Where’s he been?

Not too far away, but it has been too long since I posted an update.

I was out for a couple of weeks on vacation, then spent some time working on a “book proposal” for prospective publishers.

But, I’m back and expect to get back on track posting new items right away.  The first order of business will be to update the  outline, which is now out of date, followed by sections on XML technology and planning.

Some thoughts and questions

First off, I apologize for missing a week of sections. I over-committed myself last week and into this week, and I’ve had trouble keeping up. But, I’ll be back with a new posting in a few days and will be back on track.

In the meantime, I’ve been considering a few questions and would welcome any comments:

1. How much of the basics of technical writing should I include? I’ve been writing a chapter titled “The Elements of Technical Writing,” which is meant to give managers who aren’t technical writers a better idea of what technical writing is all about. But, I don’t know if it makes sense to expand that into a more detailed tutorial that could be used by new technical writers. Since there’s already a lot of good material available in other books, I’m not sure how useful it would be. Any thoughts?
2. My list of the Elements of Technical Writing are the following: product/service, developers, audience, tasks, deliverables, writing environment (tools, etc.), and schedule. Did I miss anything important?

Right now, besides the Elements chapter, I’ve got a chapter on planning percolating, so I hope to be back at full speed posting to the site very soon.

Getting Updates

I got a question asking how to use RSS to receive a notification when new information is posted on the blog. It turns out there are a boatload of ways to do that. I’ve added links to handle a few of them in the “Feeds” section at the bottom of the right hand column. Here’s a quick description:

1. RSS Feed: If your browser supports RSS, just click on the RSS Feed link and you’ll be in business. Some browsers also automatically detect feeds and let you sign up (look for this icon in the browser’s toolbar: ).
2. My Yahoo or Google: If you have a personalized My Yahoo or Google page, there are links for each.
3. Other aggregators: You can directly use the feed link, (http://rlhamilton.wordpress.com/feed) in a feed aggregator like Bloglines.
4. FeedBurner: If you’re using a pure RSS feed, the RSS link is the best way to go, but if you prefer FeedBurner for some reason, I have the following RSS feed there:
   http://feeds.feedburner.com/ManagingTechnicalDocumentation.
5. Technorati: If you use Technorati, there’s a link to add this blog to your Technorati favorites.
6. Email Updates: If you’d like email updates, there’s a link that will bring up a form for you to enter your email address to get an automatic update when something is posted (you should get no more than one update/day, and then only on days when there’s a change).

I hope that helps; if you have any trouble subscribing for updates, post a comment or send me email.