Multi-Language

Multilingual people in IT help to build the harmony and brotherhood among the people, where most states of the India are divided on the basis language. IT is a huge resource pull of technical peoples of different region, religion, caste, language, and gender are present. Hindi is India’s official language and English as second official language, outsourced jobs are boarded in India because of skilled English speaking peoples. In addition, because of multilingual peoples are working in a single place, they are sometime forced to talk in English.

In India, many universities and institutes provide foreign language trainings. There are many doctorates in French, Spanish, and German languages. Now, these foreign language skills are used in IT companies and India too is able to attract jobs from European countries.

Curve text in Microsoft Word 2010

In the lower versions of Microsoft Office 2010, the curve text feature is not available through WordArt.

Trick: Save the Microsoft Word 2010 document in 97-2003 format. The old feature of WordArt is enabled. Now, you can use the curve line feature.

It is observed that you cannot play the same tricks in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010.

Trick: Copy-paste the curve text from the word document into the PowerPoint 2010 slide. Hurrah!!!

Bloom’s Taxonomy in Technical Writing

The application of Bloom’s Taxonomy consistis of presentation, design, and assessment strategy. It can be used in e-learning, web-based training, or user manual. An application level objective requires simulations and step-by-step description. While, higher level learning requires case studies and role plays.

Six Levels of Cognitive Domain:

• Knowledge: The information should be well-defined and explained to the user satisfaction. Describe the product background and features.
  Keywords: defines, describes, identifies, knows, labels, lists, matches, names, outlines, recalls, recognizes, reproduces, selects, and states.
• Comprehension: Understanding of the application should be summarized. Describe the interface and behavior of the product.
  Keywords: comprehends, converts, defends, distinguishes, estimates, explains, extends, generalizes, gives, infers, interprets, paraphrases, predicts, rewrites, summarizes, and translates.
• Application: Put the statement into action and relate the application with the document. Describe the product in step-by-step process.
  Keywords: applies, changes, computes, constructs, demonstrates, discovers, manipulates, modifies, operates, predicts, prepares, produces, relates, shows, solves, and uses.
• Analyze: Scrutinize the information and verify with latest data. Provide relevant screenshots and references.
  Keywords: analyzes, breaks down, compares, contrasts, diagrams, deconstructs, differentiates, discriminates, distinguishes, identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines, relates, selects, and separates.
• Synthesis: Create and predict the data. Describe how one action affects the product usage.
  Keywords: categorizes, combines, compiles, composes, creates, devises, designs, explains, generates, modifies, organizes, plans, rearranges, reconstructs, relates, reorganizes, revises, rewrites, summarizes, tells, and writes.
• Evaluation: Interpret and justify the information. Proofread and verify it by SME.
  Keywords: appraises, compares, concludes, contrasts, criticizes, critiques, defends, describes, discriminates, evaluates, explains, interprets, justifies, relates, summarizes, and supports.

Microsoft Word numbered list

I am quite happy with MS Word 2010 for many reasons. Among them, I found numbered list is pretty robust than the earlier version of word. It does not break now and user need not to play tricks to bring the numbering in shape. However, I found an interesting fact of numbering format.
If the existing number list has bold text and the same list text are copied into other part of the document. After restarting the numbered list, the source text changes from bold text changes to normal text.
TRICK: Press Ctrl+z, the text returns to the previous format.

Copy and paste

In IT industry, copy (CTRL+C) and paste (CTRL+V) action is the major action. Someone might have truly said that if "C" and "V" buttons are removed from the computer keyboard, then most of our work would come into standstill.
Once I faced an acute problem with the copy-paste action in MS Publisher, in fact there was nothing wrong with Publisher. I was not able to copy text from other application like, notepad. Within the Publisher, text and objects could be copied pasted. Then, I looked in the clipboard; there I found everything was copied into the clipboard, but not in the actual insertion point.
The easy solution I found as most of the computer user that I closed Publisher and again opened it. Ahh.. now my copy-paste action works fine. This is not the solution of what I faced, but it might be one of

Snagit window capture

Snagit 9.1.2 window profile captures the application window. However, Java application by-passes the native operating system and shows the child window through the “swing” technology. This makes job of Snagit difficult to capture the child window or a dialog box individually.
I posted this problem to the Snagit support team. Let see, if Snagit's next version comes up with a solution.

Simple work

The task you could do easily is said to be “simple work.” If you are asked to fill some color using a paint editor, you would do it quickly. Now, if you are asked to edit an image in the Photoshop editor, then you need some knowledge on it. First you would find many tools available, most of their usage you don’t know. You try to look for some help or training, otherwise lot of time is spend in searching and trying your hand in all of them to get your required result. At the end you would exhaust yourself; you would get fear with the work and try to avoid the task.

The scenario would change, if you would get some overview of the product and know the purpose of the tools. This is the case of every user irrespective of their domain knowledge. Basic knowledge is required to work with product. So, here comes the “Help” that could be a tutorial, user guide, demonstration, and so on.

I think of myself, when I first get into the product and run for help, asking my teammates for assistance. I go through the knowledge transfer session, and made a list of questions to ask the SMEs. I still find myself in a comfortable zone surrounded by peoples who could at least answer my queries. After all I am getting paid to know about my company product and give the best out of my effort.

The user who stats from the scratch, have no knowledge of the product, would get difficulty in doing their work. In the market, there are many vendors to provide the same product; however, the price is a different factor to convince the purchase. Therefore, in the trial version if the customer (user) is not handy with the product. They would never go ahead to purchase it.

Document Development Life Cycle

DDLC (Document Development Life Cycle) includes the various stages involved in structured document creation. DDLC helps in creation of efficient and quality document creation. The DDLC stages are:
1.Project Start-up
Project start-up generally involves the creation of project plan. It includes understanding the project objectives and constraints in terms of time, quality, and cost. The scope of the project is clearly defined along with standards to be followed throughout the project. This phase also involves identifying key personnel responsible for providing, reviewing, and approving document content.
2.Requirement Analysis
Requirement analysis for documentation includes Audience Analysis, Need Analysis and Task Analysis. You try to understand the product business logic and come up with strategies to achieve the your goal. You also decide the format and the delivery media for the document at this phase.
3.Design
Design phase basically deals with collecting and organizing data. It involves planning the instructional and media strategies and creating the course outline. Workflow of the document is planned in this phaze.
4.Development
Document development requires actual writing of the document, and integration of the various components (graphics, glossary, search items) of the document. This phase also involves document reviews and revisions and management of documentation issues. Now, the document is ready for testing.
5.Edit & Proofread
Peer-review is done to find errors and mark corrections, it involves parameters like correctness, completeness, adherence to standards, and usability.
6.Publishing
After updating and fixing the the errors the document is ready for publishing. The hard work of this phase relates to actual delivery of the document to its target audience.
7.Maintainance
Maintenance involves maintaining the deliverables. For example, it may involve content reuse analysis and elimination of redundant data from the document sets. It may also include template revision or inclusion of new product features.