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definition commitment beta

The Technical Communication site didn't have enough activity during the beta and has been closed. You can download the data dump of all questions here.

86 Example Questions (10 closed)

active newest votes
up vote 9 down vote
Does China have norms or regulations for safety notes? Is there a counterpart norm to the ANSI Z535?
added by xephon Nov 22 '16 at 20:14
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up vote 9 down vote
How can I version control a documentation written in MS Word with Git?
added by Bence Kaulics Nov 27 '16 at 17:34
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up vote 9 down vote
What criteria should I use to decide whether this data should go in the body of the text, or in an appendix?
added by Brian Mar 7 '17 at 3:20
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up vote 7 down vote
From an industry perspective, is a technical document (i.e a user manual) required to be signed by their authors?
added by codeaviator Mar 3 '17 at 0:04
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up vote 7 down vote
How to keep track of API updates to ensure the docs are not getting out of date?
added by Afr Apr 4 '17 at 11:44
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up vote 4 down vote
Should beginning technical writers take certification courses to help break into the tech comm field? [closed]
added by Tom Johnson Sep 6 '16 at 5:03
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closed as not constructive by Robert Cartaino Feb 13 '17 at 20:17

This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion.

Probably generates too opinion-based answers. Consider "what certification course are available to help a beginning TW enter into the tech comm field?" – RandomThought Jan 29 '17 at 7:46
On second thought, the proposed alternative question is more of a shopping list/product recommendation type question, which would also end up being closed. – RandomThought May 8 '17 at 5:08
up vote 3 down vote
Are there any specific industry standards for the development of technical documentation?
added by codeaviator Mar 3 '17 at 2:47
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up vote 2 down vote
Are there any specific best practices when documenting in a wiki system?
added by Helmar May 1 '17 at 14:58
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up vote 1 down vote
How can I enforce a template for a REST API that would contain specific sections (such as Request, Parameters, Response, Method, etc.) for each topic?
added by Tom Johnson Sep 6 '16 at 5:06
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Is this a tools question or a policy question? – Monica Cellio Sep 14 '16 at 8:55
up vote 1 down vote
Can videos be termed as a valid official documentation? Can documentations be "visual" like video or animation? [closed]
added by Karan Desai Nov 1 '16 at 10:01
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closed as not constructive by Robert Cartaino Feb 13 '17 at 20:23

This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion.
up vote 1 down vote
How to style references to in-app gui text in documentation about an app?
added by Adam Wood Dec 12 '16 at 19:50
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up vote 1 down vote
What are the Best Practices for using self-documenting code and embedded code in {Perl}?
added by RandomThought Jan 28 '17 at 16:32
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up vote 1 down vote
Are there any good reasons for documenting any kind of experimental functionality of a commercial product/system?
added by codeaviator Mar 26 '17 at 1:16
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up vote 1 down vote
What is the best way to create documentation for an open source project on GitHub, and what should be included?
added by heather Apr 2 '17 at 22:06
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up vote 1 down vote
How to compile a list of all GitHub issues included in the current release of a large project?
added by Afr Apr 4 '17 at 11:47
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up vote 0 down vote
Should Windows applications still use the nearly 20 years old CHM's for documentation and user help today? [closed]
added by help-info.de Aug 4 '16 at 14:35
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closed as not constructive by Robert Cartaino Feb 13 '17 at 20:27

This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion.

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@help-info.de: The question is a little vague. Could you refine it to something like, "What kinds of applications still require the CHM format for documentation?" – David Vogel Aug 5 '16 at 15:55
up vote 0 down vote
The DITA Open Toolkit wasn't designed to deliver outputs from the top DITA map, plus all of the maps linked from that map. How can I do that?
added by Robert Echlin Aug 18 '16 at 19:30
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up vote 0 down vote
What are general visual UX rules for displaying documentation regarding a specific type of documentation and on a specific media? [closed]
added by Trilarion Aug 30 '16 at 11:58
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closed as not a real question by Robert Cartaino Feb 13 '17 at 20:36

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form.

1  
This is very broad. I suggest narrowing it by context (e.g. in a browser, on a phone, in-app context-sensitive help) and/or by type of documentation (e.g. short getting-started guide, extensive API reference, tutorials). – Monica Cellio Dec 12 '16 at 23:50
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Thanks, very good suggestions. – Trilarion Dec 13 '16 at 8:06
1  
Sometimes a question can become so overly generic, it doesn't help define the scope of the proposed site at all. We assume the role of "documentation" is a good end-user experience, but questions that start to look like *"How do it [this] a [that]" aren't generally accepted because they can fit virtually any definition of a site. Please ask questions you would actually ask on the site. Thanks. – Robert Cartaino Feb 13 '17 at 20:34
up vote 0 down vote
What documentation workflow would you recommend to best match agile software development practices? [closed]
added by Lefty G Balogh Nov 14 '16 at 15:19
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closed as not constructive by Robert Cartaino Feb 13 '17 at 20:38

This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion.
up vote 0 down vote
How can I generate a HTML table from <dl> elements using the DITA-OT org.dita.html5 plugin?
added by xephon Nov 18 '16 at 18:39
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up vote 0 down vote
What resources are available for me to learn XSLT?
added by cud, edited by Robert Cartaino Feb 13 '17 at 20:48
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up vote 0 down vote
Is there an automated JavaScript documentation generator, similar to Javadoc?
added by nicovank Jan 31 '17 at 20:36
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up vote 0 down vote
Should documentation be open source? [closed]
added by Claymore Adrendamar Feb 13 '17 at 19:14
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closed as not constructive by Robert Cartaino Feb 13 '17 at 20:27

This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion.
up vote 0 down vote
i created a JavaScript library. Now i want to document it. Is there any tools available which have built in templates and allows to create chm files?
added by Sagar V Feb 24 '17 at 14:56
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up vote 0 down vote
Some products eg. jQuery provide only online documentation. other eg PHP provide CHM files too. Which one is user friendly? we have limitation in CHM.
added by Sagar V Feb 27 '17 at 6:02
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up vote 0 down vote
What strategies can you use to document an application, or project, that uses multi threading?
added by asettouf Mar 1 '17 at 14:11
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up vote 0 down vote
How can I revise my description of this chemistry procedure to eliminate ambiguity in the concentrations & volumes of the solutions I've used?
added by Brian Mar 7 '17 at 3:26
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up vote 0 down vote
How can I plot all three of these datasets together in a meaningful way?
added by Brian Mar 7 '17 at 3:28
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This might get closed under the "all answers are correct" concept. I'm still to new to SE to say for sure, however. It seems like a good question otherwise, and could probably be reworded to fit. – RandomThought Mar 7 '17 at 4:17
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It's definitely vague, but the character limit was too small to fit a detailed description of the three datasets. An actual question would obviously need to include more detail about the difficulties the OP was having making the data play nice together. – Brian Mar 7 '17 at 4:21
up vote 0 down vote
Is there a way to share DITA content between projects without keeping everything under the same folder structure?
added by Scribblemacher Mar 8 '17 at 17:30
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up vote 0 down vote
Should I list all abbreviations at the beginning of a document or add more smaller lists of the newly introduced ones at each chapters?
added by Bence Kaulics Mar 21 '17 at 8:02
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up vote 0 down vote
Is there a standard "template" for a scientific abstract in the field of physics?
added by heather Apr 2 '17 at 22:06
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up vote 0 down vote
How to generate a table of contents for GitHub markdown wiki pages?
added by Afr Apr 4 '17 at 11:43
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up vote 0 down vote
How can I "translate" a jargon-laden technical specification into a document suitable for the general public?
added by RandomThought May 9 '17 at 2:55
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up vote 0 down vote
How can a company protect its technical documents against copyright infringement ?
added by Federgraf May 9 '17 at 14:38
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up vote 0 down vote
Can a non-native speaker be a technical writer?
added by Stanislav Kralin May 13 '17 at 8:24
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up vote 0 down vote
Why authors names sometimes disappear in MS Word comments? Is there any way to retrieve these names?
added by Stanislav Kralin May 13 '17 at 8:27
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up vote 0 down vote
Are 'Was this helpful?' [yes/no] prompts actually useful feedback for improving online documentation?
added by NauticalMile May 25 '17 at 22:11
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up vote 0 down vote
When giving a presentation about operating/using {a firearm} how effective are live demonstrations at enhancing the audiences understanding?
added by NauticalMile May 25 '17 at 22:18
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1  
I'm asking this question to test the community's reception to a question about technical presentations. Is it really something that we want here? – NauticalMile May 25 '17 at 22:20
up vote 0 down vote
When giving technical presentations, what is a good way to decide what code to show on slides and what to show live?
added by blalasaadri Jun 4 '17 at 12:03
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up vote -1 down vote
What conferences are available in {North America} for people who work with documentation?
added by hillary.fraley Jul 27 '16 at 13:11
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Could you narrow this down to be more domain or locale-specific? Something like "What conferences are available for {automotive} documentation specialists?" – David Vogel Jul 27 '16 at 22:52
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Yes, I think geography would work. North America, Europe, etc. – hillary.fraley Jul 28 '16 at 1:03
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Google is your friend in this regard. Now, as to "what are the good conferences to attend?" that question is against the objective nature of the SX community. – Tony Chung Jul 29 '16 at 20:58
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