Migration—the act of changing location from one place to another or the seasonal movement of a population from one area to another.
Migration has been a theme in my recent work projects except instead of changing location the migrations were moving content from one authoring tool to another. I worked on projects where I migrated content from Framemaker and WebWorks Publisher to MadCap Flare, from Articulate Studio to Articulate Storyline, and from Microsoft Word to Adobe InDesign. This post is in written in conjunction with migrating my website content from HTML authored in Dreamweaver to the new site authored in WordPress.
In each case of moving content from one authoring tool to another I needed to reevaluate the best way to present the content, choose which content to keep, decide which content could be dropped, and determine what content needed to be reworked to take advantage of new functionality in the new authoring tool. In some cases I was the original content author and in one case I started with existing content written by someone else that needed to be both migrated to a new authoring tool and updated to match the current release of the product.
I had to make those same content-related decisions when migrating the content from the prior version of my website to the new Flink, Inc. website. Incidentally, I also needed to learn the features and functionality of WordPress—which I’m still doing. Future blog postings will be automatically published to the Flink, Inc. website, its FaceBook page, and tweeted. Or at least that is the intent.
Articulate Storyline is another new authoring tool to me so I spent some time getting familiar with it and how it worked before starting that content migration. However it is similar to other eLearning products that Iﾒd used before. It has some features in common with Director and with Authorware and it has a lot of features in common with PowerPoint.
Migrating content isn’t the only journey I’ve made lately. In January, I also migrated to a new computer and made the jump from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1.
Migrating from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 had a different learning journey. I needed to learn the new layout of windows and tools, the new hot keys, and the new ways of doing things. Most importantly I had to quickly learn how to disable Skydrive and how to set up my workflow so that everything is not being written to the cloud—and not using an outlook.com account. To avoid the cloud, I had to do research about how to take the alternative path—not the path that Microsoft intends most users to take. The journey of migrating to the new computer is still ongoing but Iﾒm well on my way.
March 11, 2023
This is the year that AI explodes on the scene everywhere all at once. People still have a lot of different ideas of what AI is and how the emerging AI tools might change many industries. There’s a lot of fear that it will replace many jobs. I think that AI tools are in their infancy and that ultimately they will mature to become another tool that helps us do our jobs better. A good analogy is the development of desktop publishing tools. They burst on the scene and suddenly changed the publishing business to let everyone become a publisher (for better or …
Read More…March 19, 2022
This is a brief post to say that I’m still around but have been distracted by life part of last year and the start of this year. I lost my beloved father to cancer in January 2022. My mother passed five years earlier. It’s strange to realize that you no longer have living parents. At the moment, I’ve been too busy with the work I currently have and the seemingly endless list of tasks that happen after someone passes away. I look forward to the time that the list gets small enough that I can enjoy life more and not …
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Working from home
March 28, 2020
ABOUT SERVICES CLIENTS BLOG CONTACT Many people are now experiencing working from home for perhaps the first time. I’ve been mostly working from home since I started my own business. Here’s a few things I’ve learned after years of doing it:Create a space in your house dedicated to work. When I first started doing freelance writing my desk was located at the end of our dining room. Later we remodeled to add a home office. When the space was in view, I made sure to tidy up at the end of every day and “close shop”. Now, I can simply close the …
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Are you the kind of person who reads instruction manuals before using something?
April 10, 2018
ABOUT SERVICES CLIENTS BLOG CONTACT Technical writing and instruction manuals don’t frequently get mentioned in the press. When they do I’m happy to see them mentioned. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180403-inside-the-world-of-instruction-manuals Working from home March 28, 2020 ABOUT SERVICES CLIENTS BLOG CONTACT Many people are now experiencing working from home for perhaps the first time. I’ve been mostly working from home since I started my own business. Here’s a few things I’ve learned after years of doing it:Create a space in your house dedicated to work. When I first started doing freelance writing my desk was located at the end of our dining …
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Blogging when you aren’t a blogger
March 26, 2017
ABOUT SERVICES CLIENTS BLOG CONTACT When I started this blog, I thought I’d write a post a month. The reality is I seem to manage to write a post a year. I write for my clients all of the time covering a variety of subjects. I feel chameleon-like slipping from writing style to writing style. I want my work to seamlessly merge with their existing content. I have a lot of information to convey and a specific viewpoint to present from. The words flow easily.Chameleon contemplating it’s next move It’s harder to write when suddenly it’s my voice. What do I want …
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My how time flies
January 3, 2016
ABOUT SERVICES CLIENTS BLOG CONTACT I had a New Year’s intention last year of writing a blog post a month and then I got busy with work and life. It was a higher priority to write content for my clients than to write content for this site. However, it wasn’t all work…in 2015 we had an amazing vacation–one of those epic events–we went to Rapa Nui, more commonly known as Easter Island. It is a small island 2500 miles of the coast of Chile. Now that we’ve been there, I encourage you to go too. Look it up, learn about …
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Priorities
November 22, 2014
ABOUT SERVICES CLIENTS BLOG CONTACT Now that the leaves are turning red here in CA I finally have time to return to my site and post this short update. Both work and life have keep me busy since my last post.By the way, this is the view out my office window. I’m lucky to work mostly from home.I’ve been juggling multiple clients and projects, a personal life, and activities that were a higher priority than writing an update for this blog. Now the blog gets my attention.There are two key elements to priorities: making them and acting in accordance to …
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How do you learn new software?
May 5, 2014
ABOUT SERVICES CLIENTS BLOG CONTACT How do you learn new software is a question I often get asked when interviewing for a contract. It helps that I’ve always liked figuring out how things work and I always liked showing off what I know. Those childhood traits still serve me well.My husband teases me that I never read the manual—be it for a digital camera, dishwasher, or software. I just jump in and start fiddling with things. It’s true that even though I’m a technical writer I rarely read the manual to learn software. I read manuals, online help, or other …
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