The Tech Pub

(A quick tip for setting a style background to transparent using MadCap Flare v5.0)

The current stylesheet I’m working with calls for a shaded background for documentation notes, tips, and cautions. With MadCap Flare, this is easily accomplished by adding new paragraph class with a shaded background (we called ours p.note, creatively enough). Then, any time we need to enter a note or tip, we just apply the style and Flare takes care of the rest.

This process worked great, that is, until we had to include a cross reference within the note. The issue, the cross reference style had a white background, by default. When it was added to a note paragraph, the white background overwrote the shaded gray of the p.note style.

One way to solve this would be to create a separate xref style, with a shaded background, then apply that anytime I needed to add an cross reference to a note. A better solution, though, was is to modify the existing cross reference style to use a transparent background. I thought this should happen by default – figuring no style background applied would result in a transparent one – but it didn’t. And it took me a little while, through trial and error, to figure out how to change the background.

To set a paragraph style’s background to transparent, use MadCap Flare’s Style Editor to view your project’s CSS file, then change the background-style value for the MadCap | xref style to Transparent.

Once changed, save the stylesheet to apply the changes to your project. Now, when I add a cross reference to my note, the shaded background shows through.

When recording audio, you may notice certain words or sounds create an unwanted popping, thumping, or blowing noise on the recorded track. These sounds are called plosives, and are usually the result of words with p, b, s, or even breathing too close to the mic. When left in, these noises give the finished recording an amateurish sound and feel. One way to reduce these sounds is to use a pop filter, a small screen placed between the microphone and the mouth. These can be purchased for less than $20 at most music stores or online, or you can make one from items you may already have around the house.

What you’ll need:

• An old wire hanger (make sure it bends ok without breaking)
• Pantyhose (new or used, as long as it doesn’t have too many runs)
• Pliers

The entire process shouldn’t take longer than twenty minutes, depending on how quickly you can untwist the hanger.

To begin, you can start with a picture of an actual pop filter as your guide to get the general idea of what you’re trying to create.

I went by memory, recalling my experience recording vocals for an old band – I knew the shape I was looking for and recognized I would need a way to attach or support the filter to my mic stand.

I first used pliers and straightened the hangar as much as I could. If needed, you can cut the twisted end with wire cutters (or bend until they snap) as you don’t actually need the entire length.

Next, I formed one end into a circle, about 5 inches in diameter.

Below the circle, I then bent the wire at about 90 degrees – I made the bend based on how high the filter would be attached to my mic stand – in my case, I made the bend about 6 inches below the circular end.

The last part of the frame will differ based on how and where you will attach the filter. I created a triangular bend that fit around the base of my mic stand, with a small tip to catch the stand and prevent the filter from spinning.

Attaching the filter then is as easy as hooking the catch around the stand. Manual adjustments can then be made by slightly bending the wire in or out and up or down to center the mic behind the filter, a few inches away from the actual microphone.

Adding the hose is as simple as pulling it over the frame until it reaches the end. Excess hose can but cut away before or after, if desired. To secure the hose in place, I wrapped the excess around the base of the frame and used tightly wrapped tape to keep it in place. Securing it to the frame can be done however you see fit.

A second-layer of hose can be added to catch more noise. You should experiment with what you have available to find the best combination of type and layers.

When recording with my new homemade filter, I did notice a reduction in the plosive sound, it was much more muted than before, and did not cause such a noticeable spike in the audio. To further reduce these plosive sounds, I also started working off the side of the mic, angling the mic rather than speaking directly in to it when recording. The combination of this technique and the new filter greatly improved the quality of the sound recordings for my screencasts.

If anyone has any other ideas or tips on creating a homemade pop filter, please add to the comments, below.

Some of those in the Tech Comm profession may feel (and rightly so) that we spend a lot of time attempting to legitimize our existence – whether it be to our current employer, as a required member of a development team, or generally feeling the need to prove the value we provide. There’s often a cloud of insecurity looming not too far above the heads of those that carry the Tech Comm banner – granted, today, there are many insecurity clouds of many sizes looming over a lot of folks in the software industry – but Tech Comm folks have a much more mature relationship with their personal clouds.

Will an ‘official’ certification help to assuage any of those feelings by helping to cut through the dark thunderheads rolling above? Probably. Maybe, for some.

But there is still much to be said for *just* doing your job well – being a positive, contributing member to whatever team you belong to and *earning* the respect of your co-workers and superiors, through results. Would a certificate help with this process? No. Most software developers (and yes, even some in management positions) aren’t interested in what it is that a Tech Writer even does, let alone, whether or not they’re certified to do it.

Now, maybe this isn’t as important for those of us that have been around for awhile. Maybe I’m taking this too personally, as a Tech Comm guy who no longer belongs to the Society For Technical Communication (STC) and has been doing this job for nearly a decade. But maybe for future writers, certification can help give them that little edge needed to stand out in a pile of resumes. Maybe.

Or, on the other extreme end of that spectrum, maybe it’s just an attempt by an organization to further legitimize its existence and add some clout – hopefully attracting more members in the process (and earn some money along the way – the certification program will not be free, after all).

Now I let my membership lapse a long time ago – after only a couple years. I felt the overall relevancy of the organization had waned, even in the short time I belonged. The association looked good on a resume when first starting out – so I had read – so I joined, but after I had established myself and made my way along that Tech Comm path, I lost interest. That said, I still watch curiously from a distance, and participate vicariously through various twitter and blogs and it does seem that the focus has begun to change, recently, and for the better. The organization does appear to be doing a better job at keeping up with current trends – and – of even more importance, they have a lot of support from a lot of very talented people.

I’ll wait and see where this goes – and I’ll never say never, again – but I’m interested to hear what other tech writers have to say.

I use MadCap Flare, an XML-based help authoring tool, regularly in my work as a Technical Writer. Until recently, I was a Windows user, so running Flare (a Windows-only application) was never a problem. Not too long ago though, I switched over to Mac for various reasons (none that are worth exploring here – that poor horse is already well beaten).

The first obvious challenge this presented was, how would I run Flare, since it runs only on Windows? Well, I didn’t make the jump to Mac without first considering this – I knew of a few solutions. Since keeping two machines around just did not make any sense whatsoever, the first viable option was just run Windows using Boot Camp. Anytime I needed to use Flare or another Windows-only app, I could use Mac’s Boot Camp and reboot into a natively installed version of Windows and go along my way.

The problem – I use Flare a lot – booting back and forth did not sound like how I wanted to spend all of my time. I needed something better.

The solution – virtualization – use software to run the second operating system on top of my native operating system.

With virtualization, I had a few choices. Mac has a program called Parallels, which allows you to run another operating system (Windows, for example) on top of the Mac operating system, for around 80 bucks.

There’s an Open Source solution, VirtualBox, offered by Sun, that will also run on Mac (or Windows, Linux, or OpenSolaris).

And also, there is VMware’s Fusion for Mac, which, like Parallels, for around 80 bucks will let you run your second operating system on top of Mac OS X.

In the end, the choice ended up being made for me – my company bought licenses for Fusion (since we develop software that runs on VMware, it was the logical choice).

Once installed, I used Fusion to load a pre-built Windows XP virtual machine. Once booted, the virtual version of Windows is no different than Windows running on a dedicated device – I was able to install Flare, adjust my environment settings, and I was ready to go. The real beauty of using Fusion, though, is Unity mode. This allows you to run your Windows applications as if they’re running natively, on Mac. Basically, Unity mode strips away the Windows OS front-end and allows the Windows apps to be launched directly from Mac OS X. They appear right in the dock when running, just like any other Mac application.

Even better, Flare (and any other installed Windows application) can be found and launched using Spotlight – note the tag “Doc Dev” after MadCap Flare in the following image, that’s Fusion letting me know that this app lives on my Windows virtual machine, which happens to be named “Doc Dev.”

Virtualization offers a ‘best of both (or any) worlds’ scenario. For me, that was sticking with the Mac OS X operating system and having access to the tools I need to get my job done, regardless of whether or not they were actually built to run there.

To take a screen capture on your iPhone, hold the Home button and press the On/Off button. That’s it.
The image is stored in your Photo Album.