by Will Kelly

Does it take a community to document a technical issue?

benny-jackson-222664-unsplash

The technical writer profession takes it on the chin sometimes. So much so, community-based technical documentation – user forums, wikis, blogs, and other social media – is becoming a go-to source for technical documentation and training. On how to perform technical tasks and thus to open another front for criticism on the traditional role of the technical writer.

Continue reading →

by Will Kelly

Building the better G Suite administrator

GSuite header
I’ve written about G Suite and other cloud productivity tools or a while now. Furthermore, I’ve had the chance to explore the intersection of Microsoft Office and G Suite for technical writing and user productivity.
G Suite can represent some significant cost savings for *some* organizations. It’s not going to happen by taking G Suite live and sending your enterprise users a URL. Outside of a solid implementation plan, the role of the G Suite Administrator plays a crucial role in the successful launch of G Suite.

Continue reading →

by Will Kelly

An alternative perspective about taking meeting minutes

people-coffee-tea-meeting.jpg

I was talking to a recruiter once who asked me how I felt about taking meeting minutes. The first thing I said was “I think meeting minutes are overrated because I’ve rarely if ever seen them consulted again by meeting participants. When is the last time you consulted meeting minutes after a meeting was over?” While we both laughed about my response, I was quite serious and didn’t know how serious I was myself until well after the call was over.

Continue reading →

by Will Kelly

The center of continuous technical education must be you

sergey-zolkin-192937
I’ve come to realize the importance of working in environments where continuous technical education is imperative to the success of projects and overall company health.
We live in a world that harps on the value of work/life balance. I have no arguments with balance but technical learning needs to be an integral part of that balance.
Yet, keeping abreast of the latest technologies should be the responsibility of the employee not always the employer. We live in a web-enabled world where new apps and services are accessible via download or through a trial account.
Today, accessibility to new technologies is too easy especially compared to when I started in the IT industry.
Photo by Sergey Zolkin on Unsplash
by Will Kelly

Simple guidelines for running technical document reviews remotely

simon-abrams-286276
With some clear expectations and a little planning upfront, running remote writing and document review projects can go smoothly.  Here are some lessons I learned when I was a freelancer about running remote writing and editing projects:

Continue reading →