Senior Technical Writer, ARC International
October 1999 to October 2008

The acquisition of MetaWare by ARC in October 1999 began a long period of expansion and change for the company and myself. I had the opportunity to explore new technologies and international working relationships, eventually taking on documentation responsibility for software tools, precompiled software, online help, and APIs with remote managers and minimal direction.

• New and Updated Documents
• Online Help
• Hardware Docs
• Process Improvements

New and Updated Documents

• Worked to make manuals more task-oriented as the audience became less technically savvy.
• Wrote modular topics as use of JavaHelp increased.
• Resolved CRs based on information from engineers and my growing product expertise.
• Expanded use of FrameMaker and Word for new and updated manuals.
• Applied each iteration of Word and FrameMaker templates.
• Converted content to Acrobat PDF and conducted reliability testing.
• Completed numerous conversions of Word and FrameMaker source to nested JavaHelp helpsets.
• Traveled to London occasionally to create and maintain a unified documentation set.
• Used variables and document properties to update evolving product and company names and addresses.
• Traveled to Ottawa to develop a common template in FrameMaker and Word.
• Transitioned technology, documents, and helpsets from Ottawa after Ottawa operation closed.
• Converted Word source to FrameMaker as I revised each Ottawa manual.
• Depending on available resource, produced compiler command-line help.
• Wrote first edition of conditional manuals for MIPS and VideoCore processors.
• Planned and authored Debugger Extensions Guide from scratch using header files, SMEs, and the iterative process.
• Planned and authored a suite of manuals for an integrated hardware-software product.
• With strong input from engineers, authored the ABI specification for the world's first configurable RISC microprocessor.
• Worked with a team of mostly remote engineers and writers using email and Skype.

Online Help

Since 2001, my online-help expertise has been growing.

• Helped plan our first IDE WinHelp effort.
• Developed beta JavaHelp 1.x system from scratch using Notepad.
• Learned RoboHELP Classic to take over, maintain, and improve our WinHelp helpset.
• Verified each topic against the product and managed reviews.
• Gave developer feedback for improving product function and usability.
• Rewrote Eclipse Help system to match our extensions using TextPad.
• Emulated Word-to-JavaHelp template for FrameMaker source.
• Completed numerous conversions of Word and FrameMaker source to nested JavaHelp helpsets.
• Extended WebWorks Publisher templates for Word and FrameMaker to make JavaHelp for evolving needs.

Hardware Documents

Hardware and codec documentation was mostly handled in the UK. I helped edit, update, and produce manuals, taking advantage of the time difference to increase departmental throughput performance.

• Edited for grammar, style, and accuracy.
• Made updates with new information from engineers.
• Resolved CRs based on information from engineers.
• Formatted documents in line with template, including register diagrams.
• Converted content to Acrobat PDF and conducted reliability testing.
• Generated nested JavaHelp subhelpsets using WebWorks Publisher for Word.

Process Improvements

• Shifted updates to match current release rather than previous readme file.
• Used flexibility and initiative to reduce update and review cycles.
• Helped hire, train, and coordinate new writers and contractors.
• Instituted use of text insets and graphics imported by reference to ease updates.
• Maintained records of all user manuals from all acquired companies.
• Contributed to manuals owned by other writers and peer reviews.
• Edited developer readme files before release.
• Maintained FrameMaker template and contributed to Word template.
• Wrote documentation plans for new products.