Visit us at the 18th annual WritersUA Conference for Software User Assistance.
The event takes place March 21-24, 2010, in Seattle, Washington.
We will be exhibiting at booth # 5 and will be showcasing:

• Dynamic Assistance Platform (DAP) -the new release of Author-it Aspect - Content from your perspective

• Enterprise Authoring Platform (EAP) - the full authoring, content management, localization and multi-channel publishing suite

There will also be a number of Author-it Peer Showcases run by our clients and partners during the conference.

Using Author-it and Sajan to Improve the Efficiency of Localizing WebEx Support Content into Ten Languages. Presented by Felicia Wu, Cisco WebEx, Milpitas, California
“Cisco WebEx has increased the number of languages from seven to 10 and decreased the cost of localization by more than 60%”. Read more..

Supporting a Diverse Audience by Employing Author-it “Variants” to Embed Client-Specific Content on Demand. Presented by Chip Jones, ADP Comprehensive Outsourcing Services, Roswell, Georgia
“With variants, we can create one-off topics that retain and reuse the core content but also include the unique content as fully formatted, embedded objects”. Read more..

Improving Support for Multiple Web-based UA Deliverables and Translations Using Author-it. Presented by Cindy Stephens, RWD Technologies, Baltimore, Maryland
“Author-it has allowed us to build more than two weeks into our three-month production schedule that we did not have before. The greatest achievement? We are able to create accurate, user-focused documentation and translated content to our customers faster and better. The lesson learned? Why didn’t we do it sooner!” Read more..

Working with Author-it and FastHelp to Create Windows Mobile Help in a Single-Source Environment. Presented by Sue Heim, PGP Corporation, San Diego, California
“We could take output from Author-it that was single-sourced from the user’s guide, and import it into FastHelp. Because we also use Author-it Xtend, we could easily reuse smaller fragments and thereby reduce localization costs”. Read more..

About the conference
The conference goal is to continue to provide an event with the most comprehensive and timely information specifically designed for user assistance professionals. It features over seventy cutting-edge topics from over forty experts, project demonstrations from other user assistance developers, plus an exhibition of products and services, certificate programs, and networking events.
For further information, see http://www.writersua.com/ohc/index.html.

The conference topics cover a broad range of key tools, processes, technologies, and techniques.

• DITA, XML, Structured Authoring
• User-centered Design & Usability
• eLearning Tools and Techniques
• Hands-on Computer Tutorials
• Mobile UA

We hope to see you at the WritersUA Conference on March 21-24 and discuss your Component Content Management requirements.
We will be exhibiting at booth # 5.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us on sales@author-it.com

Posted by Michael Lai, Marketing Executive, Author-it Software Corporation

Distributed client-server applications

Amanda Caley will be test-driving ‘Author-it Live’ at the UK Technical Communication Conference on the 23rd and 24th of September 2009.

Distributed systems and web applications are becoming more and more common-place as people demand the flexibility of ‘anytime, anywhere’ access to their applications and data.
This session explores the advantages and disadvantages of client-server applications as Team Chameleon take a look at Author-it Live, a web-based authoring, content management and publishing solution.

Posted by Michael Lai, Marketing Executive, Author-it Software Corporation

Tuesday 19th May was Workchoice Day for many year 12 high school students around New Zealand. Workchoice Day is a day Year 12 students (16-17yo) spend cruising through companies with the hope of getting a better understanding about the wonderful world of employment that lies ahead of them.

Author-it Software Corporation signed up to donate its office and its time this year as part of a community service. A fabulous volunteer team, headed by our HR Manager Amanda, put together a fun and informative agenda ready for the arrival of the students.

Macleans College was our first school to visit, with a mixed group of around 15 students. Both Julia (Accounts Assistant) and Richard (Business Development Manager) attended Macleans College back in their school days, so Julia met with the students, giving them a brief overview of what she’d done with her life since leaving Macleans. And afterwards, Richard did a short talk and basic demonstration about Author-it and how it works. An overview of the company and personal employment history was given by the company President Steve, as well as Amanda and Sarah (Reception/Admin Manager). A tour of the offices saw the students interacting with all the staff, asking questions about the various roles that interested them. A group lunch followed, where again the students talked to those whose jobs interested them the most.

After a quick clean-up, our next group arrived, a slightly smaller group of girls from St. Cuthberts College. Although shorter on time than the previous group, Steve, Amanda and Sarah did another company overview and personal working history, and another tour of the offices was given along with more questions (and plenty of giggles).

The students, supervisors and Workchoice Day co-ordinators alike gave us fantastic feedback. They were blown away by our culture and our people. Some of the comments we received, during and after the day: “Has opened my eyes to different careers in finance.” Another student said that what they found most interesting was “The emphasis placed on work culture”. Barbara, the supervisor from St. Cuthberts College, said that “you did convey a very enlightened culture and a happy and supportive workplace.” Since being involved with these schools, Amanda has been invited to speak at a Careers Evening held by St. Cuthberts School. A real credit to her and the efforts she took to make this day a success.

Thank you to all the volunteers, including Steve, Amanda, Richard, Danielle, John and Julia, who took time out of their working day to be with the students. Another big thanks to everyone in the office for being so accommodating with the student’s questions and willingly having your quiet working day interrupted. We look forward to another successful Workchoice Day next year!

Posted by Sarah Smith, Reception/Admin Manager, Author-it Software Corporation

Last week I travelled to Melbourne to the annual AODC conference. It was good catching up with the technical communicators there and gave me a chance to introduce a new direction that Author-it is moving in – Real Time Performance Support. I gave a talk about the background behind the rise in Real Time Performance Support and outlined how they are being used and to what effect. We have a new product release soon – Author-it Assist, you can read more about this on our latest products page of the website http://www.author-it.com/index.php?page=latestproducts. I see this doing two things for people. Firstly, its a great way to provide contextual help – even in applications made by other people. Secondly these systems are used to create customized support for organizations tying all their applications contextually to their own content repository. We’ve done a lot of research and found that users need a support system in their work place that does several things:

• Integrates directly into applications and provides contextual learning without any need to access the development code or context ID’s
• Provide multiple contextual links from a single page
• Supports informal learning strategies (requiring less investment in formal training and less disruptive peer training)
• That serves up content using ‘just in time’ practice (push and pull the content to the user)
• Provides customized, contextual content that suits ‘how they use it’ not ‘how it works’
• Sends updates to contextual links independently of new software builds

These systems are being used to great success already and are certainly on the rise with the Knowledge Managers. It’s interesting that the technical writer is a big winner as it enables them to do so much more ‘retrofitting’ with their support material.

Do you, as a technical writer, see value in being able to retrofit your material into other applications?

Posted by Richard Ashurst, Business Development Manager, Author-it Software Corporation

I was recently sent some information regarding The Center for Information-Development Management that you may find of interest if you are a publications manager. If you’re interested in information about communicating with senior management, building business cases for new initiatives, understanding customer information needs, or confronting the myriad issues and problems faced every day you may wish to consider CIDM membership.
CIDM is an organization of information-development, training, and support managers from around the world who facilitate collaboration regarding information development among skilled managers in the industry. Members include managers, senior managers, directors, and vice presidents of information development and training who are remarkably skilled and happy to share their experiences.
New members join CIDM as a department, which means that all staff members and managers are invited to participate in CIDM activities.
There are two membership types–regular departments and small departments. Member organizations receive one or two complimentary registrations to attend the flagship CIDM conference, Best Practices, each September.
Benefits of membership also include discounted rates for attendance at the Content Management Strategies/DITA North America and the DITA Europe conferences, as well as workshops and seminars held throughout the year. Members receive a subscription to the bimonthly Best Practices journal. They receive the monthly Information Management e-newsletter and a subscription to the management listserv as well as participation in the scheduled teleconferences to share current issues and experiences.
If you are interested in learning more about CIDM or becoming a member, please call to arrange a discussion with Director JoAnn Hackos at +1
(303) 232-7586 or visit the website.
While you’re there, sign up for the monthly e-newsletter for continuing news about the management of information development.

Posted by Kathy Howes, Marketing Manager, Author-it Software Corporation.

Are you interested in looking at the exhibitors at the upcoming WritersUA event at the Westin Seattle but haven’t registered for the event?

Did you know you can get Complimentary Admission for the Exhibition at the Conference for Software User Assistance  on Tuesday, March 31st from 3:45-5:15 pm however you must RSVP by 5:00 pm Friday 20th March. Details are:

Send an email to Shannonm@WritersUA.com with a Subject line of Exhibition. Include your name in the message body. You will receive an email confirmation or call them on 206 774 9294

And make sure you stop by the Author-it booth to say hi to the team!

Posted By Kathy Howes, Marketing Manager, Author-it Software Corporation

Hello, I’m Kendra Carter, an Author-it consultant and trainer here at Author-it Software Corporation. I’ve been an Author-it user for the past nine years now, and I have to say, I am so proud to see how the product continues to grow and expand its content reuse and single sourcing strategies. With the release of 5.2 and structured authoring, clearly Author-it continues to keep up with what’s next in the content management industry.
Speaking of keeping up, how are your Author-it skills? Would you like to learn more about using Author-it . . . for free?!
Attend a free Author-it training at DocTrain West! We’re offering a one-day Author-it basic training post-conference, Friday, March 20, 2009 from 8:30-5:00. This two-part training begins with basic authoring techniques and single-source strategies that make Author-it the leading product for content reuse; it concludes with training on our new, highly anticipated structured authoring option. We’ll talk about best practices for implementing structured authoring on Author-it content. We’ll first put our designer hat on and look at implementing structured templates using the new Author-it Structure Builder. We’ll discuss how to write rules and how to give authors helpful examples and tips on following the rules. Then, we’ll put our author hat on and learn how to create content based on structure rules and what steps to take to verify that content “validates” against these rules. Existing Author-it users—in case you’re wondering, you can impose structure on previously structured content! We’ll talk about how you can implement structured authoring on existing content and helpful tips for doing so.
This training would also be helpful for any existing v4 customers who are wondering whether they should upgrade to Autohr-it 5. You’ll get to see the new interface and it’s many features.
I promise you won’t need to know much about using Author-it before training. Just sit back and watch as I explain and demo basic Author-it functionality. Take the complimentary student materials and exercises home with you to try on your own time. And, feel free to ask any product-related questions as we go.
So, join me for our DocTrain West post-conference training. Be sure to bring your laptop if you would like to follow along. Here’s some more information on the session.
Hope to see you there!
Posted by Kendra Carter, Author-it Senior Consultant, Author-it Software Corporation, kcarter@author-it.com

If so, there are a few presenters at the Peer Showcase who will cover Author-it topics that you should check out. Char James-Tanny, who has over 25 years experience as a technical writer and is an Author-it Certified Consultant, will be presenting  “Using Author-it Xtend to analyse content reuse across product families“.

Rhonda Bracey is also an Author-it Certified Consultant, and Rhonda will be presenting on Monday at the General Sesssions. Rhonda’s topic will be Techniques For Reviewing a User Interface.

Sue Heim, a technical writer for over 20 years and a long time Author-it user, is presenting “Using Author-it Xtend and Localization Manager to reduce costs“.

And also Mary Connor, will be presenting “Integrating Flash-based Simulations/Tutorials into Web-based Help Using Single-sourced Content from an Author-it Library”

In the Emerging Skills section, Charlene Kingston Crow, a long time Author-it client will be presenting “Using Microsharing Tools Like Twitter to Build Better UA” which is topical for a lot of people right now. The Author-it team will of course be there so make sure  you stop by to say hello at Booth 10 and see demonstrations of the latest Author-it release 5.2 and products. BTW, if you haven’t yet registered for WritersUA you can still do so via their website and you can browse the full agenda online.

Posted by Kathy Howes,Author-it Marketing Manager, Author-it Software Corporation

We’ve been on the road fairly recently to travel around Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to present this year’s Australian Author-it Days. It was a great opportunity to come around and meet clients, prospective clients and affiliates to show what’s been happening to Author-it. I’d have to say though – I’m not built for that Brisbane heat!

Author-it Day is an overview of use cases and demonstrations with some networking designed to bring together the local Author-it community, engage them and add some value. We started off with some presentations of Author-it, how it helps organisations and what people are using it for. Particularly we’re trying to reduce the lag in uptake of new features. Clients get the opportunity to upgrade to our latest features and these sessions gives them a chance to look at new features and how to implement them. Author-it 5 has some really cool bells and whistles to talk about – namely Publishing Profiles, Variants, Quick Search and some smaller features such as Quick tables, Convert to embedding etc. This was a great chance for people to see how others are using these features and talk about what they could do.

We also looked at some different applications of Author-it as there’s a lot of opportunity for the technical writer in the organisation to take Author-it and improve a lot of other parts of their company. This is a reasonably common occurrence, where the tech writer might show the sales manager how easy it is to produce sales documentation from a single source or use Xtend to write bids and tenders incredibly fast. Shortly afterwards everyone is clamouring to get a hold of it!

Towards the end we had a sneak peek at what is up for release next year. Author-it 5.2 is currently in beta and there were some whoops of delight when Matt showed off Structured Authoring. The UI makes this incredibly usable for the writer and also from a change management perspective. We also talked about our new content viewing platform, Author-it Aspect that renders content in real time using variant filters and a new customisable user assistance platform – Author-it Assist. ‘09 certainly will pack a punch.

One of the intrinsic values of Author-it Day is the networking. We want users to talk to each other and going forward present some of the very cool things they do with Author-it. Our software is very customisable – usually done by us during implementation but also done by some pretty smart clients and we’re really keen to see and share what you guys are doing.

But for now it’s time to wrap up ‘08 and enjoy a nice 3 week vacation over New Years!

Post written by Richard Ashurst, Business Development Manager Asia Pacific, Author-it Software Corporation

We all like to think that we work hard, most of the time that is true, but we certainly like to play hard as well. I don’t think that this is a bad thing, we all need to relax. If we kept working/programming our fingers to the bone, we would more than likely be dead before we hit 40, and that is definitely not my idea of fun. Also, I think that you learn more about work mates when you get them outside the work environment.

When I heard that this years Author-it Conference involved caving, rock climbing, adventure racing and partying, all with with the coolest bunch of people I have ever worked with, I was well pleased, to say the least!

Welcome to the Author-it Software Corporation Conference 2008 , which only lasted 2 hours (well the ‘work’ part of it anyway ).   We’ve had an amazing year so far and it was nice to celebrate it together.  All credit to Paul (CEO) and Steve (President) for acknowledging that this weekend was all about fun.

The first activity was the caving/blackwater rafting. Think icy cold water with a bit of mud and clay mixed in just for fun. Everyone took part, from Gung ho leaders and people of all ages and sizes from the very demure Kendra (Implementation) and Olinka (Quality Assurance) to front-rowers (for those not familiar with Rugby, think big, strong and built like a fridge!) like Adrian (Training and Implementation), Colin (IT administrator) and myself (Support Analyst).

Charging through the darkness we were positive we heard Smeagol, or was it Gollum? We could never be to sure but we felt the ‘power of the ring’, but search as we might we had eventually to settle for a chocolate fish and a hot cup of coffee.

Tracey (Office Administrator) did a fantastic job organizing the outdoor activities and the venue ably assisted by Julia (Office Aministrator) and the dinner later that evening was fantastic. I can’t remember the exact details of dinner. All I can say is what do you expect when there is an open bar!!! The evening was merry everyone talked and drank the night away.

As mentioned earlier, it is much easier to get to know people in more relaxed settings, and the night was only just beginning as we found out…

I think the presence of alcoholic refreshment was meant to make the games night harder (or more fun), either way we definitely raised the roof off the hotel! The first ‘game’ was like monopoly, where teams had to compete with each other. I was on Paul’s (the CEO) team and so the pressure was on. We did not disappoint!

We had Deidre (Financial controller) handling our finances, which involved collecting the cash and not paying out a cent, Richard (Business Development Manager) selling his services to the highest bidder, AND John (Development Director) tackling the challenges with highly organized gusto! His driving skills were also brought to the fore. I was the link man, running around directing people. It’s the only role in the game where I could wield power (the influence of the caves earlier perhaps?). And not that the result mattered but We Won!Once the award were handed out (lots of chocolate) we all drifted away to our beds, but not before we paid taxes to Gretchen (Director of User Assistance) and as long as we gave her some chocolate we were safe….. to be continued

Posted by Martin Irawan, Technical Analyst, Author-it Software Corporation