Book recommendation: Just my type

I haven’t done a book recommendation for ages, probably because I’ve been reading quite a lot of fiction recently and listening to general non-fiction audio books (such as those by Malcolm Gladwell) on my daily 40-minute walk.

However, a good friend recommended Just my type (by Simon Garfield) to me and I’m so glad he did.

What a terrific read! The subject matter (fonts and typefaces) sounds very dry and boring, but this book is any but. It is a delightful romp through typeface history from Gutenberg to just a year or so ago, and offers insights into some of the very human emotions associated with people who are passionate about their profession/vocation.

Garfield writes in such an engaging and entertaining manner that you don’t need to know much at all about fonts to learn something from his book. He covers fonts from Arial to Zipf and many fonts in between, particularly those we see on our computers every day.

I particularly loved Chapter 11 (DIY) where he gave a brief overview of the days of letter stamps, Letraset, IBM golf ball typewriters, Dymo label makers etc. — almost all of which I used in the 70s and 80s and even into the early 90s before I got my first computer.

This book stays with you — since reading it, I’ve really been noticing the types of fonts used for TV/movie credits, on signs, in advertising, logos, etc.

A great read that I highly recommend.

Learning Author-it

My good friend and fellow Author-it Certified Consultant, Char James-Tanny, has her new book at the publishers. It will be ready for release and sale at the STC Summit in Sacramento, California in mid-May, 2011.

Her book is called ‘Learning Author-it‘ and it’s a very practical and useful introduction to the fundamentals of this complex, featured-filled and amazing software. How do I know this? Because I had the privilege of editing it!

Char and I have collaborated before on Author-it stuff, such as joint conference presentations and introductory training materials, and I’ve previously edited her other Author-it training materials, so I was honored to be asked to edit her book too. An even greater honor was to be asked to write the Foreword.

To round it out, our good friend Sue Heim did the indexing. Those of you who attend the same conferences that we do, know that we all hang out together, so it was great to work together too.

The time zone thing also worked well. Char would send me a revised version at the end of her work day (often midnight or later), which I’d receive during my day. As most of the editing was done over the Easter break, I’d work on it during my day, then send her my edits, which would be waiting in her Inbox when she woke up. So there was hardly any down time when one of us was waiting for the other.

If you use Author-it, or are planning to use Author-it, read this book. Not only are there heaps of step-by-step instructions, Char also goes into the reasons why you do — or don’t do — something in Author-it.

The book is available for pre-order from XMLPress (the publishers): http://xmlpress.net/publications/learning-author-it/. It will also be available at the STC Summit (where Char might even sign your copy for you!), from Barnes & Noble (pre-release), and from Amazon.com after it’s been released.

[Links last checked May 2011]

Book review: The Compass

Sarah O’Keefe and her team at Scriptorium have pulled together a collection of their free white papers into a book titled The Compass: Essential Reading about XML, DITA, and Web 2.0.

I picked up a copy at the 2010 WritersUA Conference (thanks Sarah!), and even though the subject matter didn’t interest me greatly (I’m not on the DITA bandwagon), I read this book from cover to cover in two short sessions. And I learned a lot.

So many of those on the DITA bandwagon are true evangelists, but not Sarah and her colleagues. They live and breathe structured authoring, DITA, XML and other technologies, but they are very realistic about the benefits and downsides of these technologies for both companies and implementation teams — and the technical writers whose work will be affected on a daily basis.

The first three chapters (Structured authoring and XML, Managing implementation of structured authoring, and Assessing DITA as a foundation for XML implementation) are a great overview of the technologies available. Each chapter is easy to read and explains how these technologies can help organizations and technical writing teams. And how they are not for everyone or every organization.

The next four chapters contain specific (and helpful) information on how to install and use the various technologies. They document the ‘gotchas’ and the hacks you have to do to get them to work — hacks that aren’t necessarily part of the source documentation. For anyone implementing DITA Open Toolkit, these hacks alone are worth the price of the book! Then there are instructions for configuring fonts in FOP and DITA OT, and removing white space in structured FrameMaker documents.

The final chapter deals a little with Web 2.0 in technical documentation, and has a really useful list of ways you can evaluate credibility in public forums and user-generated content.

[Links last checked March 2010]

Book review: The Global English Style Guide

The subtitle of John R. Kohl’s The Global English Style Guide is Writing Clear, Translatable Documentation for a Global Market — and that says it all, really.

This book is a fabulous resource for any technical writer, whether your writing is likely to be translated into another language or not. There are plenty of readers of our documentation whose first language is not English, and others who have difficulties with the nuances of the English language. Just like good design for accessibility is good design for all, technical communicators who follow the writing recommendations in this book should end up with technical documentation that’s clearer for everyone.

In addition, clear writing should save money in translation costs by reducing the ‘to-ing and fro-ing’ of the “What do you mean here?” questions by the translation agency.

Kohl provides hundreds of practical examples in his 300 page book. These examples are aimed directly at technical writers — particularly those who write software documentation.

Everything is set out clearly, with a comprehensive table of contents, a glossary, a bibliography of further resources, and an index. And it’s peppered with notes and hints and tips.

I read this book over a few nights (yes, that’s sad — reading a style guide for pleasure!), and highly recommend it for any technical writer’s arsenal of style guides.

You can purchase this book via the CyberText bookstore (affiliated with Amazon.com): http://astore.amazon.com/cybertconsul-20/detail/1599946572

Australian book prices

For some years now it has been cheaper for Australians to buy specialist books from Amazon and other online stores based in the US, than to purchase them from Australian booksellers (bricks and mortar or online). Even adding in the shipping costs from the US to Australia (there’s no free shipping to Australia from Amazon — the free shipping option is only available to US addresses), it’s STILL cheaper to buy books from Amazon.

Much as many of us would like to support local businesses and employment, the cost differential is a big factor in deciding whether to buy locally or buy from overseas. Even adding in the shipping charges, it’s often still cheaper to buy direct from overseas. Go figure…

Anyhow, this preamble is to let my fellow Australians know that there is now a local alternative to Amazon that will not only credit you with any price differential between their prices and Amazon prices (+ shipping), but add 10% more to sweeten the deal if the total purchase is more than AU$50 and delivery is to an Australian address. The online retailer is http://www.fishpond.com.au. Oh, and they take PayPal too — Amazon doesn’t.

Here’s a breakdown of the cost differentials on a set of five books I ordered recently — click the image to see it full size.

Book prices: Comparison

The individual prices of the books are MUCH higher in Australia, even accounting for the exchange rate. And the two main Australian booksellers — Angus and Robertson (A&R) and Dymocks — didn’t even stock some of the books in my list (highlighted in red) and still their AU$ averages for the books they *did* have were some $10 to almost $20 higher than Amazon’s AU$ equivalent, even allowing for the cheaper shipping rates from A&R and Dymocks.

Fishpond has no shipping charges on orders over AU$50 (an easy target to reach for books!), accepts PayPal as a payment option, and has a ‘Better than Amazon’ guarantee that credits you the difference PLUS 10% on your next purchase. Gotta be happy with that! I get the books I want, with the order filled by an Australian company employing Australians, at a price that now beats Amazon.

Service

Fishpond have very clear order tracking facilities on their website. I ordered on a Saturday evening, got an immediate (automated?) reply listing the ordered items and expected delivery times. I received an email first thing on the Monday morning telling me that one of my five items had been shipped, with an expected arrival date later in the week.

Update: My first book arrived within the time frame they said — they said between Friday and the following Wednesday and it arrived on the Monday, right in the middle of the expected date range. I’ve since received notice that my other books are on their way and should be with me later this week or early next. Update: And they were!

One small issue…

Their Better than Amazon guarantee? Well, I didn’t quite get the credit I had expected, so I emailed them. I’ve had quite a long email conversation going with them (this is good — it means they monitor and respond to their emails), and the upshot is this: They calculate the Amazon shipping costs based on a single book in a single order (i.e. almost AU$12 PER BOOK instead of AU$6 per book plus another AU$6 for the order). This is NOT clear on their website which states (as at August 18, 2009):

If you order a book where the total cost (including shipping fee) is more expensive on Fishpond.com.au than Amazon, we will credit your Fishpond account with the difference plus 10%. The guarantee is valid only for books that are destined for Australian addresses where the cost of that single book (including shipping fee) is more expensive on Fishpond.com.au than Amazon.

After quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with cost breakdowns, they  confirmed that they calculate the Amazon shipping based on a single book per order rate, NOT on a single order plus the number of books in the order. This means that I was credited with about $20 less than I expected.

Now, I have no problem with them setting the calculation rules — it’s their business, after all. But I have suggested they make the shipping calculation MUCH clearer on their website. And, if you know me at all from the posts on this blog, you’ll know that I even suggested the text they use! ;-)

The guarantee is valid only for books that are destined for Australian addresses where the cost of that single book (including the single order shipping fee plus the book shipping fee per book) is more expensive on Fishpond.com.au than Amazon.

I wonder if they’ll make that change? It’ll save them answering emails from pedants like me who DO check the details and ask questions. I’ll check back in a few weeks…

[Links last checked August 2009]

Book review: Conversation and Community

Anne Gentle, Book Sprint maven, long-time blogger, regular contributor to the technical writing profession, and mother to a couple of young children has somehow found time to write and publish a book. And what a topical book it is.

Her book, Conversation and Community, is almost up-to-the minute (surely a first for a printed publication — some of the references were to blog posts I read just a few weeks ago). She has some really useful, helpful and very practical tips and strategies on how technical communicators can get involved in ‘conversational’ documentation with users, and how they can lead the charge for using social media in their organization. This may be scary territory for those technical writers who don’t even subscribe to email discussion lists, let alone blogs and forums, but Anne’s book is a helping hand to guide you through the maze.

However, her ideas are also very pragmatic — Anne has obviously worked in several organizational cultures, so she rightly advises against jumping in feet first. Her advice is to take it slowly, a little bit at a time, starting with listening to what users are saying about your product, then branching into commenting, before going all out with technologies and tools such as Twitter. And all the way along, getting buy-in from management and setting the ground rules for the interactions.

This is a well-researched book and Anne has provided numerous footnotes with references to books and URLs, as well as sample style guides etc. in the Appendices.

She’s also listed all links and footnote references for each chapter on delicious.com (see http://justwriteclick.com/2009/08/20/organized-annotated-collection-of-footnotes-from-my-book-conversation-and-community/ for links to the Chapter lists).

For other reviews of this book, see Sarah Maddox’s blog post where she reviews the book, then links to further reviews at the end.

Related: Learning is Social article about how the Net Generation learn through Web 2.0 technologies and social media: http://www.astd.org/TD/Archives/2009/August/0908_Learning_Gets_Social.htm

[Links last checked August 2009]

DITA basics

Do you need to come up to speed with DITA (Darwin information Typinmg Architecture) quickly?

Then for just under US$10 you can purchase a downloadable copy of DITA 101: Fundamentals of DITA for Authors and Managers — the latest book by Ann Rockley, Steve Manning and Charles Cooper of The Rockley Group.

You can get your copy from here:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/dita-101/7174180

[Links last checked July 2009]

A different perspective on economics

One book I’d been meaning to read since I first heard about it a couple of years back is Freakonomics, by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner. When I saw it in a bookstore a few weeks ago, I bought it.

It’s an interesting read — and makes you wonder about possible cause/effect relationships for all sorts of apparently dissimilar things.

The most fascinating chapter for me was Chapter 4 where they linked the drop in the crime rate in the 1990s to the legalization of abortion in many US states after the outcome of the Roe v Wade case. Compelling stuff that makes you think.

The other chapter that intrigued me was about how much parental influence affects how a child will turn out. The answer — which has no doubt surprised many people, especially parents — is ‘Not a lot’. Adding further ‘food for thought’ was the effect of a person’s first name on their job and life prospects.

Freakonomics is a light, entertaining read that makes you think, without getting bogged down in the more mathematical and statistical sides of economics.

Great deal — and help bushfire victims too

SitePoint, an Australian company that publishes many electronic and printed books on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP etc. has a 5-for-1 deal on until Friday 13 February, where you get PDFs of any five of their books for a total of $29.95 US.

ALL proceeds from this special sale will go to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfires Appeal to help the victims of Australia’s worst ever bush fires.

Details about the deal and the cause are here:
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/02/11/70000-usd-in-the-bag-with-two-days-to-go-%e2%80%93-help-us-hit-100000-usd/

Select and order your books here: http://5for1.aws.sitepoint.com/

They have already raised over $75,000 US in the first 24 hours and aim to raise $100,000 US by Friday. (By Friday morning, they’d raised $180,000 US — details to come on how much they raised by close of business Friday…)

Having just recently experienced a bushfire that threatened my town, I can only say that the devastation in Victoria is beyond belief. Whole towns have been razed, families have been burned alive while trying to escape, more than 200 people have died, and more than an estimated 1 million native Australian animals (koalas, kangaroos, birds, lizards
etc.) and hundreds of thousands of acres of Australia’s unique flora and farms have been lost.

If you want a great deal on some reference books while contributing in a small way to the heartbreaking job of the Red Cross and other relief agencies, then go to the link above, select your 5 books from SitePoint’s large offering (what you see on the blog page is just a sample of 5), and pay your $29.95 US by PayPal or credit card.

The books on offer are tools of the trade for many of us, and as it is a way you can support the victims of this horrible fire, I figured I should let you know about it.

(For other ways to donate to the human and animal carers, see http://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/giving/)

Dealing with large documents

Late last year I attended the ASTC (NSW) annual conference, where Helen Lewis spoke about the revised edition of a book she co-authored with Hilary Hudson: The Don’t Panic guide to annual report production.

I was very impressed with Helen’s presentation — enough to buy the book! It’s very good. While the authors’ focus and point of reference is producing annual reports for large government departments, the advice they offer applies to ANY large document or report for ANY organization. They cover all the bases from estimating time and project planning, to working with printers, editors, indexers, multiple writers, etc.

It’s only a short book (less than 100 pages), very easy to read, and packed full of essential information. It’s a worthy addition to any writer’s library.

You can buy a copy for AU$27.50 direct from the book’s website: http://www.annualreporter.com/

The Don't Panic Guide to annual report production