Knowledge base articles

iiRDS – The Current Status

by on December 19, 2017

At this year’s tcworld conference in October, the working group "Information 4.0" presented version 0.9 of iiRDS (intelligent information Request and Delivery Standard), the content delivery standard for technical documentation for industry 4.0. read more

Terminology management on a budget

by Ann-Cathrin Mackenthun on July 05, 2017

Organizations can benefit from consistent terminology in many ways. Communication between departments and customers improves, misunderstandings diminish, and the product brand strengthens. Consistent terminology is also the foundation for controlled authoring. Instruction manuals become more comprehensible and customer-friendly, translation costs decrease, and technical writers have more time for other tasks. read more

What does a technical communicator do?

by Uta Lange on February 09, 2017

Technical communicators translate complex technical product or service information into understandable and accessible user information. They act as mediators between product developers and users. Auntie Else’s conclusion was not that far-fetched, after all. We are translators. However, we do not translate from one language into another but from one specialist language into a non-technical and clear language. That’s often not as easy as one might think, initially. read more

API documentation – What software engineers can teach us

by Stephanie Steinhardt on January 30, 2017

When asking software engineers about API documentation, you soon find out that there are two groups. The first group is convinced that good code does not require any explanation. Members of the second group frequently read documentation and even enjoy writing it. You also find out that software engineers have completely different opinions and approaches when it comes to the layout, presentation, and contents of a perfect API documentation. read more