Chapter Matters

President's Message

Membership

Chapter Volunteer Updates

Recent Chapter Events

Forthcoming Events

Trans-European Technical Communication Competition 2005

Tools, Tips and Websites

Tools of the Trade

So you think you know Word!

Society Matters                    

News of changes in STC leadership

Reform STC

Good Practice

Feedback from Translation Vendors

Letter from Nancy

In the next issue!!!

Watch out for Matthew Ellison’s exciting article …

 "A Possible Successor to RoboHelp?  Matthew Ellison reviews HelpStudio 2, an innovative new British Help Authoring Tool".

President's Message

David Farbey

I am sorry that my first message as Chapter President has to begin with a reference to terrible and tragic recent events, but we are living in troubled times. In the wake of terrorist incidents in London in July I received a number of messages of sympathy and support from STC Chapters and individual STC members around the world. In particular, Suzanna Laurent, STC President, wrote on behalf of the STC’s Board of Directors to express their feelings of solidarity with all Londoners at this time.

In the more parochial arena of the STC, I am delighted to say that we are off to a brilliant start to the UK Chapter’s year. We brought the previous year to a close and inaugurated this year’s activities with a successful conference at the British Library in June. Our next one-day Conference is planned for 19^th November, and will be held at Coventry University , in cooperation with the staff from their Information Authoring and Design course. More details will be available shortly. We have already held one meeting of the Northern LIG (at the end of July) and are planning a meeting for our Southern LIG in London in October.

For those of you in the south of the country, please make a note of our September meeting which will be held on Wednesday 7^th September at 5:30pm , at ARM in Cambridge. Details of the venue can be found here.   Justin Darley of Cherryleaf will speak on “Using DocBook to Create HTML Help”. If you have friends or colleagues working in the “silicon fen” area please let them know about this meeting.

One of the targets I have set myself as Chapter President this year is to lead the Re-chartering process for our Chapter as part of the STC’s Transformation initiative. To this end, the chapter Board are holding a Leadership weekend on the 3^rd and 4^th September. This will be held at a hotel in the Midlands and will be led by our Regional Director-Sponsor Vici Koester-Lenhardt. This exciting and stimulating weekend is open to anyone who would like to play an active role in the Chapter now or in the future, and if you would like to learn more about what would be involved in taking part, please contact me directly. 

The contacts for the chapter officers 2005-2006 can be found here.

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Membership

Mark Clifford, Membership Manager

By now I hope everyone is familiar with the new member categories. If not, please visit www.stc.org/types.asp. There are more global membership initiatives in the pipeline, some of which are outlined in Suzanna Laurent’s article in the latest issue of Intercom. As these initiatives become clearer I’ll provide more details on them and the effects at our “local” level.  

We suffered a sizeable drop in numbers at the turn of the year but I’m happy to say that the trend since has been steadily upward. At the half-year we have 117 members in UK and Ireland including a handful of members who’ve chosen us for their second community. I have been both pleasantly surprised and heartened by this.  

And as a quick last plea, if any new members want to get more involved in running your community we have two vacancies for chapter officers - Programme Manager and Education & Employment Manager.

 If you are interested in either these positions, or taking part in another capacity, please get in touch with David Farbey or Nancy Halverson.  

If you have a question or suggestion on membership please contact me.

 Please welcome new UK Community Members

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Discussion Group

We have a Community web site  which gives details of the chapter, events, officers, etc. There's also a section on the Discussion Group, with joining instructions. If you do join, please send a brief introductory email to the list.

The list is extremely useful for getting information from your peer group, whether it's on products, tools, writing in general, or almost any other topic you can think of.

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Chapter Volunteer Updates

We have a lot going on at the moment in the UK Chapter, thanks to the hard work of a number of dedicated volunteers:

• Nick Rosenthal, with help from the STC office, has made sure our members-only email announcements list is up and running

• Cathy Clarke and Poornima Kirloskar-Saini have enthusiastically worked on this Newsletter and are planning bigger and better Newsletters for the future

• Ed Portas has joined Birgit Bolata on our Web site team – expect exciting developments!

• Nancy Halverson is busy organising a one-day conference in November, in cooperation with the staff from Coventry University 's Information Authoring and Design course

• Tina Hoffman is leading our participation in this year's Trans-European competition and has already taken part in multiple international conference calls – lookout for more competition details soon

• Brian Keith, our Chapter Treasurer has completed our Chapter financial report (ably assisted by Tina Hoffman) even though he is still “in exile” in the Bahamas

Many thanks to all our volunteers for all their hard work!

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 Recent Chapter Events

STC UK Technical Authoring Conference, June 12^th 2005

The STC UK Technical Authoring Conference was held at the British Library on 12^th June. The venue was splendid, the catering was great, and the speakers were excellent. There were 33 delegates and four speakers. 

Tina started events with a welcome, which was followed by a talk on usability testing by Caroline Jarrett. Caroline arranged us into groups of three (tester, user and observer) for a practical exercise finding information from the STC website.  

Roel Seegers from Tedopres spoke about Simplified English. He gave amusing examples of poorly written instructions and showed how to rewrite them according to Simplified English rules. After this we broke for lunch and a networking opportunity. 

The afternoon started with a very useful talk by Matthew Ellison (Matthew Ellison Consulting) on essential tools and utilities. Nick Rosenthal has written about this in the Tools, Tips and Websites section.

Next, Justin Darley from Cherryleaf spoke about ‘Getting more out of your documents through single sourcing and reusing Content’. Justin discussed the challenges and benefits of single sourcing and outlined some strategies, tips and techniques.

The conference finished with a raffle draw that yielded £92 for the Samaritans. It was followed by the Society’s AGM.  

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Northern LIG Meeting in Edale, 7^th July, 2005

Nestling under the bluff of Kinder Scout, half way between Sheffield and Manchester , the small village of Edale seemed an idyllic location for a summer meeting of STC UK 's Northern "Local Interest Group". In the event, dreams of lazing in the summer sunshine turned out to be just that. But even in heavy rain on a cool July day, ten of us met for a convivial evening at the Rambler Inn. Over drinks and bar meals (the "Rambler Pie" was a big hit, and the cooks had clearly found some very tender ramblers) there was relaxed discussion of the merits of Word versus FrameMaker, the role of XML for a technical author and whether it is better to be a sole trader or to set up a limited company. And the competition for the most unclear sentence ever written had so many contenders that we were unable to identify a clear winner.

 The evening was so enjoyable that the Northern LIG plan to hold social meetings every few weeks in Manchester or Sheffield (well, strictly speaking, in both Manchester AND Sheffield , taking it in turns).

 If you'd like to join us in the totally informal Northern LIG , then send them the following URL and they can sign themselves up to the mailing list: http://lists.stc.org/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=stc_uklignorth  (Click on the "join STC_uklignorth" button in the middle of the web page).

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News of changes in STC Leadership

Update of changes in STC's Board of Directors

Susanna Laurent, STC President

"When a collection of minds, hearts, and talents work together, great things can happen!"

Mike Bates, STC's first vice president, has resigned his position on the board of directors effective August 12, 2005 . Mike's family is expanding and he feels he will not be able to commit the time required to serve on the board for the remainder of his term. We certainly do wish Mike well as he channels more time into his family and home. Please help me thank Mike for the many years of service he has already given STC.

STC's Bylaws, Article IV, Section 5 gives the plan of action to replace Mike. ".A vacancy in the office of first vice president is filled by the second vice president unless that office is also vacant, in which case the first vice president is elected from among the board members by majority vote of the entire board. Persons nominated by the president to fill vacancies in the offices of second vice president, secretary, treasurer, and director are elected by majority vote of the entire board. Vacancy appointments extend to the next annual business meeting and are not deemed a term of office within the meaning of any restriction imposed by Section 4.." To ensure the correct interpretation of this section of the Bylaws, the Society sought the advice of legal counsel and our actions follow that advice.  

1. Our second vice president, Paula Berger, will now move into the office of first vice president when Mike leaves next week.

2. As the president, it was my responsibility to nominate a candidate for the vacant office of second vice president. The nominee, Linda Oestreich, was ratified by a majority vote of the voting board of directors on August 4, 2005 . Beginning on August 12, Linda will serve as our second vice president until the next annual business meeting. Linda is a qualified Fellow of the Society with previous board experience. In addition, she was thoroughly evaluated by the Nominating Committee for the position of second vice president in the last election where she received the second highest number of votes.  She not only is a well qualified nominee, she is a logical choice.

3. Because this is the first time that a position on the Society's Executive Council has become vacant in the middle of a term, we have realized that the STC bylaws are unclear regarding the succession of a president-appointed and board-ratified second vice president into the positions of first vice president and president. Therefore, I have asked the Bylaws committee to analyze the current bylaws and bring suggestions for clarification and possible change to the Board of Directors at their September 2005 meeting. Any decision made there will be announced in our regular board report and posted at http://www.stc.org/chapterResources.asp.

Please help me congratulate both Paula Berger, our new first vice president, and Linda Oestreich, our new second vice president. I have every confidence in them both!

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Update of changes on Executive Director Search

When I announced the resignation of Peter Herbst as STC's executive director last month, I also committed to keeping the members informed of our progress for a new executive director during this important transition. I have now appointed three committees that will work together to ensure the transition is a smooth one and find the best possible candidate(s) for STC's next executive director.

The Executive Director Search committee brings experience in diverse professional, management and leadership roles, and includes Annette Reilly, Committee Manager and Past President; Paula Berger, First Vice President;Linda Oestreich, Second Vice President; Vici Koster-Lenhardt, Director; Ken Cook, Past President; Associate Fellow Susan Jensen; Fellow De Murr; Fellow Larry Kunz; and Ex officio member: President Suzanna Laurent.  The goal of the Executive Director Search committee is to identify highly qualified and experienced candidates from which we can choose one to serve STC effectively for many years.

The Search committee made a commitment to be open to the viewpoints of those throughout the Society who are concerned with its strategic direction, operations, and management. Before beginning its search for candidates, the Search committee will prepare an updated operational description of STC and a job description for the Executive Director. STC will support the Search committee with the services of executive search firms, legal counsel, and independent advisors. The entire process may take six months or longer, consistent with STC's commitment to an inclusive, open, and thorough search. The committee will regularly communicate with STC members, the office staff, and the Board about its process and progress, consistent with the personal privacy of candidates under consideration. Those who wish to submit ideas and suggestions to the Search committee should send a message to the committee at ExDSearch@stc.org.

I've also appointed an Interim Director committee that is charged with ensuring that Society office functions continue to run smoothly until a permanent Executive Director is in place. This may also include recommending an Interim Executive Director, if necessary. This committee consists of Thea Teich, Committee Manager and Past President; Jon Baker, past Director; and Deb Sauer, Fellow and AP for Education and Conferences.

The third committee involved in this process is the Compensation Policy Committee, a standing STC committee. Suzanna Laurent, Associate Fellow and STC president will manage this committee. The committee members are specified in STC's Bylaws: Andrea Ames, Associate Fellow and immediate past president; W.C. Wiese, Associate Fellow and treasurer; and Mary Wise, Fellow and Past President. The goal of this committee is to review the salary administration policy and procedure and benefits for the new executive Director.  

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Good Practice

Feedback on Translation Vendors

John White 

I've worked with SimulTrans, SDL and Lionbridge on different projects over ten years. At the end of each project I had plenty to praise and plenty to condemn about each of them, so I can't answer your question directly. Still, here are a few things I suggest:

1. If you have the time, let them know that you're paring the field of five down to a field of two before making your final decision. Then ask them to visit you at your site. If the job is too small or they're not hungry enough, they won't bother, and you can eliminate them on that basis.

2. Customers sometimes balk at telling vendors who else is in the running. I think that's short-sighted, because almost every vendor has cleaned up after at least one other, and they can explain their own relative strengths to you. I think there's almost no advantage to keeping the competitors anonymous.

3. No single vendor is _always_ the best. Project managers and translators come and go, and the good job one vendor did for me three years ago could be a disaster for you.

4. You need to assume - because it will almost certainly prove true - that no vendor will get everything "right" the first time. If you've never localized before, you don't know what you don't know, and there will be gaps between your expectations and those of your vendor. Besides, there will be a few things the vendor simply bungles; if he/she doesn't recover from them gracefully, or if the quantity/nature of the gaffes is unacceptable, don't use him/her next time.

5. NEVER award a job to a vendor until it has put you in contact with the project manager you'll be dealing with on a day-to-day basis. The account manager/salesperson will likely disappear once the work starts, and you'll need to be comfortable with the person who owns your project.
   There's no guarantee the project manager will remain with the company for the duration of your project, but you should plant the expectation that you'll be able to speak with the project manager who is meant to kick the project off.

6. Once you've awarded the job, your work is not finished. Your project will benefit handsomely from a couple hours of translator- or editor-training, by Web or conference call. Even if the translators know what your company does, there are nuances that only a training session can adequately convey. This also demonstrates to the vendor that you do indeed care about this project, and that you're not just babysitting it. (You aren't just babysitting it, are you?)

7. You can't wrap yourself in Teflon. The buck will stop at your desk. If the project goes well, nobody will remember; if it bombs, nobody will forget. Keep a log of your conversations with the project manager, keep your boss apprised of project status (victories and disasters), and make project slippages known as soon as you see that they're inevitable.

8. Your best chance at having your project managed well on the vendor's side is to manage it well on your own side. Responsible vendors (and project managers) respond well to active, engaged clients. They don't like clients hollering at them unnecessarily, but if they know that you'll be in frequent contact with them and that you'll answer their questions promptly, they'll generally stand and deliver.

9. Most vendors operate under the same business model as waitresses: Do a good job on each customer so that they'll leave soon and happy, then free up the table for the next customer. Everybody on the vendor side hates a project that grinds to a halt because phone calls are going unreturned, questions are going unanswered and files are not moving, so do your best to turn things around to them quickly. Otherwise, your project will become like the guy who sits down at a table for four at 5:00 p.m., orders a bowl of soup, and starts reading a Harry Potter novel.

10. If your first project goes smoothly with no need to heed any of the advice above, you lead a charmed life. If it has a few rough spots and the vendor is willing to work with you on resolving them, DON'T discard the vendor. He/She rarely gets it all correct the first time, and you probably won't either, so chalk it up to the learning curve, which will be shorter for both of you on your next project. If the first project goes catastrophically, and you can demonstrate that most of the problems were on the vendor side, then you'd better switch for the next project. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

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Letter from Nancy

Nancy Halverson 

When I asked for some career advice a long time ago, I asked an acquaintance - I like working with words. What can I do with words that doesn't put me in the 'media'? That wise man said 'You can become a technical writer - Join the STC'.

I went to my first STC chapter meeting in Waterloo ( Canada ) in Feb of 1997 - the speaker was a tax accountant, explaining the tax issues of freelance writing. It wasn't exactly the information I needed, but everyone made me feel so welcome and they all encouraged my career switch.

My first few monthly STC meetings confirmed that this career was definitely for me. I loved the discussions of communications issues, technology and tools, and new ways of influencing users. It was the fastest education I could have found. I got advice from every meeting on things to read, websites to look at, courses to take. Most of all, I felt immediately like I belonged with this group of people. I wasn't yet working as a Technical communicator, but I was thinking like one. I felt like I was prepared and ready to work in the field and truly add something to a company - what a marvellous feeling!

I was becoming such a fixture at the monthly gatherings that some brave (knowing) soul suggested that I help to greet people and organize the sign-in process. An STC council member was born.
My main motivation to be involved in the STC is simple - I want to learn more about Technical Communications. If I'm at the events, I get to take home the information that's shared. The best way for me to ensure that I'm at the events is to play a role in the organization of the events.

My personal database bursts with new ideas after each event - new tools, techniques, skills and principles. I come away from each meeting revitalized and energized, and with more confidence in my career choice.
Of course, along the way, I've been able to make good friends and meet all kinds of interesting people from everywhere. Expanding my life's conversational path is a good way of looking at the way I try to approach each meeting.

And, naturally, my career has benefited as well - I've got at least one job from attending an STC event, and always feel buoyed by my association with the STC when I get to an interview. I may come across as a bit of an evangelist - or just weirdly enthusiastic. Really, I'm as normally weird as any working person. My life is overly full with daily tasks and grinding obligations - my STC activities truly let me rise above the day to day focus and see a bigger picture. This allows me to pursue my career goals, and the goals for a profession which I truly love, in ways that I feel I can add something to the lives of my family and my colleagues.
Strangely, I don't understand why more people don't approach their professions in the same way.

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Tools, Tips and Websites

Tools of the Trade

Nick Rosenthal 

At our one-day conference in London in June, held in the splendid surroundings of the British Library, Matthew Ellison gave a presentation on useful tools and utilities. This review is intended to share his insights with a wider audience of STC UK 's membership.

Text Editors

Ever wanted to do global find and replace across multiple files? Or to open up an html file in a simple editor that offers colour-coded highlighting? Matthew mentioned a program called TextPad, which Sarah O'Keefe had raved about while I was on a FrameMaker training course with Scriptorium a couple of years ago. So after the London conference, I downloaded it and it does exactly what it says on the tin. I recently had to alter a path name in 37 html files, and this utility saved me a pile of time. Heartily recommended. Grab it from http://www.textpad.com

Other similar tools include EditPlus, UltraEdit and NoteTab.

HTML Editors and Utilities

Another recommendation was a program called AceHTML. I'll add in a couple of my own here. On the xml-doc mailing list, an Australian called Justin kindly recommended using HTMLTidy or JTidy to tidy up some, ah, "interesting" html code that a client passed to us.

File name converters

A personal favourite of my own is a little utility called Joe. It renames files on a batch basis, including filename pattern matching. The only drawback is that it is only available in German. If that isn't a problem for you, then you can download it from http://lab1.de/Central/Software/Datei-Tools/Joe.  I would be interested to know if anyone can recommend a similar tool in English.

Graphics and screen captures

Matthew recommended TNT Screen Capture, which the publishers modestly call "the coolest screen capture program on Earth". (OK, so they use a lower case e, but we know what they mean!). Another widely used utility for capturing screen shots is SnagIt. Matthew has written an excellent, in-depth article on this field, which you can find at http://www.winwriters.com/articles/capturetools.

PDF Editor

Adobe's Acrobat file format has become something of an industry standard, but there are times when we don't want to load the full Acrobat application - or pay the full Acrobat price. Matthew mentioned a tool called FoxIt, and a quick look at their web site shows that they make a range of useful utilities.

Another tool that cropped up during the ensuing discussion was Quadralay's Webworks Final Draft, which you can read about at http://www.webworks.com/products/wwfd/overview.aspx  

So there you have my own quick overview of the tools that stuck in my mind from Matthew's presentation. Maybe we can use this STC UK newsletter to recommend favourite tools and utilities to our fellow members?

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So you think you know Word!

Mike Hawes 

Saturday mornings need never be the same again! I have been receiving Word Tips from Allen Wyatt for 4 years and I’m amazed at how much I can still benefit from the range of practical actions and macros essential to anybody producing documents – technical or otherwise. And the service is absolutely free!  

Subscribing to Word Tips means you receive 3 free tips every Saturday morning, and the opportunity to raise a question with the world-wide panel who can contribute their combined experience to producing the best answer to a ‘how do I’ problem.  

You can also subscribe to free Excel tips and, for a small annual subscription, you can get Premium tips. What’s more, you can catch up with all the back tips by purchasing an archive CD collection. Allen has written a number of guide books – all of which I can highly recommend.

 Tip Example

“A handy shortcut to quickly display the Tabs dialog box is to double-click on the ruler just below the markings that appear there. Make sure you double-click at the bottom of the ruler, not at the top. (If you double-click at the top, the Page Setup dialog box appears.)You should note that when you double-click on the ruler, you may also inadvertently set a tab stop. If you want to delete the newly placed tab stop, you can do so at the Tabs dialog box.”

Why not see for yourself?

Start by going to www.VitalNews.com and follow the click here link in the Word Tips section to see an archive list of topics. At the bottom-right corner of the page there is a link to the Vital News Store, where you can see the books available. And finally, you can subscribe and give Word Tips a try. If nothing else it will give you an incentive to get on the computer over the weekend!

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