I'm a documentation consultant, working within the Syntagma partnership. I am a Fellow of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators and a member of its Independent Authors SIG and marketing group.

I received an MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award for Word in April 2003 and 2004. This is a recognition from Microsoft for willingness and ability to share technical knowledge with other Word users.

If you would like a copy of my full CV, please e-mail me. Please include your contact details, the reason for the enquiry, and the delivery format you prefer (printed copy, PDF, RTF, Word or FrameMaker).

Current skills

My current areas of interest and expertise include documentation design and document processing, as well as traditional technical author skills. For examples of the kind of work I do, see my projects and publications page.

• With my publication architect hat on, I help clients clarify business goals and reader requirements, and recommend the best way to develop and deliver information. For a software product or procedure guide, this means getting the right balance between online reference material, training, and other forms of knowledge transfer, while making best use of existing material and resources. I advise on the use of documentation tools and standards, and produce style guides, templates, plans and specifications to support document and Web content development.
• I've established a reputation as a 'Word expert', and provide Syntagma's Word customization, consultancy and document rescue services. My wider experience covers a variety of different kinds of tool. I have a keen interest in document standards and single source publishing, and I have the vision and ability to come up with technical solutions to specific problems and requirements. My documentation tools page lists the tools and standards I've worked with.
• As a technical author with many years experience in the software sector, I'm able to tackle technically demanding subjects for expert readers as well as end-user documentation. I have good research and problem-solving skills, and I get to grips with new subject matter quickly.

Background

I trained as a technical author with ICL in the 1970s. During the latter part of my time with ICL, I helped set up, train and manage a team of authors providing documentation services to the application development wing of the company.

In 1982 I left ICL and we set up the Syntagma partnership. Until 1996 I mainly took a management role, running a range of documentation projects for clients in the UK and France, using our own staff and freelance authors. During this period I also developed my knowledge of software engineering practice and specific technical areas, and built up my skills and understanding of structured document processing.

More recently I've worked on a variety of individual and collaborative projects, providing consultancy and other services to clients, and also spending a period as an employee within a software development company.