The serious side of social media

Posted on 28 May 2010 by David Farbey

Recently I was asked whether I thought that social media was just a procrastinator’s paradise or if it was a constructive community for the cyberliterate. Putting aside the irony of the fact that this question was itself posted on a social networking site, I answered that it can be both, and I went on to explain why. Continue reading →

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Lies, Death, and PowerPoint

Posted on 2 May 2010 by David Farbey

The US military were reported last week to have found out something that many of us involved in information design and technical communications have known for a very long time: over-use of PowerPoint obscures the truth rather than reveals it, and confuses an audience rather than educates it. But the reports from the military suggest that the results of misuse may actually endanger lives. Continue reading →

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Why Agile might be good for technical writers after all

Posted on 21 April 2010 by David Farbey

Many tech writers find the whole idea of working in an Agile programming environment a bit scary. There are no specs, for heaven’s sake! However, there are surely some advantages to being a tech writer on an Agile team, if the whole team has really embraced the philosophy (and not just the terminology) of the Agile approach. Continue reading →

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Messages from the Content Strategy Forum

Posted on 18 April 2010 by David Farbey

I spent Friday at the Content Strategy 2010 Forum (#csforum10) in Paris, which was a remarkable event for many reasons. First of all (and I am allowing my personal prejudices as a technical writer to come to the fore here) although this event was organised by members of the France Chapter and the Trans-Alpine Chapter of the STC, this wasn’t a bog-standard technical writing event at all: in fact, hardly any of the the speakers, and barely a quarter of the delegates would describe themselves as technical writers. Continue reading →

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Why I’m concerned about libel law reform

Posted on 11 April 2010 by David Farbey

On the face of it, having a law against libel seems a sensible idea. You shouldn’t be allowed to go around damaging people’s reputation by writing things like “Mr X is an arsonist” or “Ms Y is addicted to cocaine” just because you feel like it. And if you do write or say such things, it seems fair that Mr X or Ms Y should have the right to challenge you in court and receive financial compensation from you. Continue reading →

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Social Media in Technical Communication

Posted on 21 March 2010 by David Farbey

The Spring 2010 edition of the ISTC‘s quarterly journal, Communicator, has a special supplement (sponsored by Adobe) on The role of social media in technical communication.
While acknowledging that social media can be used for frivolous time wasting, the four articles in the special supplement look at the professional and business uses for social media, and in particular at the advantages the use of social media can bring to technical communications professionals. The contributors are Noz Urbina of Mekon, Gordon McLean from Sword Ciboodle, and RJ Jaquez of Adobe. I have the privilege of being the fourth contributor. Continue reading →

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Don’t be normal!

Posted on 14 February 2010 by David Farbey

Microsoft Word is a wonderful product, and I’m not joking at all. It’s easy to forget that not so long ago, back in the days of BW (“before Word”), creating documents for any purpose was a long and tiresome process. Microsoft Word has made things a lot easier for many people who produce many kinds of documents, from school homework to business letters. Microsoft Word is great many kinds of documents, but it isn’t suitable for everything.

If you do find yourself using Microsoft Word there are a few things you do well to look out for. Two of those things are called “Normal”, and my advice is to stay away from both of them. Continue reading →

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Farbey’s Law of Document Stability

Posted on 29 January 2010 by David Farbey

The other day, I was making final revisions to a group of Microsoft Word documents that were needed for an imminent product release. I placed an updated version of a document on our document management system and sent a link to my manager for him to review it. In the copy he opened every single cross reference, including the Table of Contents, had been replaced by Word’s “Error! Bookmark not defined” message. Embarrassing for me? Yes. Time consuming to fix? Yes. Completely unexpected? Definitely not. Continue reading →

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