Employee Self-Service and Remote Work
More people than ever are working remotely, from small businesses to giant tech corporations. In fact, between 2019 and 2021, then the number of remote workers in the USA tripled. For many organizations, remote work has unlocked amazing opportunities for expanding the talent pool and reaching new audiences. But, remote work also comes with challenges, Read More »
4 Things DITA XML Can Actually Do [And Why They’re Awesome]
Concepts are nice, but being able to do something is nicer. Not to mention much more useful. We talk about DITA a lot and now it’s time to look at what this tool actually does that makes it live up to the hype. We’ve touched on how it’s important to know the difference between benefits Read More »
Creating Great Content with HyperSTE in Heretto
HyperSTE is the content optimization tool for all technical writers. Whether you’re a freelancer, small-to-medium-sized business, or enterprise, HyperSTE helps you create clarity in writing, align your content with your style guide and other content objectives, get quality and cost-saving metrics, and win new customers with engaging content. With the release of 9.5, HyperSTE is Read More »
We Can Write the Docs, but Does Anyone Read the Docs?
Who reads the docs anyway? You’ve probably heard a few presumptive generalizations about our industry. A big one out there is that nobody reads product documentation Before we cry “Well, why the hell not?” together, let’s climb into the brains of someone who might say this. Technical documentation is, well, technical. It’s a collection of Read More »
Is DITA Good for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Everyone needs to know a little bit about SEO We are at the mercy of search engines. Websites like Google, Bing, Google, Baidu, and YouTube (owned by Google) have become as essential to online commerce as the sidewalk is to storefront business. It’s an inescapable fact that the searchability of your content is a crucial Read More »
What Are Good Documentation Practices (GDocP)?
Good documentation practices -- GDocP -- are an official documentation creation and maintenance standard. Not to be confused with general best practices for writing documentation, GDocP is a specific term that includes a list of standards by which documentation in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries must adhere. If you’re publishing documentation in either of Read More »
Markdown for Beginners: When Is It Most Appropriate?
The glass slipper that fits when it’s perfect and doesn’t when it’s forced. Markdown is huge right now. It’s not new, but it has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity recently. Founded by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz in 2004, Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool. The goal of Markdown was to create something that Read More »
When to use the Concept, Task, and Reference types in DITA
This is a revision of the 2007 blog post. For a full overview of DITA see our explainer: What is DITA XML? DITA is often used for technical product or service content such as user guides, documentation, and instruction manuals. DITA provides an architecture for writing structured content, using maps, topics, and elements. Today, we’ll Read More »