Category / Writing

by Will Kelly

Indecision and the evolution of my personal websites

kaitlyn-baker-422999-unsplashYears ago, I thought it was a good idea to publish both a professional website and a personal blog. It was around the time I was able to purchase willkelly.com and willkelly.org. I was a contract technical writer and figured that the sites would help people find me in search results. Then reality set in…

For me at least, the first casualty of billable work is personal publishing. As time went on, I grew less dedicated to my personal blog because of a busy schedule and some life events. Eventually, I took my personal blog offline after the hosting provider didn’t notify me about some backend issues.

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by Will Kelly

Create a Digital Workplace With DeX and VMware Workspace ONE

A new Samsung Galaxy smartphone and the Samsung DeX docking station are the only tools you need to create a digital workplace leveraging VMware Workspace ONE. With this new approach, your end users will dock their phone into the DeX station to instantly gain access to all their apps – native, web, cloud, virtual – and virtual desktops. The DeX station connects to their monitor, keyboard and mouse, creating an intuitive desktop experience powered by the smartphone.

Source: Create a Digital Workplace With DeX and VMware Workspace ONE

by Will Kelly

E-FOTA: Keeping Firmware Updates in Sync with Your MDM Solution

As more businesses go mobile-first, enterprise mobile device management (MDM) and enterprise mobility management (EMM) has become mission-critical, ensuring that employee devices are secure and access to business apps is uninterrupted. A pressing challenge for IT leaders is operating system (OS) and firmware version management, as an unplanned firmware update can lead to compatibility issues for enterprise mobile apps and the Android OS.

Source: E-FOTA: Keeping Firmware Updates in Sync with Your MDM Solution

by Will Kelly

5 ways teams can recover from a failed or stalled writing project

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It’s never fun watching a technical documentation, training development, or other writing projects get off to a false start or just downright fail. It can be a real morale blow and expose the writer(s) and their team to criticism from stakeholders. However, failures do happen, and it is best to do what you can to recover from quickly.

Writing projects can fail or stall for a myriad of reasons including poor planning, course changes in the project plan, and other risks that may or not be accounted for in the overall project plan.

Here are five ways to get past a failed or stalled writing project:

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by Will Kelly

6 ways to sabotage your technical documentation

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Every job hunt and even unsolicited discussions with recruiters during the past few years brought me more tales of organizations continuing to have issues producing and maintaining technical documentation. It is not isolated in one sector, and I keep hearing the same problems repeatedly. This has been a real disappointment for me over the years I was a contract technical writer and now that I have a staff technical writer job.
 
Developing technical documentation isn’t fun. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be such an afterthought. Things aren’t made any easier with a technical writing profession that is fragmented on the actual role of the technical writer.
 
Here are some ways organizations sabotage their technical documentation:
 

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by Will Kelly

A few words about Microsoft Word and Track Changes

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One of the most useful – yet potentially embarrassing – features of Microsoft Word is Track Changes. Using the Track Changes feature lets you electronically markup your Word documents with edits, additions, and revisions. Think of it as an electronic red pen so to speak.

The potential embarrassment of the feature comes in when you don’t accept the Track Changes. Comments, edits, and revisions not fit for public consumption can leak out. Even if none of the comments are critical, it is just plain sloppy to have a recipient open up a document that still contains markups.

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