Adobe Captivate

I have recently started to learn captivate. It is a program where you can create interactive presentations and software simulation.

The interactive presentations can be taken from a PowerPoint presentation. Captivate lets you add interactivity, with text boxes and even a voice over option. Quiz slides can be created in the middle of the project so it will involve the viewer.

A software simulation is a video or picture of what is happening on the screen. This could be a tutorial. It is a great way to show the viewer how to use a product or produce things in programs.

It is a great resource for a technical writer. The writer is still able to present ideas without having pages of plain text or a video the watcher will not listen to.

Adobe Design Suite and Netbooks

I recently bought a netbook, but I still wanted to use Adobe's Design Suite. One of the main problems was the screen size. Netbooks are great for their small, compact size. This feature is not the best when it comes to designing layouts and creating projects.It was annoying to scroll down to see the project I am working on. I learned that I could get a monitor and connect it to the laptop, that way I still get the functionality of the monitor without the size. This has worked out pretty well so far. It limits the space on a desk, but I can carry my computer to class easily. It can be annoying to not have the screen size, but that is the price I paid for buying a computer that is great for traveling.

A Fighting Chance

Every fall, BYU-Idaho has a Pre-Professional Conference for English majors and minors. This year, I was able to hear technical writer Tom Johnson, author of the blog http://www.idratherbewriting.com/, give a presentation on How to Get a Job in Tech Writing.

Here are some of the things he mentioned:

1. Learn the basics.


2. Get real experience.


3. Learn some tools.


4. Make a portfolio.


5. Start a blog.


6. Move to a hub city.


7. Volunteer for a position in the STC.

To get the full story, check it out here:
http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2009/09/22/how-to-get-a-job-in-technical-writing-a-7-step-guide-for-students/

He offers a seven step guide to getting a job. These tips were really useful and helped me feel like I have a fighting chance with my career. It explains tools that are good to know and other ways to make yourself better than the competitors.

Becoming a Technical Writer

I changed my major three times in college, going through almost all of the emphasis categories of English before finally settling on professional writing.

Many students I know have chosen professional writing because they cannot make any money from creative writing. So many of these students plan to go into editing-- the closest thing they can get to creative writing in a technical writing field. To those who make it in that career path I wish them luck. But let's face it, how many jobs are there as editors? Especially for young adult fiction, which seems to be the popular genre of choice.

Technical writing is more than just making instruction manuals and guides. Tom Johnson the author of www.idratherbewriting, a popular technical writing blog, spoke at a conference about how technical writing is not just writing manuals, but it is designing and laying out documents, learning software, developing and researching the use of products. It is not boring. Being a technical writer is not a punishment for a unimaginative world, but it is a respectable and fulfilling career. CNN Money says that it is the 28th best job in the United States: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2009/full_list/index.html. Technical writing is a great career choice.