Two Ideas in One Post

Here's a familiar fact to anyone who has paid attention to this blog: I was laid off from Pearson in January 2016. After a job search, I landed at the Health Care Information Systems (HCIS) department at the University of Iowa as a Senior Technical Writer. I love my job! I have zero issue working from 6 AM until 4 PM, 5 days a week, because I LOVE what I do. I have two big projects - disaster recovery documentation & Knowledge Management - that energize me daily about my work. I work with my favorite Help Authoring Tool - RoboHelp - on a daily basis, coding HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (sometimes) in Dreamweaver. I have great co-workers that sit near me, a great manager who "gets" a lot of my soapbox talk about content reuse, and a great CIO who "gets" a lot of my soapbox talk about content reuse - truly, in some regards, I have the means to have an excellent end to my career as a technical writer. When I think about my future, I think about working here for 20 years, which would put me as retiring on March 28, 2036 and taking that a step further, I would be 66 on that date.

That is why news articles like this one - University of Iowa faces off with children's hospital contractor in court today Judge calls this the last chance to make their case - make me nervous. I'm hoping that the resolution to the lawsuit does not impact me.
The second idea that is interrelated with being ecstatic to work in HCIS is how crappy the job market might be, if solely judging it upon CorridorCareers.com, as shown below:

The only job that looks remotely interesting is the Writer / Editor job in the U of I College of Education, but, in full-disclosure mode, the salary & job duties are not aligned with my skills & career history - thus, I'm not interested.

Considered

Seeing "Save $497 on the Ultimate Full Stack JavaScript Bundle!" certainly made me think about whether I should spend the $39 for the JavaScript bundle on this website:

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I really don't see where I would be able to use the skills I'd get from going through the courses and the videos. Besides, my employer has an arrangement with the educational website called Lynda.com where I can take any class or watch any video. I just searched for "JavaScript" and found there are 52 courses and 1529 video tutorials, as shown below:

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If each of those 1529 video tutorials had an average length of 1 hour, it would take 38 x 40 hour work weeks to watch all of those videos.

Nope Nope Nope NOPE!

All the experience and all the tools that are listed below and you're only valuing the work at $19 an hour as a low range and $20 as a high range? What happens - do you start at $19.50 / hour and then get rewarded for being a 'rockstar candidate' by getting a 50 cent raise up to $20 / hour?!? What a BOGUS (!!!!!!) situation!!

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HTML eMarketing Associate
Aureon Staffing - Des Moines, IA

$19 - $20 an hour - Full-time, Contract

Are you someone who excels at coordinating and executing mail marketing initiatives? If so, we have the perfect opportunity for you!
Job Summary: This is a 3-6 month contract for full-time work. Hours are Monday-Friday 8a-5p. Pay rate is $19-$20/hour, based on experience. Position could become permanent for a rockstar candidate. Primary positional responsibilities include:

1. Create eMarketing Campaigns for clients
1. Oversee implementation and customer support for email products, coordinating with writers and designers to produce finished products.
2. Maintain records and work flow according to standard operating procedures.
3. Troubleshoot technical issues related to HTML templates, list segmentation and other aspects of email execution, as required.
2. Email Deliverability
1. Prep email lists and schedule email sends for a variety of mailings: quarterly, A/B testing, surveys, and campaigns.
2. Utilize deliverability tools (ReturnPath) to research deliverability issues. Accountability and ownership of email delivery.
3. Follow all established SOPs; works within all established guidelines and deadlines.
3.  Marketing Cloud Support
1. Takes initiative on learning about the capabilities offered in the Marketing Cloud suite and how they may be applied to the company.
2. Able to write queries to pull email data and reports.
3. Collaborate with Salesforce Marketing Cloud (ExactTarget) to resolve issues on system functionality, list management, tracking of email sends and other miscellaneous items.

Qualifications:
Thorough understanding of email marketing concepts and the execution of electronic marketing campaigns

1. STRONG BACKGROUND IN HTML AND ABILITY TO CODE EMAIL FROM SCRATCH
2. Proficient on PC/Macintosh: Microsoft Office (emphasis in Excel), Dreamweaver or related program, HTML design specifically for email preferred, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks, CSS
3. CSS and JavaScript helpful
4. Familiarity with relational database structures
5. Salesforce Marketing Cloud experience or similarly applicable background; knowledge of AMPScript
6. Familiarity with InDesign
7. Strong oral and written communication skills
8. Nonprofit industry awareness helpful
9. Strong visual skills and comfort with basic design principles
10. Must work effectively with all internal staff, be a team player, professional, be able to take constructive criticism and direction

Company Overview:

1. Here at Aureon, we believe in integrity, compassion, values, teamwork, accountability and a great customer experience for both our clients and candidates alike. Our direct hire placement division prides itself on finding you just the right opportunity where you will learn, prosper, and grow in your career. We want to talk to you confidentially about your goals, aspirations and what you are looking for in your next opportunity. We place the top twenty percent of talent with top organizations.
2. Partner with us, and let us help you to put your best foot forward.

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I hope no one I know would accept working for a customer that believes "deliverability" is a real word... these work conditions would suck...

How I Learned

https://www.wired.com/story/clive-thompson-tinker-with-code/

Not a CSS Expert But... This isn't Right, Right?

I am 100% self-taught when it comes to HTML, CSS, RoboHelp, DOS, Excel, Confluence, and JavaScript. I have learned what I know from reading and trying to adapt what I read for my own purposes. I know I've mentioned that when I was learning about WinHelp (.hlp) files, I would download pretty much any WinHelp file I could find. After I opened the file on my computer, if I saw something I wanted to do in the WinHelp files I was creating at work, I would de-compile the file and look at how the author had created a button or some other feature. I was thirsty for knowledge. The same thing has plagued me during the years since working with WinHelp files for other technologies. I frequently look at CSS files and try to understand what is included within the CSS file to produce a specific characteristic of a website.

Today, I found something that doesn't make sense to me.

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Defining h3 (Heading 3) twice in the same file seems wrong.

Editor's Note: Added the "WinHelp" tag for this post. 

Update: CSS is read from top to bottom, per https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25105736/what-is-the-order-of-precedence-for-css.

Why Scripts are Better than Politicians

Techie things to ponder:

• Why scripts are better than politicians
• "A political backlash is growing over a plan by the University of California, San Francisco, to shift IT jobs overseas. The school is hiring an India-based IT services contractor, and IT workers are expecting to train their foreign replacements." Read more here.

From a Design POV, This is the Same Issue with Searching for Text in an Expand / Collapse Section

I really like the use of expand / collapse on this site: http://www.iowadot.gov/iowainmotion/index.html.

That said, search for the word "logically" on the page with your browser. It's not found. Now click "What will the outcome be?" and search again. It finds the word "logically" on the page. That means, unfortunately, that the gripe I had back at Pearson about text being found in a search across an entire site, clicking the link to access the page with the text on it, and then doing a page-level search for that word and having it not be found because the only instance of that word is within the expand / collapse section that, upon accessing the page, is not available.

Back to DOS-Land

This is the DOS batch file I am using on a daily basis to compile my RoboHelp project at work. I have one project - project.xpj (no, that's not the real name - I changed it for the purpose of posting the code here). I think it's pretty sweet to be back to doing similar work that I was doing from 1998 - 2010 - using Dreamweaver to code HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I don't really have a need to author content in MS Word, which I miss a little, but not enough to dwell in misery because I don't work in MS Word on a daily basis. It's working great and makes the process of generating my deliverables so much easier than using the RoboHelp user interface. Here's the psuedo-batch file code:

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cd\
s:
SET Today=%Date:~10,4%_%Date:~4,2%_%Date:~7,2%
REM | Create the Logs folder first
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs"
REM | The No Condition folders
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\NoConditions_CHM"
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\NoConditions_RH"
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\NoConditions_PDF"
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\NoConditions_WH"
REM | The NOT Nonsecure
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\CHM_Online_Internal"
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\PDF_Internal"
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\RH_Online_Internal"
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\WH_Online_Internal"
REM | The NOT Secure
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\PDF_External"
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\CHM_Online_External"
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\RH_Online_External"
md "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\WH_Online_External"
REM | Now, compile the outputs
cd\
c:
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 2015\RoboHTML"

REM | The No Condition outputs

rhcl "C:\Users\me\Desktop\DRM\DRM\Project.xpj" -l "NoConditions_RH" -o "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\NoConditions_RH" -g "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs\%TODAY%_NoConditions_RH.txt"
rhcl "C:\Users\me\Desktop\DRM\DRM\Project.xpj" -l "NoConditions_WH" -o "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\NoConditions_WH" -g "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs\%TODAY%_NoConditions_WH.txt"
rhcl "C:\Users\me\Desktop\DRM\DRM\Project.xpj" -l "NoConditions_PDF" -o "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\NoConditions_PDF" -g "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs\%TODAY%_NoConditions_PDF.txt"
rhcl "C:\Users\me\Desktop\DRM\DRM\Project.xpj" -l "NoConditions_CHM" -o "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\NoConditions_CHM" -g "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs\%TODAY%_NoConditions_CHM.txt"

REM | Internal-Facing

rhcl "C:\Users\me\Desktop\DRM\DRM\Project.xpj" -l "PDF_Internal" -o "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\PDF_Internal" -g "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs\%TODAY%_PDF_Internal.txt"
rhcl "C:\Users\me\Desktop\DRM\DRM\Project.xpj" -l "RH_Online_Internal" -o "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\RH_Online_Internal" -g "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs\%TODAY%_RH_Online_Internal.txt"
rhcl "C:\Users\me\Desktop\DRM\DRM\Project.xpj" -l "WH_Online_Internal" -o "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\WH_Online_Internal" -g "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs\%TODAY%_WH_Online_Internal.txt"
rhcl "C:\Users\me\Desktop\DRM\DRM\Project.xpj" -l "CHM_Online_Internal" -o "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\CHM_Online_Internal" -g "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs\%TODAY%_CHM_Online_Internal.txt"

REM | External-Facing

rhcl "C:\Users\me\Desktop\DRM\DRM\Project.xpj" -l "WH_Online_External" -o "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\WH_Online_External" -g "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs\%TODAY%_WH_Online_External.txt"
rhcl "C:\Users\me\Desktop\DRM\DRM\Project.xpj" -l "RH_Online_External" -o "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\RH_Online_External" -g "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs\%TODAY%_RH_Online_External.txt"
rhcl "C:\Users\me\Desktop\DRM\DRM\Project.xpj" -l "PDF_External" -o "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\PDF_External" -g "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs\%TODAY%_PDF_External.txt"
rhcl "C:\Users\me\Desktop\DRM\DRM\Project.xpj" -l "CHM_Online_External" -o "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\CHM_Online_External" -g "S:\TDoc\DISARECO\__%today%\_Logs\%TODAY%_CHM_Online_External.txt"

Yesterday and Today

At work, I have diagrams of Test & Prod servers. I want to include them in the documentation I'm creating and thought I'd layer the content. I spent the morning fighting with a RoboHelp sample project and ultimately gave up trying to get the JavaScript that worked in the sample project to also function in my "real" RoboHelp project.

After lunch, I looked for another solution.

When I came upon  http://www.w3schools.com/w3css/tryit.asp?filename=tryw3css_dropdown_card, I smiled. No JavaScript and a chance to expand my CSS coding skills? I'm in. Thus, this is what I did yesterday afternoon to implement the method on the link to my purposes:

1. Rewrote “Move the mouse” to “Hover the mouse here to view a diagram” but didn’t like that rewrite.
2. Implemented fewer words “View a diagram of the Prod server.”
3. Changed the CSS definition of the text over which the user hovers to be blue to give the user a visual cue.
4. Decided the blue text would be enough of a visual cue to the user and I wouldn’t have to tell them “hover the mouse here”.
5. Decided I don’t really want “mouse” in the instructions.
6. Considered a phrase like “Hover your pointing device…”.
7. Rejected “Hover your pointing device…” because I would have to define “pointing device” in a glossary or in a “about the documentation” page.
8. Rejected creating phrases that would make the user refer to a glossary in order to comprehend the documentation. My audience is using what I create only because there’s a disaster.
9. Rededicated myself to the CORE principle – Create Once, Reuse Everywhere.
10. Went home.

As soon as I figure out what I want, I will implement a solution.