Writing technical documentation is a job that many folks can do fairly well. However, if you want to be the best, then you must take your work to the next level. If you are already a Documentation Engineer you know that the job involves more than just writing. It takes technical acumen, people skills, project … Continue reading How to be a great Documentation Engineer

Vale is a tool that brings code-like linting to text. You can run the tool on a file and it shows validation errors based on designated Style Guides. This article describes how to install and configure Vale locally, then configure the IntelliJ IDE (with the AsciiDoc plugin) to use Vale in a Mac environment. Note: Grazie Professional is … Continue reading Automate Style Checks

Content strategist Technical writer UX writer Information developer Over time, the title evolves. The role evolves. Yet, at its core, the job is to write content targeted to the correct audience that is easy for them to understand. I have been on an interesting journey recently. On one hand, I have mentored people who want to … Continue reading Looking for work (new vs. experienced writer)

How great is it to dive headfirst into a difficult project, take the reigns, and make things better? Do you find it exciting or intimidating?   Recently, I paid special attention to what I do when I start working in a new product area. I am currently filling in after someone left the organization until we … Continue reading Making an impact: Changing the way Product and Engineering work with the Writing team

It was only a short time ago that we migrated to DITA XML. We have been through two vendors and two content management systems (CMS). The second cost less than the first. However, earlier this year, someone in our company advocated that we move to Docs-as-Code to replace the CMS. It would also replace all … Continue reading Migrating to Docs-as-Code

Although some people prefer user interfaces, I prefer using the command-line to work with Git. In this article, I will review the simple sequence that I use most often. First, I check out a branch. This might be the develop (integration) branch, or it might be a specific release. git checkout <branch> Next, I pull … Continue reading Run basic Git commands

If you have an Excel spreadsheet with several worksheets, you might want to have a single worksheet at the beginning that has links to all the worksheets. Add the Developer Ribbon You must use the Developer tools to create the macro. Use the following procedure if you do not have access to this ribbon: In … Continue reading Automatically create a list of Excel worksheet links

To create a link and have the target open in a new tab, use the Wiki markup macro. 1. Go to the + at the top of the page. 2. Click { } Markup. 3. In the left side of the Insert markup page, type: {html} Your text <a href="https://url.com" target="_blank" </a> {html}. For example, if … Continue reading Confluence tip: Create a link whose target opens in a new tab

Have you ever wanted to add a tooltip in WordPress? It is truly very simple, once you know how to do it. Let's say you have the word "lollipop" in your content and when your reader hovers the cursor over the word, you want to describe a lollipop. While you are editing a page, click … Continue reading How to create a tooltip in WordPress