Knowledge base articles

Organizations can benefit from consistent terminology in many ways. Communication between departments and customers improves, misunderstandings diminish, and the product brand strengthens. Consistent terminology is also the foundation for controlled authoring. Instruction manuals become more comprehensible and customer-friendly, translation costs decrease, and technical writers have more time for other tasks. read more

Technical communicators translate complex technical product or service information into understandable and accessible user information. They act as mediators between product developers and users. Auntie Else’s conclusion was not that far-fetched, after all. We are translators. However, we do not translate from one language into another but from one specialist language into a non-technical and clear language. That’s often not as easy as one might think, initially. read more

When asking software engineers about API documentation, you soon find out that there are two groups. The first group is convinced that good code does not require any explanation. Members of the second group frequently read documentation and even enjoy writing it. You also find out that software engineers have completely different opinions and approaches when it comes to the layout, presentation, and contents of a perfect API documentation. read more

When you write technical documentation, you manage a great deal of knowledge. Technical communicators evaluate and apply domain knowledge every day. For that, skills in knowledge modeling are extremely useful. read more

This case study shows how Scriptorium Publishing created the free DITA learning website LearningDITA.com by combining the DITA learning and training specialization, GitHub, XSLT, video, and WordPress—and how parson AG adapted those technologies to develop the German site, LearningDITA.de. read more