Anyone can write, right?

But not everyone can communicate through writing. And getting technical information from your mind into the mind of your reader is always a challenge. Communication fails. Something is lost in the translation.

Making the connection between you and your reader requires understanding of the material and of the reader. It involves selecting appropriate methods of delivery so that your readers get good, accurate information when they need it, where they need it. Bad documents frustrate your customers and damage your credibility. Good ones make you look good, and help you gain – and retain – satisfied users.

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Technical Writing requires excellent language skills as well as a knowledge of many other disciplines. This page links to others that present resources related to these other disciplines.

• Document Design and Typography. Well-designed documents entice the reader and present the information in a attractive layout.
• Writing Tools. Technical writers use a variety of writing tools. Some are more popular than others; some are more suited to the task than others. These resouces list some of the tools, and links to resources for them.
• Graphics.A picture is worth a thousand words. Effective use of graphics helps the reader to understand the material quickly. Learn what tools to use and how to use them.
• XML and Associated Technologies. XML has often been touted as the information interchange medium of the future. Well, the future is now. This page contains links to information about XML and associated technologies.
• Structured Authoring. Learn how structured authoring can improve your documents, and how it is done.