Blog archives 2008–now

Post titles seem to be from the most recent to the oldest, though some may be a little out of order (the WordPress ‘archives’ feature I’m using doesn’t seem to preserve the order of the posts all the time…).

• Word: All linked fields no longer linked, all styles set to Normal
• Kogan Agora phone: Black screen
• Word: Find text between chevron arrows and highlight it
• Word: Use the keyboard to add a word to the dictionary
• Update on DeskCycle Ellipse usage: 2.5 years on
• Word: Quick tips for find and replace
• Word: Make all instances of a specific word a hyperlink to a URL
• Contrast is essential
• Running out of space on Dropbox? Watch out for shared folders
• Professional editing standards and ethics
• Windows 11: Customise Explorer views and options
• From 3 or more weeks to just a few seconds
• Word: Replace ‘to’ in a number range with a dash
• Word: Find and replace maintaining original capitalisation
• That’s what you pay me for
• Word: A cautionary tale about Replace All
• Word: Shift punctuation to after a closing parenthesis
• Some perspective on ChatGPT and others in relation to technical writing
• Some things to try if emails aren’t getting through to you
• Good examples of the different types of editing
• Adobe Acrobat XI Pro: Always open PDFs at 100%
• Please give your children unique names… your descendants will thank you!
• Trying out Spoutible as a Twitter alternative
• Word: Table formatting issues
• When the job ad for an editor requires editing
• Word: An excellent introduction to wildcard find and replace in Word
• Some devices not connecting to the internet
• Silhouette images of animals, plants, and other life forms
• Word: Find and replace excess spaces and tabs before a paragraph mark
• Words to watch for: ‘the East’, ‘the Far East’ and ‘the Orient’
• Western Australians: RAC membership coverage: Things you may not know
• Windows: Can’t see files in folders
• Words matter: Systemic exclusion of women and their work
• Word: Find lower case letter after an opening quote mark and change to upper case
• Another bit of bragging
• Word: Macro to convert one set of styles to another (revised)
• ChatGPT: Some uses for editors
• ChatGPT: Writing Word VBA macro code: Another use for editors
• Remembering things I thought I’d forgotten
• ChatGPT is not the only AI writing tool
• Using ChatGPT to write editorial notes: Remove from acknowledgements
• Getting linked to from Gizmodo
• Advice about managers micromanaging text edits
• Word: Find italic punctuation and replace with normal
• Word: Unlink cross-referenced fields
• 2022 blog statistics summary
• Windows 10: Display hidden system tray icon
• Testing ChatGPT against an editor’s rewrite
• Bragging a bit
• Word: Change font colour for certain elements using find and replace
• Windows: List all files in a folder and its subfolders using Excel
• Some useful DOS and Windows commands
• Word: Get rid of all sorts of manually applied character formatting
• Software to find duplicate photos
• Tagging photos within Windows
• Word: Stop border lines being created from a string of asterisks or dashes
• Synology NAS: USB drive only partially seen
• Veeam server backup fails with snapshot / shadow copy error
• Centrelink ‘Something’s gone wrong’ document upload error message
• Word: Excellent presentation on some advanced tips for Microsoft Word
• Word: Text surrounding a cross-reference shows in list of tables
• Word: Update all fields in a document
• Word: Outline numbered headings start at a number other than 1
• Family history resources I use
• Malwarebytes continually blocks a program
• Word: Table cells won’t align
• Changes to Australian federal government departments
• Comprehensive list of courses related to editing
• Word: Format all cross-references as bold
• Dealing with references and author-date citations: Advice for authors
• Word to PDF: Table of Contents not clickable
• Looking for a new password manager: Part 4: mSecure
• Looking for a new password manager: Part 3: Dashlane
• Lost Facebook feed
• Looking for a new password manager: Part 2: LastPass
• Looking for a new password manager: Part 1: The search and initial testing
• 18 million hits
• External HDD disables mouse when plugged into USB hub
• Time on my VOIP phone keeps changing
• Finding devices and IP addresses on your network
• SharePoint: Won’t open a Word document in Office 365
• Word: DocProperty field won’t update
• Firefox: Hide the downloads panel
• Word: Custom heading styles cannot be used for caption numbering
• Word: Find all upper case words within parentheses and change to lower case
• Word: Deleting many unused styles at once
• Transfer speed affected by where you plug in the USB
• Delete specific browsing history in Chrome
• Capture a large cursor with SnagIt
• Change the mouse cursor size and colour for ease of finding it
• Windows: When shutdown doesn’t mean shutdown
• Thwarted by technology requirements
• Interesting summary of video statistics
• 2021 blog statistics
• Word: Italicise numbers inside parentheses
• PowerPoint: Remove alt text but preserve links when creating a PDF
• LG CI OLED TV and Foxtel Ultra HD (4K)
• Impact as a verb versus affect and effect
• LG CI OLED TV: Changing how the subtitles display
• Word: Apply a keyboard shortcut to a style
• Word: Replace HTML em markers with italics
• An introduction to Word’s styles
• Do I need a style guide?
• Word: Doubled-up user name in comments
• Using personal pronouns in corporate and academic writing
• Best. Unsolicited. Testimonial. Ever
• Word: Show comments only
• Camtasia: Some tips
• Word: Reinstating the old spellcheck dialog
• Blog: Hitting 17 million views/visits
• Camtasia: Speech to Text not available
• Windows: Customize file/folder view in Explorer by customizing the template used
• Amazon pricing sucks
• Windows 10: Lost your taskbar or desktop icons?
• Amazon gift cards are account- and/or country-specific
• Searching photo metadata using Windows Explorer
• Use Calibre to get a word frequency list
• Word has errors and won’t open
• Testing Antidote 10
• Add random numbers to media file names
• List of tasks done by technical editors
• The importance of backups
• Word: What you get depends on your version
• Word: Switch a footnote and following punctuation
• Word: Hyperlinks are no longer blue
• Word: Macro to show the Modern Comments pane and reduce its width
• Word: Testing Modern Comments and issues found
• Removing a device that won’t remove
• Acrobat: Bad parameter error when try to delete pages in a PDF
• Non-breaking spaces
• Chrome: Ctrl+f works intermittently
• Word: Modern Comments means the price goes up as productivity takes a massive hit
• Harmful language
• Get rid of WinZip popups
• My writing technology journey
• Word: Reformat text inside quote marks using wildcards
• You can change attitudes, one word at a time
• Word: Subscript and superscript weirdness
• Word: Keyboard shortcuts for macros are not working
• How to get the parts of a YouTube video using JDownloader
• Using Logitech Capture software with a Logitech C270 webcam
• Finding high resolution artwork from Apple TV, iTunes etc.
• Office 2021 standalone version announced
• Word: Find a special character written as text
• Variations in internet speed
• Webroot taking up most of CPU
• Good article on the differences between line and copy editing
• Clipboard popup in system tray area
• Update on DeskCycle Ellipse usage
• 2020 blog statistics
• Definition of technical editing
• Foxtel: Smartcard is not authorised
• Testing a Dyson battery
• Attempting to combat a very sedentary lifestyle
• Word: How to make popups in Word, using Word
• WordPress.com: Classic editor
• Word: Batch convert old DOC documents to DOCX
• Word: Add parentheses around a footnote number
• Word: Convert voice to text
• How to extract the audio from an MP4 file
• Word: How to find the Organizer window
• Facebook and FB Purity
• Acrobat: Apply Redactions not available
• Word: Find 3-digit numbers
• What an editor does
• Word: Large table won’t sort properly and other issues
• Word: Transpose punctuation characters at the end of a quotation mark
• Aptronyms
• Word: When spellcheck doesn’t work properly
• Word: Changing the punctuation before and after a page number
• Word: Shifting one set of information to a another place in the same paragraph
• Office: Read-aloud functions
• Some keyboard keys are mixed up
• Acrobat: Copy comments from one PDF to another
• Word: Some comments disappear in Simple Markup view
• Acrobat: Split a large PDF into multiple files
• Australian Style Manual update
• Gender-neutral (and other alternative) terms
• Logitech C270 webcam settings
• Using Zoom to record a presentation with no audience
• Word: Adding Alt Text to images
• Word: Format text marked with exclamation points as bold
• Word: Convert a PDF to a Word document
• Word: Displaying a style in the Styles gallery on the Home tab
• Word: Document goes to ‘read-only’ for no reason
• Word: Find and replace a word or phrase within a header or footer
• Word: Find and replace a word or phrase within comments
• Another milestone: 15 million views
• Bluprint: Getting your forever classes
• Word: Lost your document?
• Change browser bookmarks toolbar to icons only
• Word: Find and highlight hyperlinks
• Virtual backgrounds for online meetings
• Get through a recorded webinar faster
• COVID-19 update
• Word: Select a vertical section
• Word: Ctrl + arrow keys not working as expected
• Think of it as practice for your retirement
• Snagit: Quick way to get text from a PDF etc.
• Word: Add a web link to a document — quickly
• Word: Converting a link to a full URL
• Word: Macro to find and highlight a set of specified words
• Save a WebP file as another image file format
• Word: Add a euro symbol
• Word: Find whole numbers inside square brackets or parentheses
• Word annoyance: Insert row/column icon appears when try to select a row/column
• Solved: Wireless mouse stops working
• 2019 blog statistics
• And my work here is done!
• Lessons learned from a corporate report
• Word: Find text with angled brackets and replace the text with a character style
• Word: Find and highlight words of two or more capitals
• Generate BAS data using a MYOB (v19) report
• F12 to save as
• Different interpretations
• 20 years on
• Outlook 365: Temperature on the calendar
• Family Tree Maker not connecting to Ancestry.com
• Windows 10: If you don’t set a default printer, the last one used will be the default
• Windows 10: Can’t print a test page from Settings
• Word 365: Finding your own templates
• Windows 10: Reduce size of search box on taskbar
• Word 365: Save and send as PDF setting
• Windows 10: Change the color of the title bar from white to a contrasting color
• Video cables don’t seem to work
• Windows 10: Show scroll bars
• Windows 10: Permission error messages
• Should you use capitals for job titles?
• Fixing a file association issue
• Windows 10: Microphone not working
• Catching potentially expensive errors of fact
• Blast from the past: My first conference paper
• Word: Wildcard find and replace to put parentheses around numbers
• Word: Find text between quote marks and change to italic
• My notes about single touch payroll
• Word: Wildcard find and replace for a space after a special character
• Word: Quick way to deal with Track Changes
• Word: Macros to switch from No Markup to All Markup views
• Word: Apply a template
• Word: Macro to insert a landscape page
• IPEd Conference 2019: Day 2
• IPEd Conference 2019: Day 1
• IPEd Conference 2019: Workshop day
• Word: Macro-enabled templates stripped by Dropbox?
• Word: Change author/date citations to links to auto-numbered references
• Word: Add a separate list of appendices
• Word: Find a word surrounded by tags and make it bold
• Word: Webinar for Editors Canada
• Word: Find multiple manually entered numbers and delete
• Word: Delete, add, or change author name
• ACES Conference 2019: Providence, Rhode Island
• Word: Find and replace a custom font colour
• Word: A quick way to replace multiple spaces with a single space
• Word: Comment details not kept for reviewer
• Acrobat and Word: Tagging slows down PDF creation
• Word: Macro to autofit all tables to the window size
• Word: Find and replace multiple asterisks used as separator lines
• Word: Can’t open a template in Office 365
• Word: Mixed messages from Microsoft about Word 2019 functions
• Spellcheck is useless against real words with different meanings
• Monitoring bushfires
• 13 million visits
• Word: Fields won’t update
• Dropbox login not working
• Word: Macro to add left and right padding to all table cells in a document
• MYOB: Dealing with PayPal payments and merchant fees
• 2018 blog statistics
• Featured in the ACES blog
• Word: How to fix formatting and case differences in a Word index
• There’s always a word for that: tmesis
• Using VLC to split a video file
• The perils of global IT support
• Editing: It saves your readers’ sanity
• Word: Create a custom dictionary populated with thousands of terms
• Word: Apply a highlight to all tracked changes
• LavaCon2018: Day 3
• LavaCon2018: Day 2
• LavaCon2018: Day 1
• LavaCon2018: Workshop day
• Word: My process for copying content into a new template
• Word: Insert prime and double prime characters
• Word: Insert a degree symbol
• Word: Macro to set the language for ALL styles
• Word: Find ‘ing’ words and change their formatting
• Outlook: Spellcheck not working
• Word: AutoCorrect entries not working on some documents
• Windows: 100% disk usage
• Word: Make some specific text bold
• Word: Macro to convert from one style to another
• Google: Identify a song
• Google Docs: Speech to text function
• Some people’s words just make you smile
• Word: Extract file names of images
• Word: Extract Alt Text from images
• EditorsWA Winter Seminar, August 2018
• Microsoft hell with personal and business accounts
• Word: Selected text won’t move
• Word: The things you learn – scroll tabs on the ribbon
• Pin a folder to the Explorer folder in the Windows taskbar
• Word: Using EditTools to add multiple journal titles
• Word: Add a character to all items in a long list, and style it in a colour
• How a copyeditor can help your business
• Word: Wildcard find and replace for numbers inside parentheses
• Word: Finding duplicate words
• Word: Find all words with two or more capital letters
• Hitting 12 million
• About editing and editors
• Creating a Mac Command symbol in Windows
• Find the date a web page was last updated
• ACES Conference 2018: Chicago
• Synology NAS: Change file path for DLNA access
• New look website
• Wifi connection shuts down modem/router
• Word: Random filler for confidential documents
• US SIM cards
• Microsoft Style Guide
• Search inside multiple PDFs at once
• 2017 blog statistics
• A geoblocking variation
• All phone contacts added to car
• MalwareBytes: Context menu lost
• Word: Transpose Surname, Firstname to Firstname Surname
• Word: Find duplicated words
• Word: Find a year followed by a comma and replace with a semicolon
• Word: Wildcard replace with a backslash
• Word: Print Comments only
• ASTC 2017 Conference
• Word: Switch the number and punctuation order
• Work in the office? Not me!
• The benefits of downtime after a conference
• Conference etiquette
• Endnote notes
• IPEd Conference 2017: Day 2
• IPEd Conference 2017
• Google Developer Documentation Style Guide made public
• All about hex
• Excel: Convert hours and minutes to minutes
• New tribes
• Tagging photos
• Getting close…
• How long before this danger causes a problem?
• Word: Add padding to a character style
• Word: Copy AutoCorrect entries to another computer
• Word: List keyboard shortcuts, autotext, and autocorrect entries
• Word: Macro to add a value at the beginning of each row of a table
• Word: Unlock a password-protected document
• ACES Conference: 2017
• Windows won’t eject my storage device
• Telstra service status
• Methods for converting a scanned image of text into text
• Outlook: Lost the preview pane and minimized to the title bar only
• 2016 blog statistics
• Word: Find and replace multiple spaces after punctuation
• The problem with ‘simple’ instructions
• Using Avidemux to split a video file
• Windows 10: Create new folder takes ages: Solved
• PC lost connection to network: Solved
• Loud hum from speakers: Solved
• Noises in manuals
• EditorsWA Winter Seminar: Sex, lies and editing
• Word: Cross-Reference Manager add-in: Review
• Word: Assign keyboard shortcut to paste unformatted text
• Visio: Open two windows
• Word: Find expanded text or spaces
• Black screen on computer bootup
• Word: More lesser known keyboard shortcuts
• World domination achieved!
• Word: Get your computer to read your document
• Word: Change the gap between a footnote and the separator line
• Create a folder name with a period at the beginning
• Naming names: part 2
• Word: Resize a SmartArt graphic or a chart
• PowerPoint: Link to a specific place in a Word document
• What year is it?
• PowerPoint: How to show another app
• What a rip-off!
• 2015 blog statistics
• Word: Find and highlight multiple words at once
• Don’t rely on spellcheck
• IP address conflicts
• Plain language writing
• The usability of gravestones and memorial markers
• Handy feature for presentations
• Starting a sentence with a conjunction
• PowerPoint: Not all AutoCorrect entries are listed
• Word: Draft view icon missing in Word 2013
• Word: Browse Object icon missing in Word 2013
• Word: Track Changes settings
• Word: Applying a template to a new document doesn’t transfer Heading styles
• Word: Finding your own templates
• Word: Get rid of cloud save options
• Word: Get rid of the Start screen and open with a blank document
• Word: Change upper case names on the ribbon to lower case
• Word: Cross-reference dialog box doesn’t show some headings
• Word: Find and Replace features summary
• Mapping changing language
• Word: Find words with numerals and delete the numeral
• Word: Change subscripted numerals to normal and surround with square brackets
• Word: Wildcard find and replace for numbers and trailing punctuation
• Word: Automatically sorting a list
• Epic fail, Samsung
• Breville: Why do you need my date of birth?
• PowerPoint: Apply a template
• ACES 2015: Pittsburgh: Day 3: Friday 28 March
• ACES 2015: Pittsburgh: Day 2: Friday 27 March
• ACES 2015: Pittsburgh: Day 1: Thursday 26 March
• Word: Macro to run multiple wildcard find and replace routines
• Word: Wildcard replace transposes characters when track changes is on
• Webpage in Chrome won’t print in color on Brother MFC-9120CN
• Finding accurate bibliographic details for a References list
• Dust — the enemy of computers
• Dealing with ‘Properties of Materials’
• Word: Create a custom tab for your most-used tools
• Photoshop Elements: Process Multiple Files is grayed out
• How big?
• Stop Brother laser printer ‘Replace Toner’ message
• Installing Microsoft Office
• Children suck
• Very helpful, Australia Post… NOT!
• 2014 blog statistics
• Overpackaging
• Dealing with food allergies and sensitivities
• Codeshare check in at airports
• Plural vs possessive – it’s not hard
• Uploading photos from Android tablet to Flickr
• Proofread before publishing #2
• You’d think they’d try to match what was there before
• You can now purchase T-mobile SIM cards in Australia
• Off air for a few weeks
• Fix typing mistakes, only to make more
• Example: How documentation can save money on support calls
• Proofread before publishing
• Yep, punctuation matters
• Word: Table or table row goes to next page
• Firefox: Can’t open PDF in Acrobat
• Word: Changing parentheses to square brackets while preserving the contents
• Visio: Error 920
• Conference presentation annoyances
• I like this quote
• Excel table into Word — quick and easy method!
• Another cute 404 error message
• Plurals don’t take apostrophes — it’s not that hard
• Seagate 2TB drive will not do a Windows system image
• SOEWA Winter Seminar
• Ewww!
• Scary error message
• Word: Assigning automated cross-references
• Member of the Commonwealth? Not according to the BBC
• Blue carrots? Editor required!
• Really helpful user assistance… NOT!
• Apostrophe abuse
• Word: Auto aligning header/footer info in portrait and landscape pages
• Worst ‘char char’ ever?
• Natural synthetic? Really?
• Dealing with spans of numbers and symbols related to numbers
• Hyphenation
• Word: Turn off Track Changes before updating fields
• Word: Turn off ‘track formatting’ in Track Changes
• Microsoft Office: Quick Access Toolbar: Productivity benefits, how to customize it
• Be sure: Assure, ensure, or insure
• Hyphens or not
• Use of ‘the’ and ‘of’
• Word: Adding a list of tables, figures for a section
• PDF: Table borders not showing
• Installing Acrobat XI Pro just worked…
• Superscript note identifiers: Inside or outside punctuation?
• Flash Player v Firefox
• Bi- or semi-: What’s the difference?
• When government departments don’t check their own work
• Should you hyphenate words with prefixes?
• Who did what to whom
• Help right when and where you need it
• When spellcheck just doesn’t work…
• Monitor color differences
• Word: Macro to replace some hyphens with en dashes
• Troublesome words
• Word: Using tables more efficiently
• Word: Tracking changes by date
• Word: Cut/paste tracked changes from one document to another
• Word: Track Changes: Moves
• Word: Make all tracked changes the same color, regardless of author
• Word: Change caption numbering from sequential to chapter numbering
• Oops!
• Functional design
• More milestones… Four million views!
• Word: Jump back to a link
• Avoid ‘due to’ where possible
• WritersUA 2014: Day 3: Thursday 6 March
• WritersUA 2014: Day 2: Wednesday 5 March
• WritersUA 2014: Day 1: Tuesday 4 March
• WritersUA 2014: Pre-conference workshops
• Capitalizing common names of species
• Word: Resize all images in a document to the same width
• Word: Replace short date formats with months
• Word: True title case
• Word: Assign a macro to an icon on the QAT
• Word: Updating automated caption and cross-reference numbering
• Review: TechSmith Fuse
• Word: Insert a zero in front of single digit numbers
• Word: Replace All doesn’t work on selected text only
• Can Siri deal with Australian accents?
• 2013 blog statistics
• How word meanings change over time
• Charitable donation in lieu of Christmas cards
• Word: Cropping an image
• Various useful websites related to writing
• False advertising to suck you in
• Company is/Company are
• Names suiting occupation
• More find and replace tricks
• ‘So that’ versus ‘such that’
• Microsoft marketing needs a proofreader
• Unfortunate kerning…
• Super easy zebra-striped tables using CSS selectors
• In what world is this usable?
• The good, the bad, and the ugly of assembly instructions
• Mixed error messages
• Serendipitous placement
• Verbing nouns
• Copyright label on clothing
• More on plurals
• Tablets and seniors
• Plural of ‘Basis of Design’
• Word: Comparing two documents
• Firefox Sync Manage Account not visible
• Word: Deleting a locked content control
• Flying edits
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z: WiFi connection issues
• Dealing with abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms
• Common image sizes for social media
• Word = chocolate!
• Book review: Planning and Structuring User Assistance
• Book review: Designing Templates and Formatting Documents
• Word: Use multiple outline numbering sequences in the SAME document or not?
• Word: Getting an Excel table into Word
• Should you fix the window size in Help?
• Do you want two letters or not?
• Problem-solving chart
• Spitting Coke
• When to use non-Australian spelling
• Affect v Effect
• Manual voting and data matching sucks
• Headline and image juxtaposition
• That versus which
• No wonder the world has a plastic problem
• Misleading ads from Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Mental model disconnection
• Honoring a customer service promise
• Another milestone! Three million views
• Word: Add a watermark to all sections at once
• Microsoft: Improve the OS, remove features
• Values need correct units
• Flying in infinite loops with Qantas
• Windows 7: ‘Open With’ function disappears for multiple files
• I love a good understatement
• Word: Removing reviewer names
• I have to do what?
• Thoughtful and useful response to a web form
• Telstra to T-Mobile settings on phone
• Hard-hitting message in one simple poster
• WritersUA Conference: Day 2: 8 March 2013
• WritersUA Conference: Day 1: 7 March 2013
• ConveyUX Conference 2013: Day 3: 6 March 2013
• ConveyUX Conference 2013: Day 2: 5 March 2013
• ConveyUX Conference 2013: Day 1: 4 March 2013
• Help should be at the point of need
• It works for vacuum cleaners, and now for irons
• Well, hello there!
• Email etiquette at work
• Word: Stop Word from auto capitalizing the first word of bullet items
• Word: Moving a table row quickly
• Quote marks: Singles or doubles?
• Let’s update the update…
• Windows: File path character limit
• Acts of Parliament: Italics or not
• Word: Extracting original images from a document
• PDF: Corrupted image and lost links
• Wishy-washy words like ‘it’ and ‘this’
• Windows Media Player: Display album art at full size
• 2012 blog statistics
• Strange error message
• Parallel banking
• Australia Post: Please test your web forms
• The frustration of trying to buy something legally
• Who needs reindeer when you have kangaroos?
• No wonder I couldn’t get connection
• Working my way through 200+ pages of this…
• Points, picas, inches, and millimetres
• Book recommendation: Just my type
• White listing a URL in Trend Worry-Free Business Security
• A light-hearted look at how punctuation can change meaning
• Word 2010: Keyboard shortcut to paste unformatted text
• What’s going on in India?
• Day, night, anytime: Time and date formats
• Awww… Cute 404 message
• Word: Number of rows and/or columns in a table
• Learned vs learnt
• Ticket lunacy!
• Presentation: Remote working: Telecommuting from the trenches
• Presentation: Editing: It’s not as easy as it looks
• ASTC(NSW) 2012 annual conference: Day 2
• Resources for ‘Remote Working’ presentation
• ASTC(NSW) 2012 annual conference: Day 1
• Tightening your writing
• ASTC (NSW) annual conference
• Gobbledygook, jargon, and plain language
• Acrobat: Setting permissions on a PDF document
• Cross-references
• Cryptic error message
• PDF won’t deal with Word landscape pages properly
• Outlook: Globally change Country/Region for contacts
• Word: Valid measurement units for indentation
• Me, myself, I
• A different sort of scam
• Do they really think we’re that stupid?
• Inserting a ‘This page intentionally left blank’ message
• I love my work colleagues!
• A job ad that pulls no punches
• Confusing sign
• Signs and labels that make you go ‘Oops!’
• Word: Lesser known keyboard shortcuts
• Word: Add more levels to a TOC
• Exchange Server connection on Android can delete ALL data
• SIM card not recognized
• Word: TOC picks up Figure and Table captions and other oddities
• Word: Carriage returns, not paragraph returns
• More about creating eBooks from Word documents
• Word: Styles pane completely blank
• Word: Blank pages when document is printed
• Word: Updating fields takes forever
• Exchange Server sync with phone not working
• Milestone! Two million views
• Do they grow the cotton first?
• Quick way to capture screens to show problems
• Neat trick to minimise windows
• Unfortunate URL shortening
• Confusing warning
• Microsoft Word crashes: Recovery options
• Acrobat Help? Not very helpful
• How to find out author and date details for a PDF
• Thwarted by online forms that have geographical restrictions
• Fixing some table of contents update issues
• Quoting from other material
• Word: Working with headers and footers
• Can’t see the AppData folder?
• MYOB v2011: Registry entries
• Visual edits: Power to the people
• Keyboard not working
• More labeling woes
• Another strange label
• Mixed messages
• Word: Compare documents not working
• Excel: Convert seconds to minutes
• Word: More find and replace with wildcards
• WritersUA Conference 2012
• Windows Media Player database
• Minimal punctuation
• Office 2010: Paste Options button not displaying
• MYOB: They’ve got Australian businesses caught between a rock and a hard place
• Another meaningless error message
• Word: Sometimes a List of Tables/Figures just won’t update
• Outlook: Delay the delivery of an email
• Adobe explains why their pricing is different in various countries
• Spellcheck blunder
• More internet woes… and solutions
• Local connection only
• T-Mobile: Phone, text OK, but no internet
• More hotel win-win savings
• Word: Table borders don’t hold
• It’s all about style
• Intermittent posts for the next month or so
• Too many steps
• How long?
• Tooltip typo
• WritersUA: Last chance to order for personal delivery
• WritersUA Conference: Only a few weeks to go
• Word: Delete tabs and page numbers from the end of a paragraph
• Consistency: Pick one. Stick with it.
• Word: Insert a space between a number and a letter
• Prize offerings
• Context is everything
• Creating an eBook from a Word document
• Word: Change case after a period
• Excel doesn’t allow you to view or specify keyboard shortcuts
• Word: Multilevel Appendix headings
• Trust is an issue
• Better than winning Lotto
• To cap or not to cap, that is the question
• The online world is global, right?
• Guess they don’t get many complaints
• Just get a $2 throwaway SIM, they said
• Adobe pricing sucks
• Fun with road safety signs
• Would you condense your knowledge into a single email — for free?
• What was Adobe thinking?
• Microsoft Lync status sets itself to Busy
• Windows: Get rid of the unused desktop icons message
• Word: Find and replace multiple spaces between words
• Word: Find and replace multiple spaces before a number
• Word: Find and replace multiple spaces after a punctuation mark
• The saga of this blog’s PayPal ‘Donate’ button
• 2011 blog statistics
• Word 2007 and later: Table Tools tabs
• MYOB AccountRight 2011: Upgrade issues
• Word: Styles get overwritten on another computer
• Amazon: Synonym for ‘confusing’
• Word: Error opening a Word 2010 document in Word 2007
• Cool map of LinkedIn connections
• Charitable donation instead of Christmas cards
• No, no, no!
• Outlook won’t open
• Word: Turn off automatic hyphenation
• Word: Header and footer display in footnote
• Word: Delete all comments at once
• Magazines are edited, right?
• The serial or Oxford comma
• Word: Page size not listed
• Escape? Cancel? What…?
• Error messages that make you feel stupid
• Keep your relatives close!
• Word: Remove a stubborn watermark
• Funny news headline
• Installation confusion
• Tighten up your writing by removing redundant/unnecessary words
• WritersUA Conference 2012
• Honesty in job advertising
• Keeping it straight: Parallel structure
• A bit of an understatement…
• Word: Keyboard shortcut for adding a comment
• Edit a PhD science thesis?
• The state I’m in
• Word: Set the language for a style
• Word: Macro to set the language for most elements
• Word: Mail merge loses merged data from page 2 header
• See all fonts on your computer at once
• Suspicious Google search results
• The right tool for the job… or not!
• When you have to refresh a popular website
• What’s with all those svchost.exe items in Task Manager?
• What’s really included?
• So, what’s it made of?
• Smartphone operating systems and Microsoft Exchange Server compatibility
• Word: Reattach Excel mail merge data source
• Classic menu typo
• Technical Writing 101: References and citations
• Open day at desalination plant
• One million views
• Brain connections
• Housing reservations?
• De-stressing
• Technical Writing 101: Terms list
• Word: Table of Contents articles revisited
• Word: Insert a tab in a table cell
• Word: Custom headers and footers the easy way
• Vista: Get menus back
• Excel was around before electricity!
• If you set a limit, then set it properly
• Word: Freaky field codes on display
• Excel: Force a line break in a text cell
• For those who asked…
• Acrobat: Strange Word document header behaviour
• He wants accurate and cheap? He’s dreaming!
• How do people with mobility issues get on?
• Talking Word
• Google — you are too funny!
• Word: Can anyone help?
• Word: Macro to insert a formatted table and an automated caption
• Word 2010: Spiffy ligatures and stylistic sets
• Word: Insert a multi page PDF
• Print a file poster size
• It’s not the only problem they have
• Outlook: Reusable text snippets
• Specialist dictionaries etc.
• Vista: Add network icon to system tray
• Test your web forms!
• Signs and symbols: The meaning should be clear
• Cleaning the gunk from your keyboard
• Cleaning mouse feet
• Word: Find non breaking hyphens
• Is the website ready for launch?
• MYOB: Find previous General Journal entries
• Word: Macro to change first letter after a colon to upper case
• Firefox: Organize bookmarks
• Word: Change the case of the first letter of each bullet list item
• Word: Macro to show all formatting on opening a document
• Word: Macro to turn off Track Formatting
• Firefox: Get back your list of recent pages
• Some days editing is a challenge
• Word: Add something just before a table cell marker
• MYOB: Don’t tell me how to set up my monitors
• Prophetic typo?
• Word: Insert mathematical symbols
• Word: Macro to change headings to sentence case
• What goes into a Project Charter?
• Excel: Save a worksheet as an image file
• Search limitations
• How the CIA can help technical communicators
• Word: Dialog Box names for VBA
• Word: Macros to delete all tables and figures
• How long to edit a 50-page software manual
• Rewarding people
• Word: Replace and reformat text inside square brackets using wildcards
• Word: Transferring the QAT to another PC
• Building a sustainable business
• Great PR from PC Guru
• Preserving and sharing historical arts and crafts
• Ways that color communicates meaning
• Excel: Reference lists in another worksheet
• They can’t be serious…
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• Guest post: Technical writing: The craft of word working
• Word 2010: Recover an unsaved — and closed — document
• Blooper typo
• Why ‘login’ is not a verb
• Someone forgot to delete the unwanted line
• Word: Change date formats from Excel data
• Someone will be in trouble for this
• Stop Google from auto filtering your search terms
• Amazon phone number
• Broken links can be fatal to your business
• Editing and rewriting
• Vacuuming is hazardous to your server’s health
• Sometimes I feel like Rick Wakeman
• Copyediting from a copyeditor’s perspective
• Windows: Open any program with a shortcut key
• Word: Highlight remains even after I’ve cleared it
• If only…
• Outlook: Create an email template
• Word: Great resource for 1750+ Word commands
• What has BlackBerry got against apostrophes?
• You know it’s going to be a long day…
• Whether or not
• Learning Author-it
• Word: Toggle Keep Track of Formatting
• Word: Creating conditional text
• I’ll review your writing
• Surprisingly, they got ‘occasion’ right
• Even editors miss typos
• Firefox 4: Practice what you preach
• Word: Very slow to load and respond. Solved.
• And the abuse of apostrophes continues…
• Malcolm Gladwell speaking in Australia
• The power of good copyediting
• How styles change
• Word: Run-time error 380 fix
• Amazon Kindle connection process
• Word: Reduce large image sizes with picture compression
• Captivate 5: Saving to a YouTube file format
• Questions to ask new clients
• Word: Where the language settings are stored
• Spelling errors in Windows Small Business Server
• Token language gesture
• The lack of a comma changes meaning
• SharePoint: Adding a company logo
• It’s a gas, gas, gas…
• PowerPoint: Adding a sound to an animation
• Outlook Web Access: Tips for use
• High speed broadband. Really?
• Win-win savings for hotels and customers
• When is a sale price not a sale price?
• Great cushion
• How many is too many?
• WritersUA Conference, 2011: Day Three
• WritersUA Conference, 2011: Day Two
• WritersUA Conference, 2011: Day One
• There’s a reason it’s called Long Beach
• Woohoo! Hyatt gets it right!
• On the road again
• Word: How to find out your printer’s printable area
• How hard is it to copy files from XP to Vista?
• Word: Use the power of AutoCorrect to save heaps of time
• Word 2010: Publish to a blog
• WritersUA: Last chance to order for personal delivery
• Word: Adding a TOC for a section
• Word: Show Bookmarks
• There’s no excuse for spelling errors on the interface
• When Captcha can’t even be read by a human
• I’ve been told I’m too harsh…
• When the employer/employee relationship goes bad
• Word: Getting a two-line heading onto one line in the Table of Contents
• WritersUA and SoCal tech writers: Gig in Carlsbad
• Acrobat: Reduce the file size of a scanned PDF
• Microsoft Action Pack Subscription
• Word 2010: Wishlist for the Navigation Pane’s search
• Word 2010: Differences with Word 2007
• Word 2010: Step-by-step SmartArt
• Word 2010: You too can be an artist!
• Word 2010: Remove the background from an image
• Word: Why can some actions be repeated but not others?
• Let’s just shift an entire region and hope no-one notices
• WritersUA Conference: Only a few weeks to go
• Microsoft style guides for languages other than English
• Gee, thanks Adobe
• Word: Error messages
• Amateur editor
• When is a good time to update your backend web software?
• Captivate 5: Inserting a full-size image
• How to use the Download Flash and Video add-on for Firefox
• Pay your web developer on time
• Top 10 web design pet peeves
• Word 2007: I lost my images!
• Outlook 2007: Display an HTML file in an email message
• Word: Field codes
• Word 2007 and 2010: Aligning the punctuation of numbers in a numbered list
• Humor and friendly chat in user documentation
• Handy reference for finding height above sea level
• Word: Repagination horror
• 2010 blog statistics
• Word: How to remove a page break without removing the following heading style
• Where did you live again?
• Word: Copying macros from one document to another when the Organizer doesn’t work
• Confusing message
• Replicating a typo
• Why hide important installation information?
• Word 2010: Videos of new features
• Word: Repeating text within a document
• Taking a short break from blogging
• Placement of adjectives and adverbs
• Word 2007: Building Blocks add extra characters to fields
• It’s a question, dammit
• Charitable donation instead of Christmas cards
• Word 2007: Citation and Bibliography function
• Incident with a chair
• Word: Bookmark names
• Word 2007: Insert an odd page break before each Heading 1
• All of a sudden…
• Hyatt hotel online reservation form
• Digital overkill?
• Captivate 5: Confusing toolbar icons
• Captivate 5: First experiences of using Community Help
• Captivate 5: The missing bits
• Captivate 5: How to make a button really transparent
• Captivate 5: Turn off text caption box auto resizing
• Don’t designers ever use the products they design?
• Captivate 5: Change the Help options
• Captivate 5: Get line, rectangle objects to display
• Wow! An Adobe upgrade that worked
• Adobe Captivate: Reduce bloated file sizes
• It’s not rocket science…
• Word 2007: Show the Developer tab
• Travel: Single supplement price gouging
• Word 2007: Unlocking locked functions
• Word: Pages go to landscape when accepting all Track Changes
• Windows Live Messenger error
• How to annoy customers
• Cool PowerPoint tip!
• A form in need of user assistance
• Word 2010: Developer tab
• Word 2010: First impressions…
• Word 2007: Add Keep with Next to the toolbar
• Yum yum… A search site just for recipes
• Convert MP4 to DVD
• Word: Macro to unlink hyperlinks
• Telstra did ask… so I told them!
• It’s all about context
• Trend affects ping rate. Why?
• Word: Stop hyphens breaking over a line
• Word: Pasting a row into a table doesn’t keep the column widths
• Sporadic posting…
• Word 2007: Resizing a graphic makes it go really small
• My disk icons are now folders — why?
• Standards for ‘default’ values?
• Truth in real estate copy
• I love this!
• Where was that?
• Looking for non existent server paths
• Number 9, number 9
• TweetDeck typo
• Word: Header row won’t repeat revisited
• Small Business Server 2008 loses default gateway on reboot
• Email faux pas
• Adobe Captivate 3 crashes on opening
• What’s in a letter?
• Google’s doodles
• Test fonts before adding them to your website’s CSS
• Infographic of how Google works
• No post today
• Google grammar
• Don’t poke the dragon
• Doing a synonym search in Google
• Naming names
• Word 2007: Create a numbered Appendix heading style
• When green means stop and red mean go
• Word: Use the Organizer to copy macros, styles from one document to another
• Safety symbols
• Why doesn’t ALL software have an import/export settings function?
• Reading between the lines…
• Word 2007: Table of Contents won’t update
• Word: Find and replace any number of spaces
• The dark side of email
• Word: Save your macros to a separate file
• Firefox: Save your bookmarks
• Windows: Show all System Tray icons
• Word: Turn off that annoying ‘insert date’ feature
• Just because it’s cute!
• Alright already!
• Word: Change case
• Word: Macro to show field shading etc.
• Visio: Fuzzy text, part two
• Word: Assign a keyboard shortcut to a task
• The reality of conference calls
• Prioritizing your work
• Policies vs procedures
• Let me show you the ways…
• Dealing with a developer who wants to edit your grammar
• When was that?
• Australia Post: Inequitable charging
• Telstra. Bastards!
• Australia Post: Why make it so hard?
• Word: Unknown blue squiggly
• Word annoyance: Spell checking duplicate species names
• Message to Microsoft: Fix Word’s cross-reference dialog box. Please.
• Letter to local Member of Parliament re the NBN
• Continuous page numbering?
• Word: Autofit a table to the width of the page margins
• Default Vista fonts not available in Office 2007 applications
• How to write a security advisory
• Boss from hell
• Word 2007: Deleting individual documents from the Recent Documents list
• The problem with readability scores
• American vs British spelling
• Writing metric units of measure
• Word: Unbolded caption numbers
• If only this would happen in real life
• And in breaking news…
• A different 404 error message
• Dating
• Speaking of CYA documentation…
• Word: Link to a place in another document
• New Google image search
• Word 2007: Create an automatic Table of Contents
• Word 2007: Setting up protected form fields
• Comparing careers: Technical communicators and librarians
• Step 1: Assemble
• Word: Putting the file path in the document
• Kitchen sponges break?
• Visio: Fuzzy text
• Logos and fonts: Channeling my inner feminist
• Word 2007: Document goes to ‘read-only’ for no reason
• Sensible support advice
• Word: Getting rid of the ‘Jason tab’ in a TOC
• The giraffe guy doesn’t have many to go now
• Rating these blog posts
• Do it right the first time
• Word: Remove a link
• Word: My styles pane is a mess!
• Acrobat: Back and Forward buttons
• Word: What are the blue squiggly lines?
• Welcome to 2010, Australian Tax Office!
• Stating the bleeding obvious
• Word: Adding a bar over a letter
• The technical communicator’s manifesto
• Talking head or live person?
• Designing for a good user experience (UX)
• Channeling Rumsfeld in a 404 error message
• A ‘must-read’ for every traveler
• Guest post on editing efficiently with Microsoft Word
• Screen capture tools
• Browser support for HTML5 and CSS3
• Word 2007: Taming multilevel list numbering
• Comprehensive guide to touch gestures
• How to delete an online account
• Search multiple style guides simultaneously
• Sizes, shapes — all in one place
• Learn how to read old English handwriting
• Taking a few days off
• Word: Replace one style with another
• Word: Show styles in use
• Subscribe to this blog via email
• Word: Recheck spelling of words you ignored previously
• The purpose of documentation
• Great sig line
• It’s how you deal with a problem that counts
• The power of a single word
• Word: Jump to next Track Change with keyboard
• The power of checklists
• Word: Find text and make it italic
• When two worlds collide
• Text preferences survey results
• Word: Remove excess paragraph marks
• “In the event of my death…”
• The importance of an About page — and what you should include in it
• A good case for cutting dead words
• Cute geeky t-shirt
• Short video on how to edit a Wikipedia article
• Acrobat: View Word’s Track Changes in PDF
• Free templates for business and personal documents
• Word: Display styles for each paragraph
• Dealing with negative blog comments
• Here’s why Australians buy phones in the US
• More inexplicable pricing
• Funny typography photo
• How much can documentation save in support calls?
• 1000th post!
• Assumption: The US *is* the world
• Unread messages in Inbox
• Word: Show all marks
• Semaphore timeout period?
• A treasure Trove!
• Measuring screen elements
• Says who?
• Page navigation – top AND bottom, please
• Job application pet peeves
• Word: Show table grid lines
• So, what did the fish do?
• Only in Australia 2
• Unfortunate word wrap
• Excellent resource on typography
• Multiple products in the one manual?
• Practising what you preach
• iTunes showing up in German
• ANZAC Day
• A $20K proofreading error
• Awesome Help!
• Critiquing the UI of a web form
• Word: Add a Back button to the toolbar
• Typeface decision tree
• Word: Show those fields
• Beware auto-generated emails
• Great quote about giving presentations
• Usability of in-flight entertainment systems
• Changing UI design — All or none?
• Progress bar alternative?
• Enchanted visuals
• Word: Repeat immediate past action
• Watch out for those arrows!
• Avoiding clogging your inbox with large attachments
• Free online techie training for Microsoft products – and more
• Date entry error
• Word: Concordance/word list creators
• Book review: The Compass
• But which blue?
• Quality aspects of website design
• Word 2007: Add TOC shortcut to QAT
• Another meaningless error message
• How visible are the main areas on your website?
• Word: Table row goes to new page
• BBC website makeover
• Internet speeds
• What do the US, Liberia and Burma have in common?
• Word: Header row won’t repeat
• WritersUA 2010 Conference: Day 3
• WritersUA 2010 Conference: Day 2
• WritersUA 2010 Conference: Day 1
• Hotel internet access
• Find a bank’s BSB number (Australia)
• BibliOdyssey: A treasure trove of delights
• Testing a website in various browsers
• Online collaborative outlining tool
• Looking to buy a style manual?
• In defense of bullet points
• Looking for a royalty-free photo?
• Telstra: User experience FAIL!
• Word: Remove formatting from cross-references
• Blogging and Tweeting at conferences
• Wikipedia’s Manual of Style
• Opera Web Standards Curriculum
• Word 2007: Using SEQ fields for numbering
• Popular Science archives
• Using graphics to convey an error message
• Microsoft Ribbons and the like
• Zoomable paper map
• User manual frustrations
• It just worked
• Hard reboot of a notebook computer
• OMG-WTF continuum
• Need to write a mission statement?
• Adobe Captivate videos
• Personality test using colors
• Usability/accessibility of web conferencing tools
• Word: Text butting up against page numbers in a TOC
• Moving on…
• Security levels by country
• No, I don’t know anything about computers!
• Online sketching tool
• Naming your new product, company or website
• Working with RGBA colors in CSS3
• Word: Getting rid of odd styles in an auto TOC
• Using a database to store content
• Can you help this guy get one million giraffes?
• Ten things not to Tweet about
• 17 tips for better writing
• Should I put screen shots in online Help?
• More on writing…
• Charging for travel time
• Got a Kindle? a Nook? or similar?
• Oops…
• Computer ownership life cycle
• How long will the editing take?
• How long will it take? And what will it cost?
• Outlook: Save multiple attachments at once
• Google Reader tips
• Word: Jumping to next table, graphic, or field
• What the?
• Web design hell
• Citing web pages that disappear
• Word: Remove unwanted styles quickly
• Periodic tables seem to be all the rage
• Focus, focus, focus
• Word: Find highlighted text
• Creating your own cartoons — for free
• Panoramic image stitching software from Microsoft
• Bug tracking software
• Microsoft joins the connection party
• What happens to a blog post?
• Games, collaboration and education
• Acrobat: Convert scanned image of text to text
• Top job
• Customer Support loop
• Basics of writing a press release
• Documentation: Backup for UI deficiencies?
• Avoiding presentation disasters
• Clients to avoid
• Create presentations on the move
• Oops! Badly redacted document causes TSA nightmare
• The great gender divide?
• Data validation failure
• Word 2007: Citation and bibliography styles
• WordPress.com: Making charts from statistics
• Varieties of business writing
• Useful Google Docs features
• Calendars galore!
• Who can we trust, then?
• Let’s hear it for librarians!
• Revisiting another year of blogging
• PowerPoint 2007: Set language for all text
• Visual dictionary
• System and network security abbreviations
• Contract renewed
• ‘Twas the night before Christmas…
• Creating a PDF of a multi workbook Excel 2007 spreadsheet
• New website for software documentation and user assistance
• “You’ve come a long way, baby!” Really?
• Recent surveys from WritersUA
• You want a picture with that stick figure?
• Great communication — NOT
• Wow! Great advice for new college/uni students
• Round-up of useful usability resources
• Examples of all sorts of diagrams
• Donations in lieu of Seasons Greetings
• Word: Cursor is tiny
• You want what?
• The power of plain English
• Writers and editors working together
• Business and financial terms
• Giving helpful feedback
• Internet Explorer 8: Changing the text editor
• Word: Taking back control
• Breadth vs depth
• Word: Tool to create a list of abbreviatons
• Conferences and Twitter backchannels
• All sorts of JavaScript tooltips
• There are no words for the stupidity of this
• Kathy Sierra on readable user manuals
• Very cool Google image tool
• Looking for a new camera?
• Vista: Create FTP shortcut with login details
• 2009 WritersUA Annual Skills and Technologies Survey
• WritersUA 2010 Conference for Software User Assistance
• Typographic howlers
• Sketch out your car accident
• What is it about time pickers?
• Product labels: 2
• Install multiple free applications at once
• Product labels: 1
• Windows Help Viewer for Windows 7
• Are you a grammar nerd?
• Typefaces laid out like a Periodic Table
• What makes you a professional?
• Fully uninstalling Trend Micro
• Word 2007: Using Table Styles
• Word: Using Quick Tables
• Software defect reduction: Top 10 list
• Safety moment: Watch out for those office plants!
• A graphic that’s worth a thousand words
• Euphemism for the sack
• Still supporting multiple versions of IE?
• Captivate: Change the autotext for captions
• Word: Quickly moving between headers and footers
• Short list of website testing tools
• Three terrific writing How To’s
• Word: Superscripts and subscripts
• Free quick reference guides to popular software applications
• Websites 101
• Working towards happy users
• Tech Support flow chart
• Capturing your inspirational moments
• Switch your regional Google search page to Google.com
• Word: Deleting a bookmark
• Book review: The Global English Style Guide
• Word: Separate out macros and attach them to all documents
• Great quote about the value of content
• Word: Macro to fix Track Changes/Cross References issues and accept all field changes
• Making the case for renewing STC membership
• Word: Can’t add a comment
• UI wireframe and prototyping resources
• Word: Turn off pagination
• Spring cleaning
• Grammar basics in a poem
• Accolades
• Pre-populating email links
• Quick currency conversions using Google
• New to CSS? or just need a refresher?
• Create a simple survey in Google Docs
• Word: Use keyboard to browse text boxes
• Beware the ‘more work for you’ line
• Wikis for documentation and business
• Word: Recover lost documents
• HTML tooltips: The easy way
• Convert to/from various Wikis
• Dipping into the flat ocean of information
• Before the coffee kicks in: 404 error
• Everything you wanted to know about Twitter
• Testing designs on mobile devices
• Read-aloud PDFs
• Cost of not checking the documentation
• Podcasts: User Experience
• Cute 404 error!
• The clock is running
• Can traditional publishers add value in an online world?
• Word 2007: Tips for using built-in table styles
• Interaction design principles
• Random text generator
• How to build a business case
• Made me pause…
• Bottom line decision making
• Word: Fixing a Table of Contents
• User assistance by any other name would smell as sweet
• Computer terms
• Online meeting schedulers
• Word: All about indexing
• Email: Use plain text
• Internet connection issues?
• Change the keyboard shortcut for an application
• Freelance editing rates
• 60 day system outage = outrageous!
• Australian book prices
• Word: When Restart Numbering doesn’t work
• Book review: Conversation and Community
• Acronym Finder
• How ANZSCO and the ATO sees technical writers
• What you can and can’t ask in a job interview
• Want to find out more information about a phone number?
• DITA basics
• Cat fight! Trend v Spybot
• Can inanimate objects own or do things?
• Word: Changing the default font
• User interface design revisited
• All 100K+ Unicode characters and more…
• Make a hotel reservation, get a rad combo box!
• Word: Set the Styles that users see in a template
• User interface style guides
• “Yay! I get to click the ‘Next’ button!”
• I know the person this happened to
• Always have a back-up safety plan
• Word 2007: File locations
• Word: Replace text containing superscript and subscript characters
• Word: Quick way to look for orphaned content
• “What’s that there?” Computer hardware chart
• Bypassing the server to get to the internet
• Customer Support response
• Great spin
• Two different approaches to words
• This is why you need an editor
• This is new… or I’m blind
• Editing: Terms and citations in long documents
• What are you worth?
• Writing resources
• They have to be joking…
• I love new terms!
• Happy 10th birthday, CyberText!
• Add steps, tips etc. to videos
• Round-up of 50 free lessons in graphic design
• Annoying Outlook Express messages even though not using OE!
• Interweaving words and fabric
• Telling it like it is
• Visual resumes and CVs
• Microsoft Office 2007 shortcut keys
• No wonder users get frustrated
• Unofficial Author-it wiki
• Everything you need to know to make accessible documents
• Business happiness wrapped up in a Venn diagram
• How hard is it to add another name to a hotel reservation?
• Bad/non-existent doco = Bad review!
• How Twitter deals with suspended accounts
• Presentation: Techniques for Reviewing a User Interface
• Author-it: Importing Word 2007 DOCX files
• The vendor-client relationship
• Dictionaries starting to recognize Twitter terms?
• Remote user and user interface testing
• Word: Keyboard shortcut to paste unformatted text
• Presentation: Reviewing Screen-based Content
• Don’t make the next step difficult
• Documenting a live user interface
• Content types: Metadata for content
• Word: Change date format from Excel data
• Offshoring, outsourcing and globalization
• What’s wrong with this picture?
• Presentation: Customizing HTML Outputs from Author-it
• Blog post gone viral!
• Microsoft Help3 resources
• Dig through to the other side
• 45 ways to get out a rut
• A picture is worth a thousand words
• Word: Change decimals from Excel data
• Presentation: Time-saving Techniques Using Author-it
• New search engines and other cool stuff
• Word 2003: Create separate mail merge documents
• Way cool infinite photo mosaic
• Everyone can write, right?
• Who says technical writers don’t have a sense of humor?
• Presentation: Author-it Tips and Tricks
• Acrobat: Rearrange pages
• Employer preferences for resumes and cover letters
• Word annoyance: Mail merge fields
• Graph paper generator
• Word: Import an Excel table
• Very clever paper prototypes
• Presentation: Training 101
• List of plain language alternatives
• 10 ways developers can reduce user frustration
• Author-it’s Xtend gets its first patent
• Word: Accept formatting Track Changes but not text
• Word annoyance: Cross-referencing
• A different perspective on economics
• Intelligent error message
• Consistency reduces confusion
• “Written skills preferred”
• WordPress now allows Slideshare embedding
• More hints for confusing words
• Immersing yourself in the writing
• Browsers are male!
• Little Red Riding Hood in tech writer speak
• What different colors mean in different countries
• Excel: Create a drop-down list
• Facebook manners
• Creating a non-scrolling title for a webpage
• Internet Explorer: Cannot type in a field
• Australia Post: Substantial discounts
• Word: Modify Table of Contents tab settings
• Show multiple time zones at once
• Color scheme tools
• Word closure
• Word: Issue with multiple blank pages
• Incomprehensible interface labels
• How to annoy 22m people
• Even everyday objects need clear writing
• When readers can’t read
• Quote for tough times
• Upgrade Acrobat 6 Pro to Acrobat 9 Pro
• Windows: No to all
• Vista: Rebuild indexes
• Power adaptor pack
• Table and figure numbering
• Compound words
• This week’s safety moment
• Amazing technology
• Vista: Classic Windows Explorer view
• Brilliant support from WordPress
• Confluence Wiki for $5
• Work for hire contract in plain English
• New financial terms
• A short history of cookbooks
• About footnotes and endnotes
• Convert one video format to another
• Get a degree under false pretences
• Vista: Setting TXT file association for EditPlus
• Still young, white and male
• Fonts: Reading PDFs and ebooks on screen
• Think you know your sentence structure?
• Etiquette for commenting on blog posts
• Vista: Display the menu bar
• Fully fluid web design
• User Assistance in Web Forms
• Interview with Scott McCloud
• Not perfect — just done
• MYOB error messages
• Published
• I just spotted a one-legged woman…
• WritersUA 2009: Day 3
• Interview with Mary Jo Foley
• WritersUA 2009: Day 2
• WritersUA 2009: Day 1
• I joined Twitter
• WritersUA 2009: Registration Day: Sunday 29 March
• Decision making technique
• Ten funny ‘out of office’ email responses
• Some people are crying out for good Help
• Clean up your writing
• Word: Cross-reference goes onto next page
• For those who don’t get Twitter
• ‘My computer is dead’
• Images not displaying in Firefox 3
• Word: About hidden text
• Vista: Find the program running a process
• Windows XP: Event Logs
• ColorPix: Find a color value
• Author-it: Variants and searching
• User experience basics
• You or users?
• PaintShop Pro: Find a color value
• Even the gurus see the value in Help
• Office 2003: Set the default language
• Estimating technical writing projects
• Writing consumer product instructions
• When marketing meets technical communication
• Using ‘Please’ in error messages
• Do not leave the documentation until last
• Word: All about sections
• National Grammar Day
• Typography sweatshirt
• Finding a Microsoft Product Key for an installed product
• A style guide and a half
• Getting SQL Server 2005 Express
• A prescriptive attitude to grammar
• Office 2007: Ribbon
• Word: Count the number of words
• WinZip: Split a Zip file
• Word: Add/remove highlighting with the keyboard
• Review of screen capture tools
• Word: What happens when you paste tracked changes into another document?
• Yes, yes, yes! Sorry: OK!
• Affordable usability testing
• Word: Changing a section break’s type
• Author-it: Publishing to Word on Vista
• The real cost of new software
• Flights booked, preparation done
• Author-it: Word output
• PaintShop Pro: Resize an image
• Great deal — and help bushfire victims too
• The cost of bad documentation
• Accessing your modem from your computer
• Grammar articles from The New York Times
• Word: Open old Word document formats
• PC Guru guys save the day — again
• LIFE magazine photo archive now available
• Technical writers’ glossary
• Fun word game
• Word: Align decimal numbers
• Get an accurate word count
• Proofreading? Spellchecking? Who needs it?
• Check the speed of your connection
• Treat the writing process like the coding process
• Word: Use StyleRef field to populate header/footer
• Explaining the various ‘bytes’
• Avoid culturally specific references
• Vista: Ownership details
• Developing your business in a slow economy
• Convert HTML and Word into Wiki markup
• Word: Change the spaces after a period
• Dealing with large documents
• Word: Run Format Painter with the keyboard
• For the geek girl
• Is laying off people the best option?
• Outlook: Turn off notifications
• List of banished words for 2009
• Play on words
• Word: Set up pages for printing
• The perennial font argument: Serif or Sans serif?
• Noisy computer
• Style guides for science and engineering
• Word: Replace excess spaces
• Hearing Voices: podcasts from NPR
• WritersUA: The Conference for Software User Assistance
• Author-it: Corporate blog
• Tools for technical communicators
• Word: Turning manual formatting into styles
• Citations and references
• Word: Line numbering
• Looking back on the first year of this blog
• Free photographs of textures
• Free online survey software
• Let’s start the year with some punctuation humor…
• A different New Year resolution
• Ellipses for missing text
• Word: Nonbreaking spaces the easy way
• The liberation of a termination clause
• Software and Systems Engineering Vocabulary
• Keep the pedants happy
• Word 2003: Prompted to save template when no changes made
• View a website’s CSS
• Donation in lieu of corporate Christmas cards
• Word: Bookmark cross-reference formatting
• Could YOU get there from here?
• WritersUA Tools Survey 2008
• Producing better documentation
• Holiday eating tips
• Where to start with HTML Help
• Quote for software developers
• Adobe Technical Communications Suite group
• Graphics file formats for Word, PDF and HTML output
• Clever Christmas greeting
• Document layout: Hints
• Reminder: Price increase for checklist on Jan 1
• Get more clients without advertising
• Edit heavily or rewrite from scratch?
• Word: Templates galore!
• What technical communicators get up to
• Opening new tabs in a browser
• Designing a login form
• Script-free pure CSS menu
• Reminder: WritersUA Conference early bird registration closes this week
• Gifts for technical writers
• A bit of fun
• Keeping up
• Voice your opinion about an Australian spellchecker
• Obscure dictionaries
• Last chance!
• Outlook: Creating a hyperlink to a network file
• Making a business case
• Word: Automating your work with AutoText
• Acrobat: Capture web pages
• Amazon’s Black Friday Sale!
• Money Strategy #10: Manage Surplus Funds
• Money Strategy #9: Billing Method
• Ah! The fame!
• Money Strategy #8: Track Your Position
• Money Strategy #7: Use Accounting Software
• Money Strategy #6: Pay Your Tax
• Money Strategy #5: Pay Yourself
• WritersUA Annual Conference early bird registration
• WritersUA Annual Skills and Technologies survey
• Money Strategy #4: Pay Your Bills
• Money Strategy #3: Invoice Regularly
• Money Strategy #2: Separate Your Money
• Money Strategy #1: Get Professional Advice
• The business of freelancing: Money: The Rules
• Market share stats for internet usage
• External hard drive accessed when no processes running
• Author-it: HTML filenames
• Open Culture podcast directory
• The secret to writing great copy
• Need to manage your stuff?
• Word 2003: Create an automatic Table of Contents
• From an unnamed government department…
• Live in Australia? Want to buy goods from US websites?
• Configuring Remote Desktop settings
• Vista: Uninstall a program
• Getting your message across in another language
• Open a Word 2007 document in Word 2003
• Practice what you preach
• Word 2003: Recording a macro
• ASTC (NSW) Conference 2008: Day 2
• Fingerprint, schmingerprint!
• ASTC (NSW) Conference 2008: Day 1
• Social networking sites for technical communicators
• Show full menus in Office 2003 applications
• Word: Controlbox toolbar won’t go away
• PDF security
• Tips for Microsoft Word
• UI slide deck in ‘Featured’ list
• It’s called an octothorpe
• World clock with a difference
• Technical writer resumes
• The value of technical writers
• Putting the red pen on a campaign letter
• Outlook: Skip to another month in the calendar
• Plain English, please
• Single or double quotes
• Parallel structure
• Copyright notices on documentation
• Word: Jumping to another place
• Windows: Turn off FilterKeys
• Word 2003: Turn off the ‘writing book’ icon
• Word: Repeat a table’s heading row
• Results of Help Authoring Tool survey
• Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility
• Word: Document opens very slowly or not at all
• Spell check oddity
• DOS lives!
• Beer goggles? No – Mail Goggles!
• Author-it: Gaining more screen space
• PowerPoint: Change bullet indent for all slides
• Author-it: Autofit tables in Word output
• Add an Author-it AfterPublish macro to the Word template
• Indexes v. full text searches
• Word 2007: Apply a template
• Outlook: Remove attachments from messages
• It’s on the tip of my tongue…
• Word: Pictures in a table of contents
• Paying subcontractors
• Cube farms
• Nothing but the facts
• Word: Modify TOC styles
• National Punctuation Day
• Simple, but impressive graphs
• Word 2007: Outline numbering
• CSS settings for horizontal rule (hr)
• Copy text and images in a PDF document
• Accents
• Word: Toggling between Print Preview and your document
• Prophetic?
• “Be nice. Say thank you.”
• Author-it presentations
• Is it email, e-mail, or eMail?
• “Don’t make me think!”
• Acrobat 9 and Word: Outline numbering
• Word 2007: What happened to the Styles and Formatting task pane?
• Lost your Vista taskbar and desktop icons?
• What does a technical writer ‘do’?
• Take the Help Authoring Tool survey
• Vista: Changing the size of desktop icons
• Fish!
• Want to cut short a phone call?
• Cleaning up programs that Add/Remove won’t remove
• Author-it: Change table heading shading in Word
• Dealing with telemarketers
• Need to email to some addresses in plain text?
• Twenty ways to say “no”
• Author-it: Find all topics not in any Book
• Tricks with tables in Word
• Copyright: Is ‘work for hire’ legal?
• Mind mapping software
• Golden Bull awards
• Adobe is seriously testing my patience
• Creating Word footnotes using Author-it
• Windows shortcuts
• Creating powerful messages using charts
• OK then Cancel, or Cancel then OK?
• Free vector world maps
• Inches to pixels converter
• Outlook: Send all emails in plain text
• Smooth fonts in Windows XP
• That devilish apostrophe
• Open multiple tabs at once
• Can I use a hammer?
• Author-it: Duplicating objects
• Fonts, typography
• Acrobat 9 Pro and Word 2007
• Author-it: Logging a support call
• Making faces
• Windows Explorer very slow
• Millions of free scientific articles
• World’s largest “how to” manual
• Annual survey for those who make websites
• Transparent background for desktop icons
• Translating user interface terms
• Email disclaimer
• Author-it: Variants
• Procrastination
• Avoiding ‘on hold’ hell
• Be careful of software demos
• General dictionary and glossary sites
• Add custom properties to Author-it’s Word output
• Google street views
• Printable blank calendars
• Vista: Running a command as an Administrator
• Mispronounced words and phrases
• Organize Programs list in Vista
• Free online training from Microsoft
• Were you born before 1960?
• George’s wisdom
• Vista: Microsoft time
• Word: Removing hyperlinks in a TOC
• More Bill Bryson books
• Outlook: Don’t send an email to the wrong person
• Word: Folder for inserted images
• Video: Font conference
• Telephone etiquette
• Word: Random text generator
• YouTube, Flash converters/downloaders
• The real costs of a ‘lite’ version
• Guess the Google
• Indexing software
• Why is intranet searching so bad?
• WordPress quick start guide
• This is NOT funny
• Outlook: Scheduling tips
• What’s ‘national’?
• You want fonts with that?
• How do they get away with it?
• Outlook 2003: How do I hide the list of email recipients?
• Word 2007: Where did everything go?
• Video “how to”s
• Word: Getting rid of blue hyperlinks
• Updating documents in old formats
• Acrobat 9: Installation issues
• You get what you pay for
• Windows XP SP3: Issues
• Word: Autocorrect
• Corporate/business blogging
• Word: Table column widths
• Content creators and user experience
• Language resources
• Word: Synonyms
• Word: Remove excess characters
• Outlook: Delay outbound mail
• Word: Select a column of text
• But is it really English?
• Resize text
• Search for people and businesses
• Google tips
• SnagIt 9 is out
• Use Gmail as a recipe organizer
• 10 things NOT to say to a technical writer
• Now here’s a job…
• View your website as a color-blind person
• Word: Find the location of a linked graphic
• SnagIt: Cannot save capture
• See/See also: And the difference is?
• Windows Explorer tips
• Software for a USB device
• Speech recognition has a long way to go
• Silly labelling
• Breaking the creative block
• Cleaning up page breaks in Author-it’s Word output
• Word: Replace a style
• The business of freelancing: Insurances
• Ideas wanted for STC’s “Intercom”
• Need to find an ABN?
• Computer “Who’s on first?”
• Word: Selecting text in Word
• Author-it Xtend authoring memory
• Microsoft Office keyboard shortcuts
• Articles and blog posts related to Author-it
• Apostrophe Protection Society
• Need a photo for a presentation?
• Website updates
• Editing a digital voice recording: 2: Editing in Audacity
• Editing a digital voice recording: 1: Converting the WAV file
• Editing a digital voice recording: Overview
• Quacks like a duck
• Magnificent food illustrations
• Software for portable devices
• Google search ‘mashup’
• Outlook: Changing your working week
• Are you being copied?
• Love oxymorons?
• Management reviews of technical reports
• Pet peeves: Words
• Tips for presentations
• Hints for troublesome words
• Software design specification template
• Read-as-you-go
• Outlook: Update address details for multiple contacts
• Graphics designers as dogs…
• Missing underlines on menu items
• Where are the female presenters?
• AODC Conference 2008: Day 3
• Windows: Background processes and tasks
• AODC Conference 2008: Day 2
• Funny emergency signs
• AODC Conference 2008: Day 1
• Word: Replace text in quotes with bold text
• Capture the text in a Command window
• Word: Why is the Select All button inactive in Styles?
• Turn off Auto Run
• Twenty questions…
• Superfluous quote marks
• Word 2003: Letterheads
• Test yourself: Word origins
• IE7 crashes when open Office document in SharePoint
• Google search tips
• Word 2003: White background prints as gray
• Like that font?
• Quick way to zoom in and out
• Lost your Windows XP taskbar and desktop icons?
• I love WordPress but…
• Keyboard shortcuts galore!
• Lorem Ipsum random text generator
• About functional specifications
• Word: Automated tables of figures
• Word: Turn off Reading Layout view
• Word 2007’s numbering explained
• Pet peeves: Pronunication
• PhraseExpress
• Shortcuts to multiple drives and folders
• Migrating legacy content
• How popular is your website?
• Free link checker
• “Death by PowerPoint”
• Outlook 2003: Find directions to your contact’s address
• Google Maps for Australia
• Find duplicate files
• Qualities of a fake writer
• First impressions DO count
• Lies told to technical writers
• Google Desktop Search
• Adobe PDF is missing from the menu
• WritersUA Conference 2008: Presentation files available
• Use Outlook as an organizer
• Make long URLs short
• Lost your Windows?
• Want more people to contribute to your Wiki?
• Word: Edit in Print Preview mode
• Outlook and MSN Messenger
• Writing useful error messages
• Email or file limit blues?
• Fun metric conversions
• Word: Set default table style
• WritersUA Conference 2008: Summary
• Implementation time calculator
• Turn off the Search puppy
• Color code your Windows folders
• Online pedometer
• Food, glorious food
• Opening Windows Explorer to a folder of your choice
• Creating special characters
• Is the Help helpful?
• Reptilian computer actions
• Convert PDF to Word
• How does your website display in Internet Explorer?
• WritersUA Conference 2008: Wednesday 19 March
• WritersUA Conference 2008: Portland Hilton Hotel
• WritersUA Conference 2008: Tuesday 18 March
• Word: Unlinking linked images
• Vale Marta
• User experience levels
• WritersUA Conference 2008: Monday 17 March
• WritersUA Conference 2008: Sunday 16 March
• Make a 3D image from a 2D image
• Password recovery tools
• Getting Help
• Icons for your web address
• HTML email newsletters
• One space or two…
• Ultimate resource for writing white papers
• Author-it variables
• Shortened forms for company names
• Word: View two documents at once
• Word: Open a document at your last position
• The Mother Tongue
• Anagrams for everyone
• List all files in a directory
• Geek quote
• Add holiday dates to Outlook’s calendar
• Copy an error message
• Word 2003: Styles task pane
• Financial survival advice to writers and other freelancers
• Dial emergency in Australia
• Words to look for when changing spelling
• The Zen of CSS Design
• Meeting across time zones?
• Backing up an SQL Express database to a file
• Multiple users and locking in Author-it
• Word: Add a watermark
• Plural confusion
• Autotext entries in the default Author-it Word template
• Retool your computer
• Writing tips for non-writers
• Lynne Truss: Eats Shoots and Leaves
• Software to check for Plain English
• Toodledo!
• Beatles programmers album
• Firefox: Dictionary extension
• Tips for using color
• Outlook: Activities
• Word: Hide the clipboard task pane
• Convert Word to clean HTML
• AODC Conference, May 2008
• Conference presentation on its way
• Word: Turn off Reading Layout view
• Windows XP annoyances
• Restoring an SQL Express database on another computer
• Word 2003: Page 2 everywhere in Table of Contents
• Printing an Outlook address book or phone list
• Outlook: More keyboard shortcuts
• Doesn’t anyone care about the bridge?
• Install Vista/Office 2007 fonts on Windows XP
• Ten CSS tips
• Spaces around slashes
• Date and time formats
• Naming files
• The rising cost of gas
• 2008 WritersUA Conference
• Word: Update fields in headers and footers
• Compare software systems
• So you want to go out on your own?
• Accuracy in fiction editing
• Quick, portable, conversion software
• XML in Author-it
• Online backup sites
• Here’s why you should proofread…
• Missing RSS feed?
• It’s a matter of style
• Number of objects in an Author-it library
• Weird and wacky warnings
• Best practices for creating PDFs
• Searchable but hidden text in HTML
• Safety and hazard symbols
• Author-it v5 and SQL
• Portable freeware collection
• Image maps in Author-it v5
• Use PaintShop Pro to create an Image Map
• Making stars
• Get crisp, clean graphics from a Word document
• Open attachments blocked by Outlook
• Copyright notices
• IE6 won’t display active content
• Recycle your old cell phone
• Convert bitmap graphics to vector
• The freelancer’s toolset
• Gizmo’s 46 best-ever freeware utilities
• What are RSS feeds?
• Apologies for the change of theme
• Imported posts from personal blog
• “Wordplay”
• An MCSE is…
• Computer privacy policy
• Christmas cards for clients
• Ooo! I know someone like this too
• A new year, a new start
• I worked with someone like this
• Somebody got burned…
• Two great resource lists
• Sick of Windows XP wallpaper choices?
• Pixel to em converter
• Young, white, male…
• Typo… set in steel!
• Update on the Aeron chairs
• Very cool business card designs
• Search MYOB Help files
• MYOB Help files
• Tech support
• Portland, OR
• Password madness
• Aeron chairs have arrived
• Connection issues sorted – I hope!
• Wiki ‘suicide missions’
• Cruising for a career
• Email address hijacking
• Handy software development references
• One way to document a confusing user interface
• Annual Report sense – finally!
• Sore ears and neck
• Crying over your work
• Get rich slowly…
• Social Bookmarking in Plain English
• Great error message
• “Wikiphilia”
• 2007 WritersUA Skills and Technologies Survey
• It’s all about the writing
• Lost your car?
• Expanding column issue – solved!
• Internet connection
• Yes, No, Maybe…
• How *does* Google work?
• “How to write like a wanker”
• Vale George
• Reading is power!
• Wikis in Plain English
• Updates to store
• Blogs by technical writers
• Technical writing books
• IE min-height issue solved
• Call Center Movie
• Twitter? Twaddle!
• Fake names for documentation
• Oh yummmmm!
• If I was a Klingon…
• Smart wizard?
• Giving something back
• Purging of a different kind
• Bosses and employees: understanding each other
• Two clever YouTube videos
• More accolades for the gurus at PC Guru
• Great blog post
• Usability is a ‘folly’!
• Hard drive crash
• An interesting week
• More conference feedback
• The cost of Microsoft Word
• Outsourcing and offshoring
• High praise indeed
• AODC, Cairns: Day 3: 5 May 2006
• AODC, Cairns: Day 2: 4 May 2006
• AODC, Cairns: Day 1: 3 May 2006