Repurposing Content

Posted on December 10, 2022 by Bart Leahy

Back in the early days of this century, I attended the Society for Technical Communication (STC) meeting here in Orlando. One of the hot topics of the time was using XML (the extended markup language, an advanced version of HTML) to speed up the process of tagging and repurposing content. Since that time, 22 years ago, I’ve worked in small, medium, and large businesses, and I have yet to use XML to do any of those things. Instead, I have had to use my own archives and brain to reuse content for different applications. Today I’ll share a few non-XML thoughts on how to perform this task. Continue reading →

Posted in documents, marketing, proposal writing | Leave a comment

Keeping Your Acronyms in Order

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Bart Leahy

I’ve written about acronyms here and there, but occasionally I get a master’s-class-level experience that must be shared. For the past two weeks, in between family get togethers, I’ve been working on a rather hefty proposal for a customer (in case you’re wondering how I missed posting last week). This large proposal naturally included dozens–maybe hundreds–of acronyms. Even working in the space business as I do, I can still be surprised by the different ways those little mixes of alphabet soup can vex me. Continue reading →

Posted in editing, proposal writing | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

More Delays

Posted on November 18, 2022 by Bart Leahy

Sorry, folks…still busy. Work pouring in (billable hours are a good thing), plus some minor surgery this week (ow, but recovering). I’ll try to think of something clever and timely for next week. Meanwhile, be good to  yourselves and the people around you.

Posted in personal | 1 Comment

Communicating Technology with Seniors: Back to Basics

Posted on November 4, 2022 by Bart Leahy

You’ve likely got one or two older relatives who are challenged by some aspect of the internet or other high technology and ask for your help. This process can be exhausting or rewarding, depending on how patient you are, but it likely will require most or all of your technical communication skills, from audience analysis to careful attention to word choice and editing. Are you up for the challenge? Continue reading →

Posted in education, instructional design, mentoring, personal, technical writing, Technology | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Vacationing Styles, Working Styles, and What Works for You

Posted on October 28, 2022 by Bart Leahy

I’ve been talking with a couple people recently about vacationing. I recently got back from a Disney cruise, and the experience left me feeling like I’d missed something. I had a similar experience when I got back from Australia and New Zealand, which was a package tour through Trafalgar. The countries were fine, but what I craved from the experiences was a bit more autonomy, which I’d experienced on a trip in 2009. This got me to thinking about autonomy at work…so yes, I’ll be talking about vacations today, but also about how we function in the workplace. Continue reading →

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