Jan 22 2010

About technical editors

Technical editors are people who edit technical information. They work in many fields, including engineering, computer hardware and software, science, medicine, law, banking, and website development for any business or activity.

Technical editors’ primary job is to ensure documents are suitable for their target audience, thus technical editing is really a quality control job.

This website is a place for technical editors to:

  • Share knowledge, experiences and resources
  • Demonstrate to writers, managers and others the wide range of knowledge and skills technical editors have to offer

Non-editors are welcome too! Much of the information you’ll find here is applicable to writers, managers, and people working in other roles, and many editors have other job titles or multiple roles.

Dec 17 2015

Is the Help Helpful?

I have made available a free copy of the PDF of my 2004 book Is the Help Helpful?. It’s approximately 9MB.

For more about the book, see this page.

May 16 2015

Writing for science journals

Science editor Geoff Hart’s book, Writing for Science Journals: tips, tricks, and a learning plan, is available from his website.

This book is very useful for both editors and writers. I really wish it had been available when my main job was editing scientific papers for journal publication. Here is a review (not by me).

Jul 04 2014

KOK Edit Blog and related resources

Two resources from the fabulous Katharine O’Moore-Klopf:

Katharine specialises in helping non-native speakers of English polish their articles for submission to US and UK medical journals. She happily shares her knowledge and experience through her blog and other places.

May 15 2013

New book: Taming Apache OpenOffice

Taming Apache OpenOfficeThis book is for anyone who wants to get up to speed quickly with Apache OpenOffice.org 3.4. It introduces Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector drawings), Math (equation editor) and Base (database), as well as common features including styles, templates, printing, a gallery of graphics, and macros.

Printed copies of Taming Apache OpenOffice 3.4: Getting Started are available from Lulu.com for US$20.78. Pay at Lulu.com.

 

If you prefer, you can download the PDF here. Cost is US$5.00, on the honor system. Please pay using the button below (Paypal or credit card). This book has no DRM; you may copy it onto as many of your devices as you wish. If you buy a printed copy, you are welcome to a free copy of the PDF.

 

You can also download individual chapters (PDF or ODT) free from this website. These files may differ slightly from the content of the printed book and full PDF.

Mar 17 2013

Two free alternatives to MS Office

The Windows Secrets newsletter has an article by Fred Langa dated March 14, 2013, titled Two free, full-blown alternatives to MS Office that features LibreOffice and OpenOffice.

The article mentions several features that particularly appeal to users of older (pre-2007) versions of MS Office who have been reluctant to move to newer versions: unlike Office 2013, LibreOffice and OpenOffice “live and work entirely on your PC’s hard drive — there’s no prodding you toward cloud storage or app rental. Both suites use traditional toolbars (no Ribbon interface) and come with six business apps: word processor, spreadsheet, presentation creator, drawing/desktop-publishing tool, database manager, and mathematics tool…

“Although the two suites are similar, LibreOffice is a bit more evolved… For example, LibreOffice now supports more file formats than Open Office does…” (including opening, but not saving to, Microsoft Publisher files).

Lange says, “Is either of these open-source MS Office substitutes right for you? If your office-suite needs are relatively modest, the answer is most likely yes. On the other hand, if you’re regularly collaborating with businesses that use Office 2010 or 2013 and exact reproduction of spreadsheets, presentations, and text documents is essential, it’s safer to stick with Microsoft’s suite…

“I think LibreOffice is currently the better choice. It nicely does what I need done, quietly and without fanfare. It supports more file formats, including those used by the newest versions of Microsoft Office, and it has more developer momentum behind it. But that’s me; Open Office might work just as well or better for you…

“Bottom line: If you’re looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office that isn’t cloud-oriented, that uses traditional toolbars, and that’s totally free, you probably won’t go wrong with LibreOffice or Open Office!”