tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5926296103484044887Thu, 21 Apr 2011 22:32:57 +0000opensoucegraphiceducationvirtualboxtechwikitechnicalphotoshophowtoillustratingfreewritergettingstartedgraphicsvirtualpctechniquegeekmachinegreenshotblogsnagittoolboxsourcetechwriteropensourcestartingresourcegimpvirtualopenillustrationsfunimagetechwritingwritingbasicsblogsprogramsopnsourcehttp://opensourcetechnicalwriter.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (EG)Blogger10125OpenSourceTechnicalWriterhttp://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5926296103484044887.post-7464914453705760723Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:48:00 +00002009-04-01T18:51:47.702-07:00techwriterwikihowtotechnicalresourcetechwritingillustratingwritingillustrationsI found this article providing a good overview of the main points of providing illustrations for instructive writing. The title is "How to Illustrate a wikiHow Article," but the information in it really applies to illustrating anything. Check it out!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~3/iqvSRRAMEmM/illustration-guidelines.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (EG)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~4/iqvSRRAMEmM" height="1" width="1"/>http://opensourcetechnicalwriter.blogspot.com/2009/04/illustration-guidelines.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5926296103484044887.post-7960210942058657986Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:26:00 +00002009-03-25T18:39:58.399-07:00techwriterfuntechwritinggeekI know this is so '90s, but reading standards for military technical publications all day has left me feeling rather geeky. And I never did this the first time around, back in the day. So, I present my Geek Code:GTW/LS/CC d- s++:++ a C++++ * P+ L+ E-- W+++ N o-- K- w+ O- MV-- PS+ PE Y+ PGP- t--- 5 X+ R+++ tv- b++ DI+++ D+ G e+++ h-- r+++ z+++http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~3/fxEtt3jb6sI/my-geek-code.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (EG)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~4/fxEtt3jb6sI" height="1" width="1"/>http://opensourcetechnicalwriter.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-geek-code.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5926296103484044887.post-1081342889181836683Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:58:00 +00002009-03-18T19:01:19.347-07:00opensouceeducationfreeopentechnicaltechniquewritingJust came across this, looks like a decent resource for beginning tech writers:Technical writing courses at WikiversityFree to use and share. Open-source learning. Dig that.http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~3/ZndkcgUrssU/technical-writing-courses-at.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (EG)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~4/ZndkcgUrssU" height="1" width="1"/>http://opensourcetechnicalwriter.blogspot.com/2009/03/technical-writing-courses-at.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5926296103484044887.post-5927841952546275488Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:46:00 +00002009-03-05T19:16:17.160-08:00snagittechwriterfreeopenphotoshoptechwritingopnsourcewritergimpimageprogramsgraphictechnicalgraphicsgreenshottoolboxwritingAs a Photoshop equivalent for manipulating screen captures and doing the basic graphic editing that we tech writers need to do from time-to-time, there's the Gimp. Sure, Paint comes with Windows, but if you're used to Photoshop or have the need to do more than just basic graphic editing, get the Gimp, learn it, and love it.If you like SnagIt for screen captures, check out Greenshot. It doesn't http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~3/ikpaPx2w2EA/some-open-source-graphics-tools.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (EG)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~4/ikpaPx2w2EA" height="1" width="1"/>http://opensourcetechnicalwriter.blogspot.com/2009/03/some-open-source-graphics-tools.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5926296103484044887.post-9016958705154401771Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:41:00 +00002009-03-05T14:44:18.556-08:00That's French for jacked up, part two*.We last left our hero eating breakfast and contemplating the fate of his comp. After breaking the fast, I grabbed our utility laptop and googled for a fix. I never burned the recovery discs built into the second partition on the hard drive of the troubled comp, and so I hit up neosmart.net for a free Vista recovery iso. I burned a copy and booted the sick http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~3/HffFR16piik/jacqued-vers-le-haut-de-la-partie-deux.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (EG)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~4/HffFR16piik" height="1" width="1"/>http://opensourcetechnicalwriter.blogspot.com/2009/02/jacqued-vers-le-haut-de-la-partie-deux.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5926296103484044887.post-2311154297599664347Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:21:00 +00002009-02-22T19:49:14.726-08:00As if my recent post was foretelling, I went to my main computer yesterday only to find it ... that's right, jacked up. By the way, this post has nothing to do with technical writing (and relates to open source in only the teeniest way), so if that's what you're here for, you may want to read down. I'm posting this because I was not able to find any information online that was applicable to the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~3/_zXqR4qLYOU/jacked-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (EG)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~4/_zXqR4qLYOU" height="1" width="1"/>http://opensourcetechnicalwriter.blogspot.com/2009/02/jacked-up.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5926296103484044887.post-7568354225324078834Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:18:00 +00002009-02-19T19:55:16.644-08:00techwriterwikitechtechniquetechwritingbasicswriteropensourcewritingI know, I'm about two months too late for wishing you Merry Christmas, even in Hawaiian. However, the topic of this post is the wiki, and wiki sounds Hawaiian to me, and makes me think of the Bing Crosby Christmas song.Anyways, before we talk about authoring software and content strategies, I want to point out that for many open-source projects, documentation is delivered via wiki. Producing any http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~3/VIBRl7Owx5k/mele-kalikimaka.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (EG)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~4/VIBRl7Owx5k" height="1" width="1"/>http://opensourcetechnicalwriter.blogspot.com/2009/02/mele-kalikimaka.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5926296103484044887.post-2072373484642560810Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:36:00 +00002009-02-14T19:05:17.123-08:00machinetechwritervirtualpcvirtualtechtechnicalvirtualboxwriterwritingThe first tool I'm going to talk about is virtual machine software. Regardless of how or with what you ultimately do your writing, if you can't get the software you're writing about installed and set up, the rest doesn't matter.If you've ever worked on any sort of software project -- open-source or not -- you know there are two certainties:1. There will be a lot of versions of the target program http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~3/y3O3lux2BvU/get-virtual.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (EG)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~4/y3O3lux2BvU" height="1" width="1"/>http://opensourcetechnicalwriter.blogspot.com/2009/02/get-virtual.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5926296103484044887.post-4228859143756174407Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:21:00 +00002009-02-14T18:16:18.281-08:00gettingstartedtechopentechnicaltechwritingwriterstartingopensourcewritingChoosing a project is a personal decision. It really comes down to a gut decision based on what projects are available and what you can bring to the project. I can't provide a specific procedure, so I'll talk about what I did.First, I went to sourceforge.net and created an account. Sourceforge, for those who may not be familiar, is a community site for open-source software projects. Like most http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~3/YfRMXbMG0I8/choosing-project.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (EG)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~4/YfRMXbMG0I8" height="1" width="1"/>http://opensourcetechnicalwriter.blogspot.com/2009/02/choosing-project.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5926296103484044887.post-9118372295207627308Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:10:00 +00002009-02-14T17:55:09.320-08:00blogblogstechopentechnicalsourcetechwritingwriteropensourcewritingThis blog serves as a chronicle of my efforts contributing to open-source projects as a technical writer. Hopefully, it will also serve as a guide for others looking to do the same. I plan to discuss the gamut of subjects, from the nuts-and-bolts (what software to use and how to set it up, finding affordable -- or free -- alternatives to the expensive software used for writing in corporate http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~3/KY9VrpErJxc/about-this-blog.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (EG)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenSourceTechnicalWriter/~4/KY9VrpErJxc" height="1" width="1"/>http://opensourcetechnicalwriter.blogspot.com/2009/02/about-this-blog.html