2005 Trans-European Technical Communication Competition

The closing date for entries for this year's Trans-European Technical Communication Competition is 14th October 2005.

The Competition is organised jointly by the STC Chapters in Europe. Full details are available from the Competitions page on the UK Chapter's Web site

Usability Seminar in London

American usability expert Steve Krug will be giving his seminar on Web site usability "Dont make me think" in London on 7th October 2005. More details at Steve's web site.

Microsoft previews new user interface for the next release of Office

Microsoft have today released a preview of the new user interface (UI) for the next release of Office, currently code-named Office 12.

In a statement released to the press at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2005 in Los Angeles today (13th September 2005) the new UI was hailed as the "biggest, most visible change to the way the core Office applications work since the introduction of the toolbar in 1997."

FrameMaker 7.2 Released

Adobe Corp. have now releases version 7.2 of Adobe FrameMaker, with improved XML handling features. See the FrameMaker 7.2 page on the Adobe web site for more details.

US State chooses open source over Microsoft for documentation

According to a report on DesktopLinux.com, the State of Massachusetts has decided to move to open source formats for its electronic documents, and to move away from proprietary formats such as Microsoft Office.

In an argument about accessibility, Microsoft and the the Massachusetts government are claiming that their chosen format is the most easy for people to use. With Microsoft Office occupying a dominant position in the desktop applications market, Microsoft is keen to defend itself from challenges like these.

STC event for technical writers in Cambridge

Justin Darley of Cherryleaf is to be the guest speaker at an STC UK Chapter event in Cambridge on Wednesday 7th September 2005. Justin will speak about "Using DocBook to Create HTML Help", and will answer questions after his talk.

The event will take place at the offices of ARM in Cambridge, at 5:30pm.

You do need to register in advance for this event as our hosts have requested a list of attendees. To register, please send your name by email to stc_uk_chapter@yahoo.co.uk, with the subject line "Cambridge event".

This meeting is open to both STC members and non-members. Tea and coffee will be available and there will be time to network and socialise before and after Justin's talk.

On behalf of the STC UK Chapter, we look forward to seeing you in Cambridge.