Organizations STC Related Organizations Technical Writing General Resources Blogs Articles Conferences Grammar, Style Online Help XML Tools Documentation/Help Authoring Tools Image Manipulation Tools Tutorial Creation Tools Other Tools Other Links Humour Job Searching Web Development Ottawa Links

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STC

• International Headquarters - Includes history, information about competitions and conferences, member directory, job listings, and related material. Some content requires a membership login.
  • Membership information - Offers information about the various membership levels.
  • Renewal page - Allows current members to renew their memberships online.
  • Intercom Online - Offers a browseable archive of PDF versions of magazine issues from January 2005. Also offers a searchable archive of earlier issues.
• STC Member Forum - Readable by everyone but membership is only open to STC members.
• STCWiki - Currently contains data about all chapters and SIGs and the start of a technical writing glossary.
• STC.org chapter search - Searchable database of all current STC chapters worldwide
• Other STC Chapters near Ottawa: Toronto STC | Montreal STC | Southwestern Ontario STC

Related Organizations

• The Editors Association of Canada
• The Usability Professionals' Association
• Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC)
• American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) - Canada
• International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) - Ottawa
• Ottawa Independent Writers

Technical Writing

General Resources

• Docsymmetry.com - Website from Winnipeg-based writer Lyndsey Amott, offering technical writing tips for technical writers and documentation managers.
• Paul Brians' Common Errors In English - List of common errors made in American English usage.
• EServer TC Library
• TECHWR-L - Technical writing community. Home of the TECHWR-L mailing list. Includes a variety of member blogs, mailing list archives, articles, and classifieds.
• Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness - Darren Barefoot's gallery of weird, funny, and/or confusing signs and documentation.
• Stick Figures in Peril - Flickr pool of funny or weird signs utilizing stick figures.
• <additional links coming soon>

Blogs

Grammar and Language Blogs

• Bill Walsh's Blogslot - Blog accompanying Bill Walsh's The Slot Web site. Bill is the national desk editor for The Washington Post.
• Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing - Blog featuring weekly grammar podcasts.
• Language Log - Linguistics blog.
• Mother Tongue Annoyances - Tim's Weblog on English Communication
• Regret the Error - Reports on corrections, retractions, clarifications and trends regarding accuracy and honesty in the media.
• Separated by a Common Language - Observations on British and American English by an American linguist in the UK .
• Word Spy - Devoted to lexpionage, the sleuthing of new words and phrases.

Podcasts

• Communications from DMN - Toronto TW company offering weekly podcasts
• Tech Writer Voices - Technical writing-related podcasts.

STC Blogs

• Canadian Community - Formerly the Canadian Issues SIG.
• Design Matters - News and information from the Information Design and Architecture SIG.
• DocQment - News and information from the Quality and Process Improvement (QPI) SIG.
• Global Talk - News and information from the International Technical Communication (ITC) SIG.
• Hyperviews Online - News and information from the Online SIG.
• STC Chicago Chapter
• STC Suncoast Chapter
• STC Washington DC
• STCAustin.org Newsletter

Technical Writing Blogs

• Boxes and Arrows
• Creating Passionate Users - Blog by several authors of the Head First books from O'Reilly.
• Darren Barefoot - Former tech writer blogs about life in Vancouver.
• Don't Call Me Tina - Former president Holly Harkness's blog.
• Helpstuff Blog - Char James Tanney's blog.
• I'd Rather Be Writing - Blog of Tom Johnson, president of STC Suncoast chapter
• Mike Davidson - An ongoing experiment in communication design
• Monkey Pi - To quote the site itself: "An escapee from a government contractor's test lab, the monkey lives in hiding, hacking away at the keyboard to bring you random thoughts, stories, news, and graphics. Depending on his mood, he may be informative, amusing, obnoxious, or inane."
• Scott on Writing - Scott Mitchell, editor and founder of 4GuysFromRolla.com.
• Smart Tech Writing - Devoted to technical writing and technical writers.
• Technical Communication - Adobe's techcomm blog.
• Technical Writers of India - Paul Pehrson's blog about technical writing and other interests
• Technical Writing and Editing's Journal - Livejournal's techwriting community.
• Technically Speaking - Paul Pehrson's blog about technical writing and other interests.
• The Content Wrangler - Scott Abel's community blog, which features articles by a variety of authors as well as event listings.
• The Creative Tech Writer - Formerly a technical writing blog by Jenny L. Berger. Now more of a general blog but there are still some relevant posts.
• Usable Help - Gordon Meyers's blog.
• Will Kelly - The personal Weblog of Will Kelly where he writes about everyday things, technical writing, and the technology industry.
• Words on a Page - Scott Nesbitt's blog.

Articles

• Great User Docs - Offers a free "Great User Documents" course as well as a number of interesting user documentation articles. From Igetitnow! Training, Inc.
  • "Great Technical Writing" Series
    • Content is King (2006-08-20)
    • From Feature to Expensive Flaw (2006-08-30)
    • Has Anyone Ever Used Your Product? (2006-09-14)
    • Banish These Two Attitudes (2006-09-25)
    • The Two-Edged Sword of Reader Experience (2006-10-24)
    • Sell Your Readers On What's Important (2006-12-04)
    • Make Your Product Fit (2007-02-15)
    • Improve Document Searches (2007-03-14)
  • "New Technical Writer" Series
    • Beware of Your Editor/Love Your Editor (2006-10-20)
    • First Things to Do on the Project (2007-02-13)
    • The Four Dimensions of Your User/Reader (2007-03-07)
    • Create the Most Useful Section of Your User Document (2007-03-09)
    • Don't Confuse Your Reader with Your Words (2007-03-23)
    • Avoiding the Interview-Writing Disconnect (2007-04-16)
  • "In-House User Documents" Series
    • How Small Companies Can Create Great User Documents (2007-02-15)
    • Benefits of Creating User Documents In-House (2007-05-09)
• <additional links coming soon>

Conferences

• Writers UA 2008 - March 16-19, 2008, in Portland, Oregonl.
• DocTrain UX - Held a couple of times a year.
  DocTrain East 2007 is October 16-20, 2007, in Lowell, Massachusetts.
• Technical Communication Summit - June 1-4, 2008, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. [2007 session materials]
• UPA 2008 - June 16-20, 2008, in Baltimore, Maryland.
• LavaCon - October 27-30, 2007, in New Orleans, LA.

Grammar & Style

• <coming soon>

Editing/Copyediting

• EEI Press - Publishers of The Editorial Eye, a newsletter for editors. They also publish a number of reference books for editors, including: "The Copyeditor's Guide to Substance & Style", "The Great Grammar Challenge", "Mark My Words", and "Stet Again!".
• The Slot - Blog, books, and articles from Bill Walsh, national desk copy chief for the Washington Post and author of the books " Lapsing Into a Comma" and "The Elephants of Style".
• Editors' Association of Canada
• American Copy Editors Society

Online Help

• <coming soon>

XML/SGML

• <coming soon>

Tools

Documentation/Help Authoring Tools

• HAT Matrix - Char James-Tanney's database of help authoring tools, trainers, and consultants. Includes program details, reviews, company information, and tool comparison. Note: It only includes vendors who have paid to be included.
• Help Authoring Tips and Tricks (HATT) Yahoo Group - Discussion mailing list for online help authors.

Author-it (Author-it Software Corporation)

• Author-it - New Zealand-based company. Offers a trial version of their Windows-based program as well as trial access to their Web-based version. Costs anywhere from $2,000 to $150,000, depending on size of company/team.
• Author-it Yahoo Group - Official discussion group.

Doc-to-Help (ComponentOne)

• ComponentOne: Doc-to-Help - Includes forums as well as articles, datasheets and other supporting documentation. Free trial version. Costs $900 ($500 for upgrade).

FAR HTML (The Helpware Group)

• FAR HTML - FAR HTML is a collection of file and HTML Help tools for writers. Shareware: two-month fully functioning trial version available for download. Site includes download, newsletter, and blog.
• FAR Yahoo Group - Discussions about FAR HTML.

Flare (MadCap Software)

• MadCap Software: Flare - Download free trial version. Offers information, demos and tutorials, knowledge base, and peer-to-peer forums.

FrameMaker (Adobe)

• Adobe: FrameMaker - Includes overview, features, guides, and trial version.
• FrameUsers.com - Online user group and reference site. Includes news and mailing list.
• FrameMaker Tutorials - Collection of tutorials for FrameMaker 7, 6, and 5.5.6 as well as links to related sites.
• Mendem Concord: Tutorials - Small collection of FrameMaker tutorials from technical writing consulting company.
• Carmen Publishing - Offers plugins, scripts, and FrameScript tutorials.
• FrameMaker Tips - Offers tips to make FrameMaker easier to use.
• Free Framers - Community offering a mailing list, collaborative wiki, and archive of the old InFrame magazine site. Bit out-of-date but the archives are useful.
• Wikipedia: FrameMaker - History of the software.

Help & Manual (EC Software)

• EC Software: Help & Manual - Download free trial version; resources.
• Help & Manual Forums - Discussion boards for users of the software.

HelpServer (4.ST)

• 4.ST: HelpServer - Offers an overview, feature summary, FAQs, user guide, and downloadable and CD evaluation versions.

HelpStudio (Innovasys)

• Innovasys: HelpStudio - Offers an overview, feature summary, knowledge base, and downloadable evaluation version.

HyperText Studio (Olson Software)

• Olson Software: HyperText Studio - Offers overview, feature list, edition comparison, technotes, and hobbled evaluation copies of the various editions.
• HyperText Studio Yahoo Group - Discussion mailing list for users of the software.

Windows Help (Microsoft)

• Microsoft Developer Network - Windows Help - Includes documentation and downloadable files for the Microsoft HTML Help 1.4 SDK.
• MSHelpWiki - Online knowledge base. Extremely light on the content at this point in time. Doesn't seem to have been updated a great deal since 2006.

RoboHelp (Adobe)

• Adobe: RoboHelp 7 - Download free 30-day trial version. Offers information, case studies, white papers, Developer Center, and a support forum.

XMetaL (JustSystems)

• Justsystems: XMetaL - Includes technical information, demos, and downloadable 30-day trial versions.

Image Manipulation Tools

Capture (MadCap)

• MadCap Software: Capture Overview - Download free trial version. Offers information and feature list.

PaintShop Pro (Corel)

• <coming soon>

Photoshop (Adobe)

• <coming soon>

Snag-it (Techsmith)

• <coming soon>

TNT Screen Capture (EC Software)

• EC Software: TNT - Download free trial version; resources

Tutorial/Video Creation Tools

Captivate (Adobe)

• Adobe: Captivate overview -

Camtasia Studio (Techsmith)

• <coming soon>

Mimic (MadCap)

• MadCap Software: Mimic Overview - Not yet released to the public. Offers brief information and ability to sign up for a sneak peek.

Other Tools

Dreamweaver (Adobe)

• <coming soon>

<additional links coming soon>

Web Development Links

• <coming soon>

Miscellaneous

Humour

• The Tech Writer's Style Guide - Pointers for making your documents sound intelligent.
• The CAT User's Manual - User installation and maintenance documentation for the CAT v. 7.0: Completely Autonomous Tester.
• The DOG User's Manual - User installation and maintenance documentation for the DOG 7.0: Digital Online Groupware.

Job Searching

• STC's Technical Communication Career Center - Immediate access to jobs is available only to STC members; 14-day delay for non-members.
• Peter's New Jobs - Subscription newsletter offering daily job alerts for Ottawa and/or Toronto. Pretty reasonable quarterly or annual subscription fees with a two-week free trial.
• Jeff Gaulin's Job Board - Journalist, editor, writer and related job postings in Canada. Latest print jobs nationwide can be found here.
• TECHWR-L - Help wanted classified ads (primarily US-based jobs).
• The Job Bank - From Service Canada (formerly HRDC). Job listings and user features such as resume builder and job e-mail alerts.
  Some specific searches: Ottawa "writer" | Ottawa "editor" | All Ottawa Arts-related | All Ottawa
• Workopolis - Some specific searches: Ottawa and area technical writers | Ottawa and area communications
• Monster.ca - Some specific searches: Ottawa region print/editing/writing
• Jobshark - Includes volunteer listings.
• Working.com Ottawa - Part of Canada.com. Not nearly as useful as Monster, Workopolis, or the Job Bank.
• Canadajobs.com - Articles and job listings. Ontario jobs tend to be in the Toronto area.
• Charity Village - Lists of jobs with charitable organizations in Canada. Also lists volunteer positions.
• VolunteerMatch - US-based site that lists volunteer opportunities. Offers a list of virtual volunteer opportunities -- those may be available to non-American applicants and frequently include writing-related ops.
• Volunteer Ottawa - Has a searchable database of volunteer opportunities; occasionally includes writing-related ones.

General Resources, Other Lists of Links

• BairdBenefitsPlus - Group insurance program offered exclusively to Canadian STC members through G.R.Baird Financial Group Inc. Go to the site below, click on Login and apply for access. - http://www.grbairdfinancial.com/bbp.htm

Ottawa Links

• <coming soon>