WCAG 2.0 for content writers: let’s be realistic

12 January 2012

Way back when, I decided to run some articles on WCAG 2.0 for content authors. After writing 3 or 4, I figured these articles gave too much (and yet too little) information to too few. So I allowed the series to quietly fizzle out. Shortly afterwards, Alice and I started planning a complete Contented online [...]

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Writing tip: Which or that? in relative clauses

6 January 2012

Which and that mean different things in relative clauses. Here’s a safe way to differentiate between them. (I’m telling you the U.S. grammar rule: easy to remember, easy to use.) Use that when you want to say, ‘I mean the one that…’ EXAMPLE: I missed the bus that was late. THIS MEANS: I missed the [...]

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Golden opportunity 2012: long live the cliché!

4 January 2012

Golden opportunity is a cliché, but the phrase is now speaking to me from my office whiteboard, alongside the reassuring Don’t Peak Too Soon. My 2012 tag golden opportunity is certainly overworked: page #1 of Google results showed web sites on World of Warcraft, an investment fund, a recruitment and training company, community development videos, [...]

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Christchurch at Christmas: not fair!

23 December 2011

Just as we prepared to pen a little Christmas message to you, along comes the news of yet another whopper earthquake in Christchurch. We are so sad for all the brave people who have toughed it out for the last 15 months and were looking forward to some well-earned rest and relaxation. All our own [...]

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Christmas book bonanza: New Zealand still makes them!

16 December 2011

Christmas book time again! Here are the New Zealand books I am giving to lucky friends and family members. Sure, by now we’re all reading ebooks on our phones, iPads or book readers. But the paper book is far from dead, and still makes a fantastic gift. How to Play a Video Game by Pippin [...]

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Scary question: what do people find interesting about your work?

9 December 2011

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith tell us to find out what ordinary people find interesting about our work, and talk about that at parties. So I did it. I asked my sister Prue the scary question suggested in ‘Trust Agents’: ‘What do you find interesting about my work?’ I meant the everyday work I do [...]

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Trust Agents: a gentle social media read and a scary question

9 December 2011

‘Trust Agents’ by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith sits on my coffee table and every now and then, I read another chapter. Unlike many other books on social media, it is a gentle friendly read. Every now and then Chris and Julien stop me in my tracks with an idea that demands attention. (See, I [...]

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When to start training staff content authors?

24 November 2011

Actually, Alice wrote this blog post, not Rachel. Alice talks to web development teams every week, so she understands the problems you face. Web managers often ask us when to start training staff content authors for a new web site. The simple answer is as soon as possible. You, as a web manager, may want [...]

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Long list of dot points: a neat solution

23 November 2011

What to do when you have a long list of items of equal weight—and a numbered list is not appropriate? Above all, don’t just vomit them out. Communications dogma says un-ordered lists should be restricted to 3–7 items. This makes perfect sense: there are only so many points we can hold in our short-term memory [...]

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Struggling with WCAG 2.0 Accessibility Guidelines for content authors

7 November 2011

A Contented course on WCAG 2.0 for content authors looked like a piece of cake at first—after all, the information is all readily available in 159,800 easy words. Why would that prove difficult? We believe there’s a need for a quick, practical course in WCAG 2.0 for government employees who—at least sometimes—write stuff that is [...]

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