker spent a lot oftime telling us how to become indexers ratherthan concentrating on what should be in anindex. The second half of the session wasbetter, as we looked at a range of books andcommented on how useful we thought theirindexes were. This helped to highlight theproblems with some indexes and theusefulness of cross-references. Overall I amglad I went to the workshop as I will nowapproach indexes with more confidence.
After a very welcome buffet lunch I headed offto the afternoon sessions. You can see from mychoices that I am interested in broadening mywriting work, an idea that has been forming in
The Newsletter for technical authors, technical illustrators and information designersThis Newsletter is posted at www.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php 5© ISTC December 2004
my mind for some time, but has recentlybecome a reality when I had six cookery articlespublished in my local paper.
The first afternoon session was A novel use foryour writing skills‚ with Alan Fisk. Alan is anestablished technical author who has also hadseveral historical novels published. He gave aninteresting talk about how to get started andemphasised that we should write the novel wewant to write, not what happens to be infashion at the moment. He also warned us ofthe frustration, difficulties and rejections thatwould inevitably come our way in the pursuit of a literary career. I found this talk mostenlightening, and have already made a start on the first chapter of my novel!
The second afternoon session I attended wasAdd drama to your writing‚ with Ron Blicq.
Ron is also an experienced technical authorwho has had several of his plays performed. He showed us some surprising similaritiesbetween writing technical documentation anddramatic scripts, then went on to more detailsabout what to think about and how to go aboutstarting. At the end of the session, we watcheda video of part of The Railway Children that Ron adapted for the stage.
For the last session in the afternoon I attendedGetting in – imaginative and low cost ways toattract new clients‚ with James Bromley. As asole trader, I thought this might give me a fewideas on how to attract new clients. To startwith, the talk concentrated on what people haddone since James’ talk last year in Buxton, andwhat had and hadn’t worked.
James also talked about the mistakes he hadmade in the last year. Although some of thegeneral points were useful, the main pointswere really aimed at small companies withdedicated sales staff.
I really enjoyed this year’s Conference. It wasgreat meeting so many people and having a goodchat about what other people are doing. Therewere plenty of opportunities for networking andgenerally socialising. The talks were interestingand useful, it was well organised and definitelyworth the effort. The food was good, and therewas more than enough tea, coffee and biscuits.Now that I have to pay for myself, I’m not surethat I can afford to attend every year, but I willbe going again, maybe in two years’ time.
Why bother withgender-neutral writing?Why indeed? An article by Jean Hollis Weber,originally published in Keyword 2 (2), May 1991[Journal of the Australian Society for TechnicalCommunication (NSW) Inc.], might be able tosupply some answers.
There are two versions of the article, atwww.jeanweber.com/howto/genwrit.htm andwww.jeanweber.com/howto/genderneutral.htm.The two articles were written at different timesfor different audiences, so the emphasis andthe examples are different and each isinteresting in its own way.
In one article, Jean asks: “Why should technicalwriters care about gender-neutral writing? Theanswer is simple: Technical communication’s goalis to convey information to an audience, in a formthat the audience can understand and use. Weshould avoid, if possible, anything that interfereswith clear communication. If part of our audienceis insulted (or offended, irritated, confused, ormisled) or stumbles over the way we expressourselves, that reaction will interfere with thereception and understanding of our message.”
Elsewhere, she muses: “If you’re going to insultyour audience, do it deliberately. There are timeswhen a speaker or writer chooses to insult anaudience: in certain forms of comedy, for example.I can’t think of any technical communicationsituations where that would be appropriate.”
Thought-provoking stuff.
The Newsletter for technical authors, technical illustrators and information designersThis Newsletter is posted at www.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php 6© ISTC December 2004
Manual for dyslexiasufferersby Karol Dillon
Karol is studying for a Masters in TechnicalCommunication from the University of Limerick.The following article has been submitted in thehope that ISTC members might be able to helpwith Karol’s Masters project on dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability.Dyslexia refers to a number of symptoms, whichresult in people having difficulties with specificlanguage skills, particularly reading. Students withdyslexia may experience difficulties in languageskills such as spelling, writing, and speaking. Itmust be pointed out that dyslexia is not due toeither lack of intelligence or a desire to learn.
Recent figures suggest that 5% to 15% of thepopulation can be diagnosed as having variousdegrees of dyslexia (1). The impact that dyslexiahas is different for each person and dependson the severity of the condition. Some dyslexicsdo not have much difficulty with early readingand spelling tasks but do experience greatproblems when more complex language skillsare required, such as grammar, understandingtextbook material, and writing essays.
Much of the information available on dyslexiafocuses on what dyslexia entails and the numberof people it affects (2). Information on the typesof technologies available to people with dyslexiais also widely available (3). These technologies
include software that types what the user says,that corrects a word which contains errors andthat predicts what the user is trying to type. It isunfortunate, however, that enabling technologiesgenerally require the user to already haveacquired a certain level of IT skills. Jameson(2001) in the ISTC Communicator mentions anumber of points, which should be both avoidedand adhered to when taking account of dyslexia.These include avoiding fonts below size 12, useof italics and use of “fancy” or unusual fonts.Features to be adhered to include using lists andbullet points, using bold text selectively andusing flow charts for explaining procedures.
However, from questioning various technicalwriters and dyslexia organisations, the generalconsensus is that little or no effort is made bycompanies when designing user manuals to caterfor the needs of people who suffer from dyslexia.
MethodologyThis project will involve converting textualinstructions for hardware such as aphotocopier to audio and graphical formatsand testing both the original and redesignedsets of instructions with real potential users.
My hypothesis is that people with readingdifficulties will be less disadvantaged becausewritten text will for the most part be maderedundant. This study will also examinewhether people who do not have readingdifficulties find the redesigned instructions aseasy to use as text-based instructions.
This study will involve three sample groups often people. The first group will have no readingdifficulties and will work from the original text-based instructions. The second group willconsist of people with dyslexia who will workfrom the audio and graphical version. The thirdgroup will have no reading difficulties and willwork from the audio and graphical version.
If anyone has any suggestions or opinionswhich they would like to give, I can becontacted via email at [email protected].
(1) www.bambooweb.com/articles/d/y/Dyslexia.html(2) www.dyslexia-inst.org.uk/(3) www.sofdesign.com/dyslexia/software/
The Newsletter for technical authors, technical illustrators and information designersThis Newsletter is posted at www.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php 7© ISTC December 2004 777
General news
Delivering multipledocumentation sets with XMLOne of the greatest challenges facingorganisations is delivering multipledocumentation sets (such as proceduremanuals, reference guides and trainingmaterials) in time for a product release. TheDarwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)is an emerging XML standard for this type ofproblem. Topics can be assembled in differentcombinations for many deliverables or outputformats. DITA topics are optimised fornavigation and search and are well suited forconcurrent authoring and content management.
The OASIS DITA Technical Committee definesand maintains DITA and promotes the use ofthe architecture for creating standardinformation types and domain-specific markupvocabularies. See www.oasis-open.org/committees/dita/charter.php.
PCS Newsletter goes electronicThe Professional Communication Society of theIEEE has just produced the final print issue ofits bimonthly Newsletter; from January 2005 theNewsletter will be in electronic form only.
Back issues of the PCS Newsletter can be foundat www.ieeepcs.org/activities_publications_newsletter.php.
New documentation expert for BSIThe British Standards Institution has appointedISTC member Dr Mike Unwalla as Principal UKExpert for software documentation.
"Good user documentation can save industrymillions of pounds," said ISTC President Gavin Ireland. "We nominated Mike for thisimportant role because of his provencommitment to the technical communicationprofession."
The System Software Documentation workinggroup (WG2) works under the auspices of theInternational Organisation for Standardisation(ISO). It defines best-practice standards in thefield of technical communication for softwareproducts. Technical writers around the worldthen use the standards to help them produceclear user documentation. This results in user-friendly manuals and online help systems whichbenefit both the customer and the end-user.
Richard Hodgkinson, outgoing expert and nowconvenor of the ISO working group, says,"Mike was a core member of the editing teamfor many years. I'm really pleased to welcomehim as the new UK expert."
For information about JTC 1 (Joint TechnicalCommittee 1) see www.jtc1.org.
For information about SC 7 (Sub-committee 7,Software and System Engineering) seewww.jtc1-sc7.org.
Pacific Blue solutionsSome of you might like to know that Pacific BlueSolutions Ltd, who teach Information Mapping,have some new contact details:
Pacific Blue Solutions Ltd3000 Cathedral HillGuildfordSurrey gu2 7yb
Tel: 0845 122 7102
The mobile phone numbers, fax number, e-mailaddresses and URL (www.pacificblue.co.uk)remain unchanged.
Members’ newsTeleworker article
Teleworker, the magazine of the TeleworkAssociation, ran a recent feature on technicalauthoring which featured an interview withMike Unwalla. The ISTC itself also got amention, as did administrator Carol Hewitt.Congratulations to Mike for another great bit ofpublicity for the ISTC!
University Challenge
A few intrepid members of the ISTC haveagreed to get a team together and apply to takepart in the forthcoming new series of UniversityChallenge – The Professionals. We’ll let you knowhow they get on...
The Newsletter for technical authors, technical illustrators and information designersThis Newsletter is posted at www.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php 8© ISTC December 2004 8
New software releases
Idiom releasesIdiom Technologies has released WorldServer 7.5(www.idiominc.com/products/worldserver.asp).The update includes many new features whichimprove its ease of use, security, versioncontrol and extensibility; see their news releasehttp://tinyurl.com/6l4sb for more.
The company’s new product is OpenTopic, anXML-based publishing solution for creating,managing, localising, and producing print andelectronic documents. See their news releasehttp://tinyurl.com/4eln8 and productinformation http://tinyurl.com/68rl8 for more.
Multilizer 6.1Multilizer (www.multilizer.com/) has releasedversion 6.1 of its eponymous product.
New features abound including support forlocalising in the Palm and Symbian operatingsystems.
SDL’s new releasesSDL International has released SDLTermFinder2005, a tool for extracting terms from existingtext. See www.sdl.com/products-home/enterprise-systems/sdltermfinder.htm.
The company’s translation memory tool, SDLX2004, has recently been localised into Chinese.
STAR FormatCheckerISTC affiliate Star UK (www.star-uk.co.uk/) hasjust launched its FormatChecker program inthe UK. FormatChecker checks Word andFrameMaker files for undesirable layout quirks,such as empty paragraphs for vertical spacingand repeated space characters for horizontalspacing. Once removed from source files, thisreduces rework in the target files. Seewww.star-group.net/eng/software/formatchecker.html for more.
Adobe Font FolioAdobe Font Folio OpenType Edition is a collectionof typefaces from the Adobe Type Library inOpenType format for print, the Web, digitalvideo or electronic documents. The OpenTypeformat provides cross-platform compatibility,linguistic support and typographic functionality.
See www.qbssoftware.com/adobff for more.
Technical illustration software
ACDSee 7 now localised
ACD Systems has just released its photomanagement software ACDSee 7 and ACDSee 7PowerPack in French, Italian, German, andSpanish versions. The English version wasreleased in October. ACDSee 7 costs $59.99USD and the PowerPack version costs $89.99.
See their news release(http://tinyurl.com/5a3x4) for more.
eFotoXpress 1.4
AMC (www.amux.com/) has recently releasedthe German version of version of itseFotoXpress 1.4. software. It is already availablein English, and French, Spanish and Japaneseversions are planned.
eFotoXpress is a software utility that compressesvery large images so that they can be e-mailedwithout any loss in quality. It compresses TIFF,BMP and JPEG images by as much as 400 to 1.eFotoXpress works with many e-mail utilities,such as Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo, and Hotmail.
AMC say that eFotoXpress is the first productto use the JPEG2000 standard. NeweFotoXpress features include talking slide showand text images and choices of print sizes. Youcan download the eFotoXpress Viewer for free.
The Newsletter for technical authors, technical illustrators and information designersThis Newsletter is posted at www.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php 9© ISTC December 2004 9
Training coursesIf you hear of any training courses that you think might be of interest toNewsletter readers, please contact the Newsletter Editor.
Course providers
Regular course providers include:
Cherryleaf. Tel: 01784 258672.E-mail: [email protected]
SfEP (Society for Editors and Proofreaders). Contact details vary fromcourse to course.See the programme on the website.
SI (Society of Indexers).Workshops Administrator: Julie Miller.Tel: 01229 464878 (preferably early evenings on workdays).
General courses
Sheffield University (not Hallam) do a short part-time (evenings)technical writing course. See www.sheffield.ac.uk/till/courses/public/it/comp1.htm#15 for more details.
Mekon Learning have a wide range of software courses available, some on scheduled dates in December and some that can be arrangedon request. See www.mekon.com, e-mail [email protected] or call 020 8722 8400 for more details.
February
24 Society of Indexers workshop: Process of indexing. A taste of indexingfor those beginning indexing training or thinking of taking upindexing. London. www.indexers.org.uk
The Newsletter for technical authors, technical illustrators and information designersThis Newsletter is posted at www.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php 10© ISTC December 2004
EventsThis page introduces new listings and includes reminders of the mostrelevant events in the next two months. ISTC events, where listed, areshown in bold.
To include an event in this listing, please e-mail [email protected].
A more extensive list of events in technical communication and relatedfields is now being maintained on the ISTC website atwww.istc.org.uk/pages/conferencetoc.php.
December 2004
All Visions of Science touring exhibition. Manchester and Glasgow.www.visions-of-science.co.uk/f-events.htm
4 Translation Tools: an Introduction to Trados for Terminology andTranslation. University of Surrey, Guildford. The focus of the workshopwill be on two of the tools available in the Trados software suite:Workbench (translation memory) and MultiTerm (termbase).www.surrey.ac.uk/lcts/cts
4 Red dot award: communication design 2004 exhibition, 4 Dec – 9 Jan.Essen, Germany. With over 4,000 entries from 40 countries, the red dotdesign award ranks among the largest design competitions worldwide.www.red-dot.de
8 Sign Design Society talk: “From Double Sausage through Double Arrowto Double Dutch: Observations on the changing scene of British railwaysigning and wayfinding over the past 40 years.” London.www.signdesignsociety.co.uk/
8 AuthorIT free seminar. Bracknell. Contact: [email protected]
8–12 Designing for the 21st Century III: An International Conference on UniversalDesign. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. www.designfor21st.org
10 The Europe of 25: New Challenges, New Opportunities. Brussels, Belgium.The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) will host a one-day multidisciplinary forum on business and trading in the expanded
European Union. Topics include new regulations, new guidelines formeeting language and localisation requirements, marketing to diversecommunities, data privacy and intellectual property protection, as wellas educational needs for business and government in today’s Europe.www.gala-global.org
14 The British Library’s Web Archiving Programme. British Computer SocietyWest London Branch. The World Wide Web has quickly become a vitalmeans of global communication and an important medium forscientific communication, publishing, e-commerce and much else.The fluid nature of the Web means that pages frequently change andsites disappear. In order to preserve its informational, cultural andevidential value, Web archiving initiatives are required. John Tuck, Head of British Collections, will discuss progress so far and the manyunresolved challenges of web archiving including conceptual, technicaland legal issues. Entrance is free, advance booking is not required andnon-members are welcome. www.bcs.org/branches/wlondon
20–24 4th National Science Communication Congress (NSCC-2004). MadhyaPradesh, India. Organised by National Council for Science & TechnologyCommunication (NCSTC), Yuva Vigyan Parishad (YVP) and IndianScience Writers Association (ISWA).www.scidev.net/events/index.cfm?fuseaction=readevents&itemid=535&language=1
January 2005
All Visions of Science touring exhibition. Bristol and Oxford.www.visions-of-science.co.uk/f-events.htm
9–12 IUI 2005 International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces. San Diego CA, USA. The annual meeting of the intelligent interfacescommunity, which serves as the principal international forum forreporting outstanding research and development on intelligent userinterfaces. www.iuiconf.org/index.html
12–15 BETT 2005 Education Technology Show. Olympia, London.www.bettshow.co.uk/
The Newsletter for technical authors, technical illustrators and information designersThis Newsletter is posted at www.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php 11© ISTC December 2004
The back pageBrain teaser
As promised, here is the full answer to the Brain Teaser published in theOctober Newsletter.
Christmas Cards – Chore or Pleasure in 21st Century?
In conversation most people cite their most-hated Christmas chore as theChristmas card marathon. How many do people really send? And howlong does it take to write and address them? Choosing and writing cardscan be a pleasure – but the real time-eater is checking and updatingaddresses, especially these days when we are more likely to hold our friends’e-mail addresses and mobile numbers than their actual home addresses.
You may wish to sit and write the cards with a glass of wine andtraditional carols on the CD player – but in the 21st century there mustbe a better way to ensure that contact details are kept up to date?
Simon Grice of Midentity, provider of Personal Identity Digital Services,has been looking at the whole Christmas card process – and what can bedone to make it less of a chore. And Hayley Vining of The WhiteoaksConsultancy would be happy to supply more information to interestedChristmas card writers! She can be contacted at [email protected].
I’may Eeelingfay Uckylay
Google may have taken localisation a little too far, with the Googleinterface now being available in “languages” such as Elmer Fudd, Hacker,Klingon, Pig Latin, and Bork Bork Bork (apparently a dialect of Swedishoften heard on The Muppet Show). See www.google.co.uk/language_tools?hl=en. The same page also includes a useful automatic translationfacility, which is restricted to the more usual language pairs.
The human mind
Thanks to Tim Joynson for sending in this one. Can you read it?
And finally....
A very merry festive season to all our readers!
The Newsletter for technical authors, technical illustrators and information designersThis Newsletter is posted at www.istc.org.uk/pages/newsletters.php 12© ISTC December 2004 12
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