Resources

Blogs and websites

• Comtech
• Jakob Nielsen
• Edward Tufte
• Anne Gentle
• Tom Johnson
• Kai Weber
• Technical Writing World

Books

• Information is Beautiful by David McCandless is a book I’ve absolutely fallen in love with. It’s full of wonderful ways of representing information visually. They also have a website which is really worth a look.
• The Non-Designer’s Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice by Robin Williams. It’s just a fantastic book for picking up the basic principles of visual design.
• Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests by Jeffrey Rubin. A really good, fairly recent book on usability testing, whether for a document or a website or an iPhone.
• The Design Manual by David Whitbread.
• Using Functional Grammar Butt, D., Fahey, R., Feez, S., Spinks, S., & Yallop, C. (2000) is produced by the National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research at Macquarie University. It’s just a really brilliant introduction to how language works from a functional point of view.
• The global English style guide. JR Kohl. SAS Institute Inc. Cary, NC, USA; 2008 This is useful for technical communicators writing for a global audience. The overall aim is to ensure instructions are unambiguous, easy to comprehend and translate. Examples are mainly software instructions but would have a broader application.
• Standardised Technical English, Specification ADD-STE100. ASD, AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe. Brussels, Belgium; 2017. This was mentioned at the 2018 ASTC conference and is a useful guide for finding simpler, clearly understood terms for technical writing.

Email lists and forums

Online discussion lists are a great way for technical communication professionals to share ideas, ask for help, see what’s going on in the field, and network with like-minded people.

• AusTechwriters List
  Australian Technical Writers is a free on-line open forum and announcement service for technical writers. When you post a message, your message is automatically sent to all those who subscribe to the forum. No messages are moderated.
• FrameMaker List
  Contributors to the Framers list discuss issues regarding Adobe’s FrameMaker and FrameMaker+SGML software.
• HDK Users Email List
  The HDK User Email list was set up in October 1995. It is a non-commercial, independent user email list for authors, developers, managers, system administrators and end users using Virtual Media and Republico products. It provides a forum for users to share problems, ideas and expertise and learn new techniques.
• LANTRA-L
  LANTRA-L contributors discuss all issues regarding translation.
• Mailing Lists for Technical Communicators
  Mailing Lists for Technical Communicators is an international list of mailing lists, etc. for technical writers. For more information, visit their website.
• STC’s Technical Editing SIG Discussion Group (STCTESIG)
  Join the STC’s Technical Editing SIG Discussion Group (STCTESIG). Subscribe at their website <http://www.stc-techedit.org/Discussion+List>.
  TECHWR-L List
  American equivalent of the AusTechwriter list.

Online Tools

A handy collection of websites that provide tools and information for technical communicators.

• Acronym Finder Online dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms
• Dictionary.com < Online dictionary
• Merriam-Webster Online dictionary and thesaurus
• Onelook Searches over a thousand online dictionaries at once
• PowerThesaurus.com Online thesaurus
• Thesaurus.com Online thesaurus
• W3C Link Checker Free website link checking
• Web Style Guide The Web Style Guide site houses an unabridged, online version of the third edition of Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites, by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton
• XENU Link Sleuth Free website link checking
• Your Dictionary Simple online dictionary.

Our Professional Community

The ASTC is part of a professional community that is served by many organisations across Australia, as well as internationally. Though the ASTC has no formal affiliations with other associations, listed here are just some of the organisations with which we have a strong professional affinity.

• Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators Incorporated (AUSIT)
• Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI)
• Communication Research Institute of Australia
• Editors Victoria
• Society of Editors (NSW)
• Society of Editors (SA)
• The Institute of Professional Editors Limited (IPEd)
• Technical Communicators Association of New Zealand (TechCommNZ)
• Writerfind.com
• Editors’ Association of Canada (EAC)
• HTML Writers Guild
• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Professional Communication Society (IEEE PCS)
• Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC)(UK)
• International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)
• Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP)(UK)
• Society for Technical Communication (STC)

Web design resources

These websites provide information on every aspect of web content development and usability.

• Contentious Amy Gahran’s news and musings on how we communicate in the online age.
• Creative Good User experience blog. Focus on customer experience, user experience, human experience (previously known as Good Experience)
• HTML Help The Web Design Group was founded to promote the creation of non-browser specific, non-resolution specific, creative and informative sites that are accessible to all users worldwide. To this end, the WDG offers material on a wide range of HTML related topics.
• Information Management News The e-newsletter of the Center for Information-Development Management
• Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox Current issues in web usability. A bi-weekly column by Dr Jakob Nielson, principal, Norman Nielsen Group.
• Jared Spool’s User Interface Engineering User Interface Engineering is a leading research, training, and consulting firm specialising in web site and product usability. Subscribe to UIE Tips, a free email newsletter containing research articles and UIE news.
• Step Two Designs Intranets, content management and knowledge management consultancy. Website offers many excellent free articles.
• W3Schools Online tutorials on all ‘webstuff’ – HTML, XML, CSS, server scripting, in fact, a little about everything!!