Surviving a Difficult Presentation: Techniques for Handling a Hostile Audience
If you give enough presentations, there's a good chance that you will someday find yourself the target of an uncooperative or hostile audience member. As in most crises, you're better off if you have a plan to respond. This article contains specific verbal techniques to help you handle uncooperative or hostile audience members during presentations. These techniques are based on my fifteen years in the software training profession. read more...
Better Screenshots
If you’ve been a technical writer for more than 15 minutes, you’ve probably had to take a few screen shots while documenting software. Most tech writers have their favorite software for capturing and processing static screen shots. I won’t compare these applications or try to tell you how to use them. Instead, I’ll give you techniques that help you produce the best possible screen shots, no matter what application you choose. read more...
Course Evaluations that Matter
Do your course evaluations matter? Do they measure what's really important to your company and your students?
The training courses that you develop and deliver should advance your company's business objectives. This sounds like common sense. Now think back to the training classes that you have attended. After each class, you were probably asked to fill out a course evaluation. How many of those evaluations measured how well the course met the company's or your business objectives? read more...
Balancing Act: Keeping Your Screen Movies Small and Beautiful
Screen recordings are a valuable tool for enhancing training, tutorials, manuals and websites. Companies use this technique to produce streaming and downloadable content. The recording tools are readily available and affordable.
In this article, we explore some techniques, tips and tricks for recording sound, mouse movement and happenings from your screen to an AVI file. read more...
The Seven Deadly Assumptions of Technical Communication
by Stephen R. Moss
Years ago, as a young programmer/analyst on a project leader’s course, I made an assumption during a team exercise. Not a crucial mistake, you would think. I assumed that I had all the information I needed to complete the exercise. I also assumed that the exercise was about interviewing a potential employee. In fact, the exercise was actually about the danger of not identifying and confirming assumptions before blindly rushing on with the task at hand.
In this article, I identify seven areas in the field of technical communication where unconfirmed assumptions can lead to a waste of time and money and also undermine your credibility. read more...
Writing User Manuals from the Middle Out
You need to write the user guide for a complex product. There must be a dozens of functions and hundreds of tasks that can be performed with the product. Where do you begin? How to start writing? Conventional wisdom says: start at the beginning with an introduction to the product, and work your way through each function or task in the order the customer will use them. Don't! Here's a tip I learned the hard way after my ninth or tenth year tech writing: start in the middle, and work your way outward. read more...
Word-to-RoboHelp Conversion Tips and Tricks
Whether you’re converting an existing Microsoft Word document to a WinHelp format using RoboHelp, or to an HTML-based Help format using RoboHelp HTML, RoboHelp Office 9 lets you add a Word document to your Help project with a single mouse click.
But don’t do it, at least not until you’ve reviewed, tweaked, and massaged the document to make the most of the new medium for your documentation and to avoid problems that commonly surface following conversion Here are some tips for an (almost) error-free conversion. read more...
Creating an Instructor Kit
After you've tested the in-class exercises, polished the presentation materials, printed the handouts and workbooks, and created the data files for class, are you ready to hand over the course to an instructor? Not yet. You have one more thing to do before calling your course finished: Create the instructor kit.
An instructor kit often differentiates a good course from an exceptional course. It is more than a pretty package or a finishing touch. It is an integral part of any training course that you must hand off to an instructor. The instructor kit's ultimate goal is to increase the quality of the students' experience, by helping the instructor to assimilate, set up, and deliver your course. read more...
Book Review: Training for Software Rollouts
When a book on software training begins with the political issues of selling the training program to management and users, it's a sign that the author has real-world experience. As a training professional who's read too many books that take an academic approach to training, I appreciated the practical approach in Training for Software Rollouts: The Definitive Guide to Developing and Implementing Software Training Programs.
Charles H. Trepper's 480-page book is a comprehensive and accessible guide for IT managers and training professionals. Following the methodology in this book probably won't save you time compare to the seat-of-the-pants, ad-hoc method I've seen at many companies. However, the discipline and thoroughness of Trepper's method ensures better results for the time you invest. read more...