Technologies
Experienced with using, documenting, and training several technologies and techniques:
- SGML, including HTML and DocBook
- XML, including DITA, DocBook XML, XHTML, XSLT and XSL-FO
- Microsoft Office
- Adobe FrameMaker
- Lyx and LaTeX
- Single sourcing and other advanced word processing techniques
- OpenSP, OpenJade, Xalan and other XML and SGML processing tools
- Various wiki and blog technologies for online collaboration
- Adobe Photoshop, PaintShop Pro, and the GIMP
- Dreamweaver
- SQL
- Cross-platform CSS, JavaScript and DHTML
- Web accessibility assessment and improvement
- Web usability assessment and improvement
Employment History
Wombat Financial Software August 2007 to present
Openwave Systems (NI) Limited February 2005 to July 2007
- Senior technical writer.
- Work as part of cross-disciplinary team, liaising with developers, testers, product managers, and other technical writers.
- Use functional specifications, testing data, and emerging software to plan and create documentation for technical users, including programmers and system administrators.
- Leading the documentation re-architecture process, which involves moving the tech pubs team to DITA and a CMS as well as revising tech pubs procedures, and automatically converting documents from unstructured FrameMaker to structured FrameMaker.
UNITE Solutions June 2001 to February 2005.
- Principal technical author. Documented UNITE Software and prepared training courses and supplementary documentation as well as online help. Documented internal procedures. Created most documentation and documentation procedures from scratch.
- Principal trainer. Trained non-technical users in UNITE software and other packages as required.
- Web developer. Developed websites that work across a wide range of platforms and screen resolutions, using XHTML 1.0, CSS 2 and JavaScript. Also had responsibility for W3 standards compliance and usability and accessibility issues.
Global Photographs January 2000 to May 2001
- Employed to promote and develop www.globalphotographs.com and related websites. Duties included adding content to the site, promoting the site on search engines, and printing images on our Kodak 3043 large format printer, as well as training my successor to use the Kodak 3043 and related tasks.
- Documented all internal processes.
- Frequently assisted Peregrine Associates, a sister company that organises technology and e-commerce seminars. Duties included maintaining databases of contacts, speakers and delegates with Microsoft Access.
Education
Churchill College, University of Cambridge: October 1994 - June 1999
- BA Hons MSci in Natural Sciences (Physics) 2:2
Royal Belfast Academical Institution (RBAI): September 1987 - June 1994
- 4 A-Levels, all Grade A, including Physics, Chemistry, Further Mathematics, and Mathematics
- 10 GCSEs, all Grade A, including Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, English, and French (1992)
Other Information
- Experienced public speaker.
- Strong written skills.
- Confident programming perl (particularly object-orientated perl) and JavaScript.
- Comfortable reading many programming languages, including Java.
- Confident user of research libraries, such as Cambridge University Library.
- Have had several published technical articles aimed at non-specialist audience¿first published in 1993.
- Enjoy studying software documentation and technical specifications. Able to absorb new technical concepts quickly.
- Adhere to relevant styles, updating as necessary using references such as The Chicago Manual of Style, and Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications.
- Can write US English or British English.
- Can review/edit own or others documentation.
- Member of the Society for Technical Communication.
Referees
Available on request.
Updated 3rd August 2007
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