It’s not about the tools . This is what I always tell myself and this week is a prime example of why it’s more important to rise above the tools and focus on what you’re getting out of it than to focus on mastering the tool. Why you ask? Well because sometimes, even with your best intentions, tools can...

In the evolution of software help, user assistance content has taken many shapes and forms. The search for the best way to assist you in your every day work processes is an ever changing quest. Long, jargon filled, and confusing technical documentation is hopefully outdated. And hopefully too, the short...

Name? John Lyons How long have you been at Blackbaud? 1 year What technology from the past do you wish would make a comeback? Well, I’m still waiting for one of those hoverboards from the Back to the Future movies. Does that count? It’s not really a comeback since they never existed, but way back when...

Saw this funny post on Holly Harkness's technical communication blog Don't Call Me Tina . It's a funny video that Karen Schriver showed at the STC Conference a year ago in Minneapolis. The video explains for itself why the world needs more technical communicators. I think it's pretty...

Sneak Preview #2 – Transcript Enhancement For transcripts, we added the option to print outside school information in one of three different ways: #1. You can print the outside school information with the current school information. #2. You can print the outside school information in a separate section...

BBNC 5.5 USER GUIDES POSTED!! Greetings! With the BBNC 5.5 release, the documentation team is proud to announce that a new set of BBNC user guides has been released! New user guides include the Website Design Guide , Team Fundraising Guide , and the User Networking Guide . In addition, we posted a FAQ...

Conference: STC Summit 2008 Session: Trends in User Research Panel: Jean Anderson, Todd Zaki Warfel, Ginny Redish, Whitney Quesenbery, Karen Bachmann (moderator) I heard four main questions during the Q&A panel session: 1. How do I show value? Answer – Back up your desire to do research with examples...

Wow, where has the summer gone? I know on the EE team, we’ve been feverishly working to produce our next great release – The Education Edge 7.77 . Triple 7's, Lucky 7's, or whatever awesome name you want to call it has some fantastic features I’m excited to share with you. Over the coming weeks...

Name? Justin Ward (Editior's Note - Sometimes we just call him Ward. We don't want to confuse him with Baden, our other Justin). How long have you been at Blackbaud? 10 years What technology from the past do you wish would make a comeback? Trap doors and revolving bookcases. Which technology...

I love research. I love it so much I research what we could be doing five years from now. I like to know things. Being prepared for upcoming changes is an understatement for me. When I went to the STC conference in June , I saw a demo of Acrobat 9 . Wow, it did some slick things. However, it meant it...