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The State of the Society
Jessie Channey, President
At least once a day, we generally engage in chats that involve the economy. Lately, the main topic of discussion on the STC Presidents email list has also been the economy and the effect it has had on our Society.
While reading through numerous discussion threads on different STC email lists, one email in particular stood out. Senior member Richard Mateosian from the Berkeley Chapter in California summarized the current situation STC faces as a whole. Read more ...
New Members!
Erika Sakrison, Memberships Manager
We welcome three new members to our chapter: Sandi Boga of Calgary, Deborah Lambert of Calgary, and Linda Moore of Sherwood Park. This brings our total membership count to 165 individuals.
As we are all aware, our e-mail announcement list suffered a frustrating technical glitch in May. With the assistance of Jessie, Alex, and the technical support staff at STC, we now have the problem resolved and we're back to business as usual! I would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we worked towards a resolution.
If you would like to recommend a friend or colleague to the benefits of STC, encourage them to review our website, particularly our profile under About STC Alberta. Better yet – pass along this edition of SuperScript for their reading pleasure, and invite them to join you at our next program night!
May Program Review – An Evening with SMART Technologies
Lloyd Summers, STC Guest 
On May 21, 2009 STC Alberta hosted two separate presentations that blended very well together. The evening opened with an introduction to Writing Help for Touch-Enabled Devices presented by Ken Schatzke, followed by SMART Graphics held by Deborah Nakaska and Alex Tassioulas from SMART.
During his presentation, Ken touched on many of the new challenges encountered by SMART when creating help documentation for this new interactive medium. He explained how SMART is rethinking the standards on documentation procedures by focusing on both the limitations and advantages. Rather than relying on keywords and search indexing used by most companies today, SMART is placing more reliance on navigation across help topics through relevant links, information simplicity and larger font sizes to name a few.
Read more ...
And Our Next New Heights Manager Is…
Mellissa Ruryk, New Heights Manager 2009
You! If you are looking for an exciting way to enrich your event management skills, why not take up the challenge to organize New Heights 2010? You will receive:
- Bragging rights for a volunteer accomplishment which amplifies your resume!
- Lots of support from our chapter executive!
- A complete job description and access to an adequate budget to host a memorable event!
You will have an opportunity to manage all aspects of the event, including:
- Selecting the speaker, topic and venue,
- Determining the menu and catering,
- Organizing registration & payments, and
- Facilitating seminar details so the day flows smoothly.
For more information, attend an STC-Alberta event, email president@stc-alberta.org or newheights@stc-alberta.org.
Smart Volunteering
Article by Senior STC Member, Orange County Chapter
Previously published in the April 2009 issue of TechniScribe, the newsletter of the Orange County Chapter.
What if I told you that you could learn new skills on someone else’s dime, try out new ideas with a “client” who is just appreciative that you’re helping, and maybe even network yourself into a new job or a new direction in the process?
I won’t use the dirty “V” word to taint this conversation. Let’s just call it helping out, paying it forward, maybe even good karma. Works for me. I’ve been loaning my technical writing skills for free to a few nonprofit organizations over the last couple of years and, besides helping them with needed skills, I’ve received more benefits than I ever expected. I’ve learned how to adapt to new situations better, “to do more with less,” and to think like a guerilla fighter in the war on providing maximum content on a minimum budget.
Read more ...
Edmonton Events Summary 2008-2009
Deanne Wilson, Edmonton Liaison
 The Edmonton branch has had a busy but enjoyable year. We had coffee nights, a holiday get together, and program nights via web conferencing. A pub night was held in June to ring in summer and discuss plans for events in the fall.
Coffee get-togethers are a great way for the Edmonton members to meet, visit with old friends and make some new friends too. Lively discussions abound and there is never a shortage of laughter. It was great to see some newer members come out to join us and we look forward to meeting more in future. Read more ...
A “Homebrew” Usability Testing Tool
Neil Perlin, STC Associate Fellow
Ask most software companies if usability testing is important and you’ll get a resounding “yes!” Yet many of those same companies don’t test usability because they think it’s too difficult and time-consuming and requires complex and expensive tools.
There’s an element of truth to this. Usability testing and recording can be difficult, time-consuming, and require complex and expensive tools. But it’s also possible to get useful test results by adapting other tools that you already own, that may not have been designed for usability test work in the first place. Specifically, I’m talking about the visual training authoring tools like Adobe Captivate, TechSmith Camtasia, and Qarbon Viewlet Builder. I’ll focus on Captivate because I consider it to be the most powerful tool of this type, but other such tools should be similarly configurable. Read more ... Member Spotlight: Ken Schatzke
Jessie Channey, President
In case you didn't see it, our very own Ken Schatzke has a one-page article on Touch Screens: From Seemingly Impossible to Increasingly Common published in the June issue of Intercom. Check out his article in the "My Job" section on the inside back cover if you download the full issue.
Ken's biography in Intercom is characteristically modest ("actively involved with the Alberta Chapter"). In fact, Ken has held most positions on our council (currently Treasurer, but has been President, New Heights Manager, Program Manager, Registration/Hospitality Manager, and Workshops Manager)! Kudos to Ken on getting published!
Do you know someone in our chapter who has written an article? Have you written one? Please let us know so we can spread the word and celebrate our collective work by emailing newsletter@stc-alberta.org.
Learnings from Atlanta
Karen Lowe, Senior STC Member
Attendance at the STC Annual conference was down this year mostly due to the nature of the current economy, however, three of us from Alberta were able to participate. The conference trip was an exciting departure from my work routine for more reasons other than the nice Atlanta weather.
I went to sessions on Web 2.0 features, DITA (of course), creating better habits and selling the benefits of that to others, Component Content Management Systems and eLearning projects. The available sessions were also full of information around other various subjects including animation and video. There were too many to see, so I'm looking forward to accessing materials for the ones I wasn’t able to attend.
Read more ...
Quotes & Quips
“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” — Jack Kerouac (The Dharma Bums)
“I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.” — Peter De Vries
“Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” — Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Submitting to SuperScript
Alex Kelly, Editor
Thank you to those who sent in articles to include in this edition of SuperScript. I know I appreciate being able to both read and include such an excellent variety of interesting information.
After a summer hiatus, we will renew our yearning to publish techcomm news in September. So please submit your comments, articles and questions to newsletter@stc-alberta.org by Wednesday, September 30. I hope you have a superb summer!
Dear “Ab-stc” (Abby)
Alex Kelly, Editor
Dear Ab-stc,
Whatever happened to the bitter technical writer comic strip? I haven't seen any sign since last fall.
Sincerely,
K.A.
________________
Dear K.A.,
We’re glad you asked! We tracked down Rand, the bitter yet comical technical writer, who plans to reappear in some future newsletter editions care of Jeremy Schroeder the creator and author of Bitter Ink. In his spare time, Jeremy likes to poke fun at his profession by drawing comics about poor, used and abused technical writers. Stay tuned for more fun, wit and commiseration!
Sincerely,
Ab-stc
Dear Ab-stc,
While I like the email discussion lists, I have often received out‑of‑office responses sent back through the list. Can this be changed?
Sincerely,
G. Whillikers
________________
Dear G.W.,
The great news is, due to feedback such as yours, a technical solution was put in place for all STC discussion lists. So you shouldn’t have to read with jealousy everyone else’s holiday plans while you work away anymore!
Sincerely,
Ab-stc |
President's Message 
