Writing, better working, and tool design
By paying more attention to important signals, we can understand them better, and glimpse their unsaid meanings too. But we’ll have to slow down – to hold our nerve like a value investor, or patiently wait as if with a passive index.
“Avoid it”, the style guides write, “unless you really know what you are doing”. The implication is you don’t.
Modern ways of using metadata connect groups, countries, and organizations. Structured content such as DITA XML provides powerful ways to work with this metadata, but also challenges.
What do you do with your new ideas? The connections and sparks that pop to mind when you’re in the shower; in a presentation; on a bus.
Microsoft Word now puts its wiggly line under two spaces in a row. A lot of people are happy, and I’m happy that they’re happy, because maybe “semantic authoring” in a small sense is taking root.
John Carroll’s sound instructional principles became known as Minimalism — a term that would frequently be mistaken for the idea of just writing less.
When I need to get a particular piece of writing or other work done, and I’m putting it off because it’s difficult (or I’m making it difficult), I’ve found that this simple process helps a lot.
“For truly futureproof content, we need to write well, use structural markers, and associate our chunks of information with external data.”
Recording of a joint webinar with PoolParty’s Andreas Blumauer.
Using line-based diff and merge tools can result in invalid files or missing content. XML-aware merge tools avoid these problems.
The grammar police may criticise our doubleplusungood writing, but our loyalty should be with more plausible authorities — our global audience.
WYSIWYG wasn’t just a comfort blanket. It helped writers do their jobs. For structured/web authoring, we can’t go back, but must fill the gaps.
As tools designers, implementers, or authoring team managers, we have to do a better job of assuring authors when they’re doing their jobs OK, and provide clear information on how to fix things if not.
Using a taxonomy makes you look again at what you are writing. You abandon information for its own sake, and instead shape content to fit your customers. Not only does their experience with search and navigation improve; what they find speaks directly to their needs.
