The Next Generation

Here's an off-hand comment about businesses. A business is not a living thing, like a person, despite what Mitt Romney thinks. A business makes decisions that are best for it. If there are parts of your lawn mower that don't work, then you get it fixed. Consider that, sometimes, documentation (what I write every day) is the black tape that holds the cables together. Software companies that do not have a tech writer are missing the black tape. The lawn mower works, it does what it needs to do to give the lawn mower a paycheck. But the cables can trip you up, if you're not careful.

But that's not where I am now.

When I go to work tomorrow, I will continue the work I have done for the last 9 months. I spend a lot of my time anticipating the future. It's pretty much what any TWer does. You have to put yourself in the chair of your user and anticipate what they are going to ask. "I have a new system, I have a user ID and password, I've logged in. What do I do first?" Or "My boss told me to set up users in the system. Where do I do that?"

And I love that type of work. I love putting myself in that role. I am a user advocate. I learn what I can and communicate that.

So yes, my job is going very well. I have carved a niche. I am the Word guru. I am the HTML guru. I have a lot of ideas about how to make the documentation better.

My philosophy has adapted since being here. I have a sincere disdain for documentation that regurgitates the UI in the help text. It's a waste of time. There's a column in the UI called "Warning" and if you click a small arrow in the column, you see a list of valid values. Someon said, put those values in the help. Why? It's there in the UI. If the user looks in that column and then reads the help... .they'll think I'm an idiot.

And I'm also falling more in love with Word as I work on it daily. Templates, styles... I love 'em.

I also am using Dreamweaver to code HTML. I recently rediscovered a javascript I used to create a TOC based upon heading styles and, while I haven't implemented it yet because a TOC with only two entries that you can see when you look at the page doesn't seem worth it, I went into it and monkeyed around with it. A friend of mine pointed out why it wasn't looking the way I wanted it to and it had to do with CSS definitions that were in a CSS file I used to use and that had been taken out of the one I was currently using. Just exploring that situation made me salivate.

So here's the best part. There was a meeting today. A senior level person was talking about all the upcoming projects and started listing them in the PowerPoint presentation we were watching. Guess who is assigned to the doc for most of those projects? Me. And I've been there just over 9 months.

When I look at where I was a year ago and compare that to where I am now... I'm a different person. My self-confidence took a hit and it affected me. Seriously. I believe that every thing happens for a reason though. The other day, I was looking at some text that looked like this:

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
   blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

and I noticed the second line was not aligned. That is the same type of error that might have missed my eye during my dip in self-confidence. I was trying so hard to catch things that simple SIMPLE things went by me. But not anymore. I see line 2. I see multiple line 2s when I edit a co-worker's work or when I look at anything. I see it!

I am completely energized. I have not dreaded a single day of the last 9 months as it relates to going into work. I have lots to do - as has been my history at my employers - and I love it. The last 9 months have been exciting and there is so much more to look forward to in the near future. On 3/10, I leave for Memphis, TN, to go to WritersUA. What's kind of funny is that I didn't really have to justify or make a case for going. I made a suggestion to go and the next thing I know, I'm making hotel and van reservations. I'll be sure to post a recap when I get back.

In conclusion, my life is fantastic. I enjoy my life.