Profile

As a technical author with over 25 years experience I possess the ability to produce documentation solutions for companies working within a broad range of industries; such as engineering, electronics, defence, financial services and the IT industry in general. I can provide the interface between the developer and the user, ensuring that the user fully understands the system or application in question without recourse to the development team or helpdesk.

With vast experience of working outside of the UK I am able to write in a style that is suitable for 2^nd and 3^rd level English readers and for ease of translation.

Technical Skills & Knowledge Summary

• FrameMaker, FrameMaker+SGML, Microsoft Word, HTML Help, Robohelp, JavaHelp, OracleHelp for Java, WinHelp, Visio 2000, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Live Design, Adobe InDesign, OpenDoc, DocuWiki, Microsoft Office.

• Dreamweaver, FrontPage 98/2000, WebWorks ePublisher, Mif2Go.

• DITA-xml, SGML, HTML, XHTML, XML, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Information Mapping, Visual SourceSafe, Rational Clearcase, OO & UML, ITIL, CMS.

Career

November 2009 to December 2009

Technical Author/FrameMaker Specialist (contract): Airox SA/Covidien – Pau, France

• My assignment was to write a software user manual for the Respiratory Insight Software, developed by Covidien. I used Adobe FrameMaker 8 to complete the project. The target audiences for the manual were hospital doctors / technicians and ventilator service providers.

• I was also utilized as an additional resource to help with the successful completion of manuals for the PB520 and PB560 ventilators, instructing the resident author on the efficient use of Adobe FrameMaker 8.

January 2009 to July 2009

Freelance Author/Consultant – Based in Lancaster

Self-employed working with the following clients:

• Huddersfield University – Interactive Adobe PDF forms for online job applications

• mpirical Limited, Lancaster – Created A3 and A4 templates in Adobe FrameMaker 8,and presented a mini-course on how to use them. This was accompanied by an training guide

Studied and reached competency in:

• Adobe Live Design

• Adobe InDesign

• DITA-xml

December 2007 to December 2008

Senior Technical Author (contract): Waters Group Limited - Manchester

• Appointed to cover for a 4-month maternity leave, subsequently extended, to work on installation and qualification documentation for their Mass Spectrometry Instrumentation.

• This project required continual liaison with the service support team based in the UK and the compliance and editorial teams based in Boston, USA.

• The documents were created using FrameMaker 7.2 and delivered in PDF and hard copy formats. Help systems were created using Robohelp and based on FDA requirements.

• Worked on developing a documentation review system that made use of the online reviewing tools and feedback forms within Adobe Acrobat.

August 2006 to December 2007

Offsite Consultant (freelance): Philips Medical Systems - Eindhoven

• Appointed to work on operating, maintenance and operator manuals for Medical Imaging Equipment.

• This project required self-management to ensure that the project deadlines, determined by the company, were met. Most of the information for the project was received via email and documents were delivered using FTP. I was required to visit the site in Eindhoven, The Netherlands every 6-8 weeks. These visits normally lasted for two days, and during this time I would participate in meetings and do any research it was impractical to do off-site.

• The documents were created using FrameMaker 7.1 and delivered in PDF format. They were based on FDA requirements.

September 2000 to January 2006

Offsite Consultant (freelance): Softwired AG - Zurich

• Appointed to work on various major documentation improvement programmes for their Java messaging products.

• Initially produced a suite of three documents intended for online distribution in Adobe Acrobat format. These were created in FrameMaker using legacy documentation. The mandate was to produce documentation that was user-friendly and easier to view. This was achieved by designing a new template using information mapping techniques.

• Ensured the template allowed formats for coding as the subject matter was Java messaging.

• Successfully completed various small documentation projects on an ad-hoc basis.

April 2006 to May 2006

Technical Author (contract): Barco - Edinburgh

• Appointed on an 8-week contract to assist during a peak in documentation requirements.

• Produced three training workbooks about medical imaging software used in the Radiology domain, using FrameMaker 7.1.

• Developed a suite of Microsoft Word templates to match the FrameMaker templates currently in use.

June 2005 to December 2005

Technical Author (contract): Shop Direct Group - Liverpool

• Appointed to assist the software configuration and implementation teams.

• Produced documents that explained the configuration of the domains, servers and databases being used within the Shop Direct Group as they prepared for merging with another online shopping facility.

• These documents were aimed at a variety of audiences with different levels of technical expertise and documentation requirements.

• The documents were produced using Microsoft Word and Visio.

May 2001 to October 2004

Technical Author (contract): Hewlett-Packard OpenView - Amsterdam

• Appointed to replace a key member of a team of authors to produce user and administration documentation and an online help system for the OpenView (ITIL-based) client/server (3-tier architecture) software to be used in the service support environment.

• The documentation had to identify, and on occasion highlight, the differences that would be found by engineers and users when working with Openview on different operating platforms.

• Responsible for all aspects of the design and delivery of the client documentation requirements.

• Fully utilized FrameMaker + SGML, Visio 2000, Paint Shop Pro and HTML Help Workshop.

• Ensured the smooth transition from current working procedures to a system that used single source processes to develop documentation, utilizing FrameMaker + SGML, WebWorks Publisher and the OracleHelp SDK (Software Development Kit).

EDUCATION & TRAINING

• HNC Electronic Engineering 
• RAF Electronic Technicians Certificate 
• C&G Technical Communications Certificate and Technical Authorship Certificate 
• Technical Authorship Course (13 weeks) - Eston 
• Information Mapping Course - TMS 
• OO & UML Essentials (2-day course) - CIBIT