Technical Writer

First impressions:

It’s a smaller group than previous years. Obviously, the global recession is biting hard on the conference scene.

Structured authoring is still big, but the tools that you use for structured authoring (xml and schemas such as DITA) are now pretty much an accepted part of the landscape. There is a lot of talk about different mediums, not just paper. Paper-based documentation isn’t extinct just yet, but it’s heading that way.

Globalisation and associated regionalisation of material is being talked about more and more. This is a trend I have noticed outside the AODC as well. A lot of companies are creating one product world-wide, and one set of documentation for it, and then getting people to translate it into other languages for the region.

There was discussion as to where products like technical documentation fit in nowadays, how users search for help and so on. (As usual, the on-line help/user manual comes a very poor last.) Interestingly enough, this too is brought out in my own work experience. The company I currently work for ditched their on-line help (RoboHelp .chm files) around four years ago. So far as I know, they haven’t had a single complaint.

Overall, the conference seems less technical than in prior years. It contains a good mix of topics. (I love the technical stuff, myself, but I can see that most writers would prefer this year’s mix.) It feels slower paced than in previous years. I’m really enjoying that.

In Gerry Gaffney’s last session of the day we looked at why people become tech writers and whether we were happy in our jobs. On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is truly miserable, 3 is so-so and 5 is ecstatic, we rated ourselves an average of around 4.2 (give or take a couple of points). I’m not sure if this says tech writers in general love their jobs, or just those at this conference.

Last Modified : May 21st, 2009
Filed under : Tech Writer
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