An announcement
This is an embarrassing post to write, because if thereâs one thing I find awkward, itâs blowing my own trumpet. However, Iâm in need of work contacts, so Iâll prepare my embouchureâ¦
About a month ago, in response to my rather anguished plea for career suggestions, several people suggested technical authoring. I thought it was a pretty good idea, so I did a bit of research. It was clear that having some kind of portfolio (in addition to this weblog) would help me a lot, so I decided to see if I could persuade a shareware developer to let me write a manual for free, in return for using the result as a portfolio piece.
As luck would have it, that very day I stumbled on a fantastic piece of software, which didnât yet have any documentationâQuicksilver. The developer, Nicholas, accepted my offer, so Iâve been hard at work writing the thing for a few weeks. Quicksilver is proving to be very popular, and the clamor for documentation became so loud that we decided to release the manual in its somewhat unfinished form, alongside the new Beta version of the software. The past few days have therefore been very hectic, but fun.
So, I present the Quicksilver Manual: written by yours truly, edited by Nicholas. Itâs not perfect, and itâs not finished, so be gentle with me. Iâd love some constructive criticism, thoughâif anyone can be bothered to read it. And if by some slim chance you happen to be a developer looking to hire a technical author, then do get in touch.
Nicholas came up with a really cool job title for me: Lead Documentrix. I love itâapt, funny and ever-so-slightly saucy. Iâm thinking of getting a T-shirt made. So, if youâre contacting me about technical authoring, the address to use is: documentrix [at] rousette [dot] org [dot] uk.
Oh, and itâs my birthday today (thanks to David for the very observant birthday wishes)â¦
