Written by Sarah Maddox – Technical Writer. http://author-it.com/i8exmd

I’m attending the TCANZ Conference 2010 in Wellington, New Zealand. Matt Armstrong from Author-it gave a good, simple demo of Author-it Assist and an introduction to Author-it Aspect. These are the notes I took during the session. All credit goes to Matt. Any mistakes are mine.

Author-it Assist sounds very interesting. It can contextually link any application to any content. It works on Windows desktop applications as well as web applications.

It is performance support software (from Sarah: similar to guided help, from my understanding). It works with all enterprise IT applications, and lets you push multiple topics to the user’s desktop.

As a the help author, you select the relevant bit of the application (such as a frame or other UI element) then drag and drop the URL onto the application, to indicate that it constitutes the help for that specific screen or UI element. Your content can be delivered from any source: HTML, Word, PDF, etc. Anything that you can display in a browser.

The user sees an “Assist me” tab. When they click it and select a topic, Assist shows a side panel displaying the relevant content. This is the content that the author has marked as relevant.

Assist hooks into the UI elements of the page. It has a fuzzy logic to protect it from UI changes as much as possible.

It’s also available as a set of SDKs. You can download a free copy of the API.

Author-it Aspect is the tool that knows who you are. Based on who you are, it will dynamically filter the information sent to you, including the search information. For example, it can choose the content in the correct language for a particular user. I didn’t get as good an idea of what this one can do, but it’s worth going to the Author-it website to read up on it.

Thank you Matt for a great insight into two tools in the Author-it suite.

When: 8 August, 2010, 9am-6pm
Where: i.145.Hotel, Infantry Road, Near Coffee Board

Author-it, STC India and Triumph Software Services invite you to attend a special 1-day workshop this month. This is a practical workshop, aimed at technical writers that will teach you the skills required to start using the Author-it Enterprise Authoring Platform competently.

Registrations limited to 100 seats only.
For registration details, please visit our Events page on our website. http://author-it.com/vdutrh

Instructions: Please have your laptop with you, installed with an evaluation version of Author-it. Click the Free Trial button at www.author-it.com.

Author-it and their team of authorized resellers will be holding a number of Author-it days throughout Europe in June.

Take this opportunity to speak with Author-it experts and see the latest products from Author-it. Product demonstrations will include;

• Enterprise Authoring Platform
• Dynamic Assistance Platform (Author-it Aspect and Author-it Assist)
• Sneak preview of new products due for release later in the year

Founder and CEO, Paul Trotter and Steve Davis, President will be guest speakers at the events.

For full agenda details visit our Events page

Comet Communications Single Source Forum
June 14, 2010 | 09:00 – 18:00

Author-it Day – Munich, Germany
June 15, 2010 | 09:30-13:00
FREE Event

Author-it Day – De Bilt, Netherlands
June 18, 2010 | 09:00 – 13:30
FREE Event

Author-it Day – Paris, France
June 21, 2010 | 8:30 – 11:30
FREE Event

Author-it Day – London, United Kingdom
June 24, 2010 | 12:30 – 17:00
FREE Event

Follow us for the latest:
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Join us for the following free live webinars;

Free Live Webinar | Getting Started with Author-it.
15 June 5pm IST.

Want to learn more about Author-it? See why over 3500 clients in 50 countries are using Author-it Enterprise Authoring Platform.
Register at: http://author-it.com/b9xaqe

Free Live Webinar | Reuse strategies with Author-it
23 June, 12:30pm BST.

Author-it Enterprise Authoring Platform users have achieved up to 81% reuse of their content. Compare this to the industry average of only 41% reuse (Aberdeen Group research).
Register at: http://author-it.com/zf5x1d

Free Live Webinar | Importing and migration with Author-it
29 June, 12:30pm BST.

Author-it’s import functionality makes it easy to migrate a wide range of file types and transfer documents written outside Author-it into a content library. Migrate Print, HTML, Help, RTF, FrameMaker, RoboHelp, XML, and DITA.
Register at: http://author-it.com/sbecmd

New Product Release – Author-it Assist
Create and Customize Your Own Software User Assistance

SAN JOSE and NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA – USA, SYDNEY – AUSTRALIA and AUCKLAND – NEW ZEALAND – MAY 2, 2010.

Author-it Software Corporation (ASC), a world leader in software for enterprise authoring, content management, publishing, and localization, today announces the product launch of Author-it Assist. Author-it Assist will be officially launched at the Society for Technical Communicators conference in Dallas, United States on May 2, 2010.

Author-it Assist enables organizations to create and personalize their own user assistance for any third party software application.

Most people would be familiar with searching through pages of standard help content created by the software developer. User assistance of this nature is usually too generic, resulting in the user giving up or calling customer service in frustration. A recent IDC report shows knowledge workers spend a third of their time searching for information, leading to increased customer support costs, lower productivity and dissatisfied end users.

With Author-it Assist, enterprises can now create and manage their own user assistance, specific to their needs, and attach that assistance directly to the software without involving third parties or the software developer. User assistance can be quickly created and published in-house to address frequently asked questions as they arise, increasing work-flow productivity and user satisfaction. Author-it Assist provides a solution for enterprises wanting to implement a simple and cost effective solution to create and manage user assistance content internally.

Creating user assistance in Author-it Assist involves a simple process of dragging and dropping hyperlinks between applications, with no coding or programming experience required.

Read full story >> http://author-it.com/k3l02z

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

Dallas, Texas – April 26, 2010

After winning at the New Zealand VEX Robotics competition, two New Zealand teams went on to win at the VEX Robotics Competition World Championships.

Free Range Robotics (Homeschoolers) and Kristin, along with Shangahi Luwan Activity Center from China teamed up to compete against 3 teams from the USA in a best-of-three final. The team from New Zealand and China won the first round comfortably and secured the championship with a 2-0 result.

The VEX Robotics Competition World Championship included qualifying teams from 14 countries including Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States for three days of non-stop, high-energy robotics challenges. The VEX Robotics program is the largest and fastest growing middle and high school robotics competition in the world, featuring 200 events with 2,600 teams representing 20 countries.

Free Range Robotics were also presented awards for the World Champion 1st Place in Web Design, World Champion AMAZE Award (for innovative design, engineering and programming), World Champion Energy Award (for team enthusiasm and dedication) and also World Champion 1st Place Division Tournament Champion.

Congratulations from all of us at Author-it, and we look forward to next years competition.

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

Author-it at VEX Robotics
(http://www.vexrobotics.com/ and http://www.vexrobotics.co.nz/)

Author-it believe that New Zealand’s future engineers should be using the best tools available to them to create professional documentation about their designs and programs, and as such we are providing the national winner of the VEX essay competition with a full free version of Author-it’s Enterprise level CMS system.
On Saturday 27th March Author-it was proud to present the award for Best VEX Essay in New Zealand to Michael Lawton of the Free Range Robotics Team (read Michael’s essay here: http://forum.robotevents.com/design/entry/detail/1570). We wish Michael and the team all the best getting to and achieving at the VEX World Championships to be held in Dallas, Texas, USA.

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

SAN JOSE and NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA – USA, SYDNEY – AUSTRALIA and AUCKLAND – NEW ZEALAND – MARCH 21, 2010.

Author-it Software Corporation (ASC), a world leader in software for enterprise authoring, content management, publishing, and localization, today announces the launch of Author-it Aspect – a web based application that dynamically delivers content to users based on their profiles. Author-it Aspect, which forms part of the Author-it Dynamic Assistance Platform will be officially launched to the public at the WritersUA Conference in Seattle, United States on March 21-24, 2010.

The volume of written content within the world’s enterprises continues to explode. As the volume of content increases, so to do issues associated with searching for and finding relevant information. Today it is not just a matter of getting information to people. It is about getting the right information, to the right people, at the right time.

To solve this problem, ASC developed Author-it Aspect, a web-based application that works in conjunction with Author-it. Content is written in the Author-it Enterprise Authoring Platform including any variations. Examples of variations could be that a process may differ based on the operating system used or a policy may differ by state or country.
Read full story >>

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

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