Technology Sets the Pace: Evolution of Technical Communication

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To WYSIWYG or not to WYSIWYG; that may be the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to consider the options of more RAM, ROM, or WORMS is only part of the quandary facing technical communicators today. Unlike William Shakespeare, who faced only grammatical precision, we need to consider acronyms -- driven largely by technology.

For instance, are you on-line with CAPS, EPS, or DTPS, and is the environment DOS, UNIX, or OS/2? What are you doing about virus protection? Have you considered CALS yet? Send it in ASCII please! Do you have CD-ROM access through a LAN? Just a pencil? Oh, the pencil is the thing technical writers/illustrators used before mouses (or is it mice or meeces) were added to keyboards.

Yet, it is a changing world, and for the technical communicator, one which is often stimulating, frustrating, terrifying, challenging, and, if you don't weaken, fun.

What other profession could stimulate the cerebrum by suddenly switching tools mid-stream and creating more work to boot? Being an advocate of computers for many years, I found acquiring one to be an experience. In many cases the manuals leave much to be desired. That is one of the reasons why more and more computer companies now hire technical communicators as writers and designers. A good manual is a future sales tool that entices buyers to buy company products.

A computer is a tool. Software is supposed to make it function. If it doesn't, users become frustrated and reach for the manual. All too often, it is badly written and atrociously organized. You can't find information or solve problems.

No doubt you have come across the odd piece of material that has never been competently translated or edited. The results are often like the following -- taken verbatim from the instruction manual which accompanied my miniature cassette player/recorder:

"CAUTION: Be careful of high temperature. Do not expose the unit at places under direct sun.beam or in fully closed cars. Don't leave it beside electric home appliances as heater, etc., either. The unit may happen to deform, fade out and results in the matter functionwise."

Did a computerized tool create the above abstract? What do you think? I often muse on how simple or complex our tools will become in the next decade.

My vision is of a technical communicator who sits in an easy chair and orchestrates the complete production of a technical manual. Maybe this is done through use of a laser pencil and a multiplicity of integrated software capabilities. These will be used to manipulate technical information that fills an office wall with various screen-based hypermodules. Each screen will be a specialized multitasking window for areas such as language, graphics, technical information, organization, layout, and production.

Certainly technical communicators will take on increasingly important roles as technology becomes ever more sophisticated. After all, we must be able to use this equipment once it is installed.