Monday

10:45am - 12:00 pm

Using information gained from WritersUA Conferences, OMD has transitioned its context-sensitive WinHelp to a customized web-based help. OMD imported WinHelp's Word documents into a MySQL database using PHP. The end result is a collection of JavaScripts that eliminate repetitious code, a collection of style sheets that allow users to select a display format based on their own preference, a collection of .htm help pages – one for each task within ECi OMD's comprehensive business software, and an annotation feature that allows end users to associate an MS Word document or a web page with each page in OMD's web-based help. This session will show OMD's web-based help and provide user feedback.

Unlike most feedback mechanisms that involve little or no interaction between users and the documentation team, comment-enabled documentation allows users to leave suggestion and correction comments on help topics, and read comments left by other users.

This case study investigates the practicalities and challenges of providing comment-enabled documentation on the web. Specifically, we share how the interaction between the documentation team and users advanced with the implementation of our DocCommentXchange solution, and how the user comments improved our documentation.

A discussion of our trials and triumphs will help you determine if a web-based comment-enabled documentation forum is right for your organization. In addition, we will provide a high-level view technology we used to create DocCommentXchange.

Monday

1:15 - 2:45 am

Two years ago, salesforce.com switched from the traditional "waterfall" software development model to an agile development methodology using Scrum. This has had quite an effect on how technical writers work at salesforce.com, as an agile development methodology requires several product iterations, open collaboration, and adaptability throughout the product release-cycle, whereas traditional software development operates on a strict, linear schedule that usually produces one iteration of a product. Gavin and Mysti will discuss the challenges and benefits of writing in an agile development environment and share strategies that have helped writers at salesforce.com succeed in producing high-quality documentation in a fast-paced development environment.

Does your software development team use Agile development to produce deliverables? Many teams have adapted this reactive, adaptive methodology to respond quickly to customer needs and market demands. But how do technical publications fit in? How do you deliver documentation in an environment that produces a complete set of deliverables every few weeks? How do you stay on top of the process and still provide quality documentation? This session provides a few answers. We will discuss some of the best practices for documenting products created in an agile development lifecycle. We'll cover tips and tricks, tools and rules, gotcha's and help you figure out what you need to know during each iteration to keep your doc plan on target.

Quick Video Presentations with Adobe Visual Communicator

Tuesday

Betsy Bruce, Performance Factor, LLC

10:15 - 11:30am

The demand for fast production of learning solutions requires templated, easy-to-use tools, for use by both instructional designers and subject matter experts. In the age of YouTube and user-generated content, you don't need a Hollywood production for an instructionally sound video lesson.

Participants in this session will learn about using Adobe Visual Communicator as a solution for creating fast, video-based instructional videos and screencasts. This tool makes it easy to script, record, and publish video-based training materials quickly and inexpensively.

— YOU WILL LEARN —

• How to use the Automated Wizard to quickly create a video
• How to create a script and use the teleprompter
• How to add transitions and titles
• How to add stills, charts, and other media
• How to publish professional-quality videos

Tuesday

1:00 - 2:15 pm

Your manager comes to you and says you have to deliver your documentation integrated with an Eclipse environment. Where do you begin? This session looks at how I implemented a low-cost system to produce Eclipse user assistance, how I adapted our existing documentation, and demonstrates the end result. From a documentation delivery system that mainly consisted of PDF files, I transformed the information to fully searchable HTML files that are accessible from a welcome screen, a table of contents, or context-sensitive help. I also maintained the PDF files, and added interactive tutorials. Find out which tools we used, how we had to change our information organization and documentation process, and who helped me along the way.

Modular software design presents a significant challenge for writers and information architects. How do you deliver accurate online help information sets when software configuration varies from one installation or customer to the next? One team at Medtronic is using DITA, and the Eclipse help platform, to tackle this design challenge. In this session, the team's technical lead describes how they use DITA's capability to describe and manage complex content relationships, the Eclipse help system's plug-in based architecture, and Eclipse's flexibility in creating navigation components to deliver complete, cohesive and accurate online help for a software application used in major hospitals and clinics across the country.

Best Practices for Embedded UA

Tuesday

Scott DeLoach, ClickStart

2:45 - 4:00am

This session focuses on best-in-class examples of web-based embedded user assistance (UA). We will discuss different display options that can be used to provide field-level, procedural, and conceptual information. We will also explore best practices for embedded UA, including how to integrate embedded UA with an external help system and how to use new technologies such as AJAX to provide dynamic user assistance.

— YOU WILL LEARN —

• Why embedded UA is effective
• How to select an embedded UA approach
• Which information types are best suited to embedded UA
• How to integrate embedded UA with an external help system
• How to provide dynamic user assistance with AJAX and other technologies

Tuesday

2:45 - 4:00pm

OpenDS is an open-source software development project. We have initially distributed the documentation on a wiki (www.opends.org/wiki) and provided a low barrier for others to contribute to the wiki. This wiki hosts all the documentation for the OpenDS project. This documentation is divided primarily into two parts: documentation for users and for developers. The user documentation provides the standard guides for installation, administration, deployment, and troubleshooting. The developer documentation presents detailed and background information for programmers who want to participate in the further development of the open-source project.

"The users get control". How does that work for technical documentation? This session will include a demonstration of technical documentation on Confluence (a wiki). We'll take a brief look at the workflow (what there is of it) for creating a draft and publishing a page. Other people can update your document and comment on it. They may be developers, support staff or even customers. Embrace the chaos – you can keep track of what's going on in your documentation and your customers can subscribe to change notifications too. Challenges? Oh yes: structure; release management; content re-use; multiple authors. We'll see some examples of how plugins (addons) extend the core wiki functionality, and how technical writers and other wiki enthusiasts can contribute ideas with technical documentation in mind.

Succeeding with RSS Feeds, Blogs, and WebCasts

Wednesday

Brent Schlenker, The eLearning Guild

8:30 - 9:45am

RSS feeds, blogs, and webcasts are becoming more and more visible in our connected world and software user assistance is no exception. In the next few years it is likely that these Web 2.0 components will become just as familiar to our users as Help files, wizards, and manuals. Like any emerging technology, there are a number of skills and techniques that you'll need to learn in order to effectively exploit them. This session is designed to help you better understand where you're going and how to get there.

This session assumes you already have a good understanding of what RSS feeds, blogs, and webcasts are and why you would want to use them.

— YOU WILL LEARN —

• (For RSS feeds) what a typical publishing cycle consists of and how much support and resources you will need to keep it going
• (For blogs) how to recruit, develop, and maintain quality writing and keep your readers coming back for more
• (For webdcasts) what level of sophistication is appropriate for support of business users and what tools and techniques can get you to that level

Wednesday

10:00 - 11:15 am

Social media tools are reshaping the relationship between companies and their customers. Until now, user assistance development teams primarily conduct a monologue with the users, at best incorporating their input and feedback at selected points in the product development life cycle. By incorporating microsharing into your operations, you can build a user community that provides you with real-time feedback about your user assistance products. You can also update users about changes in your products, and solicit feedback about development choices while you can incorporate the feedback into the design and development of your products. In short, you can create a dialog with your users and reap the benefits of increased and improved communication that leads to better user assistance products and great user satisfaction. For this session, we will focus on Twitter, but the principles apply to all microsharing tools (such as Jaiku and Pownce).

Flickr is a photo sharing website. The active community makes it more than just a place to host photos but where people interact through their photos. The user help forum is Flickr's most direct link to that community, which enables Flickr to get the most current information on what is happening and pass that on to other members through customer care teams and site statuses.

Part of the underlying member support philosophy is that the Flickr members and the Tier 1 agents are the most important people. This session will focus on how Flickr uses forums, communication with customer care, and user emails (not just data about emails) to create FAQs, standard email replies, and training.

Also covered are the tools and strategies used to ensure Tier 1 has all of the information they need in a format that works for them, which is a key part of ensuring that members get the help they need.

Career Strategies for Embedded UA

Wednesday

Scott DeLoach: Moderator, Panel: Rhonda Bracey, Matthew Ellison, Paul Mueller

1:30 - 2:45pm

The development of embedded user assistance continues to grow as a cutting-edge element of our profession. Evaluating user interface text, adding helpful information to the UI, and integrating UA components to a more visible layer of our applications offers exciting new ways to support our users. But how do you get involved with embedded UA? What skills are needed? What do you need to do to become part a contributor to the critical design stages of your organization's software. This session is designed to answer these questions and more. The panel of experienced UA professionals will describe their experiences in expanding their role in the software development process.

— YOU WILL LEARN —

• About the cultural and interpersonal issues that are key elements in becoming a stronger team member.
• Ways to make an impact without extensive changes in your resources or position.
• What tools, technologies, and skills are required to implement many of today's embedded UA solutions.