Automating repetitive documentation tasks will eliminate human error and keep your documentation structured. — The purpose of this article is to explain how you can automatically update XML data, in this case the last modified date. My hope is that you can leverage this to build out your own automation to increase productivity and accuracy in your own work. The scenario Imagine that you’re working on…

Do you find yourself manually maintaining long pieces of documentation that quickly becomes out of date? The aim of this article is to address and suggestion a solution to this common technical writing pitfall. If you receive customer feedback for any amount of time, you may start to notice trends…

One aspect of developing and maintaining a successful software project is to write clear and concise documentation. — The following high-level overview offers a few tips to help your readers implement discoverable, relevant, and clear documentation. Use short and specific titles You want your readers to quickly glance through your documentation to find exactly what they want. Document in an ordered and consistent way

How are users finding your documentation? — I believe the most overlooked concept of technical writing is discoverability. It does not matter how accurate your documents are if your users cant discover them. I believe discoverability covers three important cross-sectional fields that technical writers should pay attention to: Search engine optimization Table of contents Relevant information Search…

Some alternative learning sources — In this blog post, I want to highlight the not-so-mainstream approaches to learning about technical writing. I have found these resources to be helpful for people who want to learn more about documentation or want to improve their skills as a writer. …

One of the most useful features for Postman is its documentation feature. — What is Postman? Postman is a software development toll that enables people to test calls to APIs. Postman is able to do this when the user enters data, that data is sent to the specified web server address, and in most cases the information is returned to the user. What…

Developer portal that places priority on documentation — In this article I will be taking a closer look at Spotify’s Backstage plugin TechDocs. Backstage is a centralized service catalog. One of Backstage’s plugins, called TechDocs, offers a much needed documentation solution. TechDocs lets the developers write in markdown and that documentation lives with the code, embracing the docs-like-code…

Questions on technical writing — Many people who are interested in technical writing frequently ask me a lot of different questions, I have compiled a list of questions and answers to help address some of the most frequently asked questions. What tools do you use for technical writing I am a firm believer that a…

LwDITA and the future of documentation — According to oasis-open.org, “Lightweight DITA is a standards-based alternative for situations in which DITA 1.3 would be too complex or for communities that do not use XML as an authoring platform” meaning: Lightweight DITA (LwDita) is an alternative solution for a standardized markup language that is easy to learn and…