TW Resources
Here’s a select list of my favorite technical writing resources. I use these all the time: Web Programming and Design
- HTML Entities, and URL encoder/decoder; HTML Entity Conversion Tool (i.e., for displaying XML code).
- Web browser user statistics; See Wikipedia’s background page describing data from more than one service.
- Free Online Font-Converter. For converting formats. See also font-forge.
- Google font directory. Tutorial on how to use them. Recommendations about suitable pairs of Google Fonts to use.
- Typekit font directory. Requires a subscription fee.
- HTML Color codes. List of Color Scheme Tools. Kuler color scheme picks, Combo Library (with URL Color grabber), Color Pilgrim (Pallette directory, login required), ColourLovers; Intro to Color Schemes, HTML Color Chooser Tool and definition of color schemes.
- Web Accessibility Guidelines.
- Browser Statistics and Browser Display Dimensions
- CSS Examples and online testing tool and CSS-Discuss wiki. Also, a listing of browser support for new web standards and a listing of CSS support for mobile devices.
- Elements of Typographical Style applied to the web by Richard Rudder. Guided by Bringhurst’s principles.
- Embeddable Web Fonts Wiki and how to embed fonts. See also Fontsquirrel’s embeddable fonts which are free for commercial use and Kernest fonts (which seem to be web-embeddable; doublecheck). See also this thread and this guide to different kinds of embedding. This is mainly for web-embedding. See more about using fonts with ebooks below. League of Movable Type, a “hall of fame” for open source fonts.
- Interesting research about serif vs. san-serif fonts.
- Section 508 Compliance and W3 Web Accessibility Guidelines
Tools
- Zamzar free file conversion wizard.
- Utilities: winmerge, Tortoise SVN, filezilla, putty
- Snagit (online demos & online help), a $49 screen capture utility with extra features.
- Open Source Publishing: scribus, gimp, inkscape
- Freeware utility index
- Screencasting programs: Camstudio (Windows only), Wink
- Notetab Light, main text editor I use (Windows only).
- Sigil ebook creator. Here’s the Sigil manual and a how-to on converting from MS Office/PDF/OpenOffice.
- Oxygen XML Editor. Full-featured commercial xml/xslt editor (with forums). See also XML Mind (also commercial) which is targeted towards documentation.
References
- Technical Forums: Writers, Ebooks, Stack Overflow,Pro Webmasters,Superuser, Server Fault,
- Subversion Book
- Typographic Design Patterns and Best Practices and 10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines. By Smashing Magazine.
- Simplifying Complexity is a 15 part series by Tom Johnson about the challenges of information architecture and usability. Highly recommended.
- CSS Wiki and CSS Mailing list
- Managing Technical Writing online book
- Indoition has a good index of technical writing resources, including a review of Help Authoring Systems, Screencasting Tools and a Documentation Quality Checklist.
- Reference Cards: restructured text
- S5 Web presentation reference guide. Fascinating single-source solution for presentations.
- Klariti information re technical writing. They sell excellent-looking MS Word templates of assorted project/planning documents which technical writers usually have to submit to project managers.
- Agile Documentation, Scott Ambler’s summary of how documentation interacts with project management.
Freelance Writing Resources
- Rate database of freelance writing gigs
- Editing Rates from the Editorial Freelancers of America. See also: About.com’s Freelance rate by project.
- Docracy Legal Document Templates and sample contracts for illustrators.
XML Flavors: Docbook and DITA
- Docbook Definitive Book, and Docbook XSL book
- Docbook-apps mailing list,
- Docbook HTML parameters reference (also the fo parameter reference).
- DITA: 1.1 Specification, DITA XML Wiki, Ditaworld, DITA Users Mailing List, Dita for Publishers epub plugin,
- Docbook Publishers Schema: Specification, Mailing List, Info
XSLT Tutorials & References
- (all my links expired. Removed and will update).
Education & Technical Writing Weblogs/Portals
- I‘d Rather Be Writing is Tom Johnson’s cutting edge blog about documentation, blogging, wordpress and tech writing topics.
- UX MAtters is a academically-oriented usability blog
- elearningpost , an outstanding site with links to usability, information architecture and instructional design.
- Content Wrangler, a good news site on new technologies in documentation.
- Elearningcurve, a blog about instructional technology and technical writing
- I Came, I saw, I learned is Iconlogic’s blog with tutorials, reviews about technical writing products (Adobe, Camtasia, etc).
- Just Write Click is a blog by Austin technical writer Anne Gentle.
- I occasionally write posts about technical writing on my idiotprogrammer weblog.
- Oreilly XML Weblog, a series of articles written by O’Reilly authors.
- Jim Thoughtspot, XML Technology blog, with emphasis on DITA and technical writing.
- Boxes and Arrows, a leading site for information architecture and user interfaces. They have sections for Findability, Usability, and Learning from Others, plus a lot more. No RSS feeds for each section, but lots of articles added weekly.
- TECHWR-L Forums, google group mirror of world’s largest mailing list for technical writers.
- Microsoft.public.word.docmanagement, a high traffic newsgroup for MS Word users.
- Daily Blog Tips
Houston/Texas Resources
- STC-Houston Forum
- Techblog, Dwight Silverman’s excellent technology blog for the Houston Chronicle. (I briefly wrote some guest articles for this blog).
- Idiotprogrammer Weblog. My personal weblog which covers a wide range of topics (not just technology). The weblog has a section specifically devoted to technical writing.
- Technical Writer Market & Salary Information Texas 2020 TW Salary Information , Comparison of Salaries by Industry and National Data
- Write the Docs 2020 Salary Survey.
- Technical Writer Market & Salary Information: Texas 2017 TW Salary Information, Texas 2014 TW Salary Information and National TW Salary Data. 2017 Houston Rates for TW, Editors, Authors. 2016 Legal Range.
Epub & Ebooks Resources
- Oxygen XML: Oxygen-user mailing list; Latest user manual; video demos
- Epub Specifications: OPS, OPF
- Free & Budget Epub creation tools: Jutoh, Calibre (User Guide), Atlantis, (blog),
- Kindle formatting guide, Kindle Previewer tool and KDP community
- Pressbooks, a wordpress cms for outputting epub files.
- Epub Resources (collected by Keith Fahlgren); Epubcheck tool (and online version)
- Blogs: Epub books blog, Pigs, Gourds & Wikis ; Epubsecrets
- Formatting poetry for kindle and for epub
- MobileRead epub forum and Calibre ebook conversion software;
- Mobileread eproduction wiki for ebooks.
Podcasts
- SXSW Podcast, lots of podcasts from SXSW conference, with many topics of interest to technical writers.
Book Production
- Amazon Kindle Publishing guidelines (PDF). This link always goes to the latest document.
- a free download to people making print books on Createspace (with generally useful information). Also, Smashword Style Guide.
- Fonts for use with ebooks: Free Unicode Font Faces. For commercial use in epub files, they need to be OFL ,(more here), GPL with Font Exception or Public Domain. Open Font Library contains OFL fonts; not a lot though. Smashing Mag also has a regular column of free high quality fonts: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. These fonts, though nice-looking, may have restrictions; read the fine print.
- Nexus Font Manager, a free tool for viewing and comparing fonts. (here’s a long review of several others). Fount Identifier, a browser bookmarklet which lets you identify all kinds of embedded fonts.
- Fonts currently on Ipad/iOS.
- epubcheck error reference.
Practical Info about Book Publishing
- Online discussion sites: Ebook SE and self-publish reddit
- Publishing Gurus: David Gaughran, Derek Murphy, Joanna Penn, Nate Hoffelder, (Author Resources)
- Lowdown on Best Book promotion sites: PaidAuthor,
- Industry Book Review Services: Booklife (Publishers Weekly),
- Indie Ebook Distributors: Leanpub, Draft2Digital,
- Children’s Book Publishing: Brooke Talks Books, Planning Book Ilustrations,
- I have written several pieces about ebook publishing: Tips & Advice for New & Indie Authors. Chatting about Ebook Covers, Smashwords vs. Amazon: a comparison.
- Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry. View other codes of best practices. See also: interview with Paul Rapp and StackExchange about Song Lyrics in Books. US Copyright Fair Use Index. Stanford summary of fair use cases,
- Publishing/Legal/Contracts: Sidebar Saturdays (publishing & the law), Stanford Copyright Renewals Database, Using Real People, Corporations in Fiction, Tips for Authors about Contracts, Reducing the Sting of Warranty/Indemnity Clauses in Pub Contracts, How to Avoid Unfair Delivery and Acceptance Clauses in a Publishing Contract, Negotiating Editorial Contract in Contracts, Definition of Publication Rights for Writers/Authors,
- Copyright Owners Watch Database, Author Guild Sample Contracts,
- Creative Law Center Blog. Helpful undated posts about topics.
- My article about submitting images to wikimedia commons (i.e., author photos).
- Saved Subreddit threads: