Posted by Alexander Halser in Technical Writing, Training on September 30, 2024
Accessibility has been a hot topic for quite a while, but now it’s getting serious. From July 2025 it’s going to be a legal requirement for all new products in the EU, and this also applies to websites and documentation. So how are we going to make HTML accessible?
As of July 2025, all new products in the EU must conform to the European Accessibility Act (EAA), and this includes websites, HTML documentation as well as hardware and software. Web designers and documentation authors are going to have to comply in time if they want to avoid some potentially eye-watering penalties.
Documentation in PDF and some other local file formats can be handled accessibly with updated software, but when it comes to HTML, authors are pretty much on their own. This article explains the basics of making HTML accessible and compliant.
Please note: This article is about accessible HTML in general. When you create Webhelp/HTML5 with Help+Manual, our tool already outputs the required accessibility tags and attributes for you. Look for updates tagged “ARIA” on this blog, to learn more about accessibility in Help+Manual. This article, however, is still useful for Help+Manual users who want to update customized Webhelp skins to make them accessible.
Posted by tim green in Documentation Authoring, Help+Manual, Technical Writing, Training on February 24, 2023
A while ago we reported about the online HM-based technical writing courses offered by Subash Sarath via his site Learn Tech Writing Fast. In the meantime, Subash has produced a video course that is now available on YouTube free of charge. You can access the course on his YouTube channel here (click the image to visit):
We should note that this is a fully independent production in which we did not participate ourselves. We would be interested to hear any feedback, which you can send to the regular EC Software support address or post on the user forum.
Posted by tim green in Documentation Authoring, Help+Manual, Technical Writing, Training on December 1, 2021
Longtime Help+Manual expert and technical writer Subash Sarath Lakshmi is offering an online course in which you can learn technical writing skills with Help+Manual.
The course is offered directly on the SkillShare site.
A software developer before he took up technical writing, Subash has been active in the IT industry for nearly three decades.
He has offered in-person trainings in technical writing and Help+Manual, but with the onset of the Covid pandemic he has now switched to online-only courses, which is also making them accessible to a more international audience.
Website: https://learntechwritingfast.com/
Course on Skillshare: https://skl.sh/30yadg5
Users who have completed the course have praised it in comments:
“The only course you’ll ever need if you want to learn Technical Writing or become a Technical Writer. From start to finish the course was like an exciting road trip.”
–David Ebenezer (Project Manager)
“I’ve just finished the Technical Writing course. I am from Austria and I’ve just started my new job as a Technical Writer at the Aescudata company. I liked the course very much, everything was explained clearly and with the assignments there was possibility to practice. I was really satisfied with your course and it is helpful for my daily work as a Technical Writer.”
–Julia Maderthaner (Technical Writer)
Posted by tim green in Documentation Authoring, Help+Manual, HelpXplain, PDF, Technical Writing, Training, Translation, Uncategorized, User Community on November 20, 2021
EC Software is delighted to welcome Naef Learning, our new full-service reseller for the Swiss market. In addition to selling the full range of EC Software products, Naef Learning backs this up with extensive support, training and maintenance services, plus documentation in German.
Services include:
Posted by tim green in Documentation Authoring, Help+Manual, HelpXplain, Technical Writing, Training on June 19, 2020
Good news for all our US customers: The API license needed to use the DeepL machine translation plugin in Help+Manual and HelpXplain is now also available in the USA for just $5.49 per month.
The license is referred to as DeepL Pro. Here is the DeepL announcement:
DeepL posting on the new license
You can order the new DeepL Pro license on this page:
Order page for the new license
In addition to the monthly fee there is also a charge for translation volume. However, the amounts here are so generous that it would be difficult to exceed $10 per month in total.
Posted by Alexander Halser in Training on January 23, 2020
You know, when something has been right in front of your eyes for years, it’s not always the most obvious thing. Today we got a feature request from a customer to implement a favorites list for topics. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Alexander Halser in Training on October 23, 2019
We are happy to announce that KM Technology is ready to provide full support, training and licence distribution for Help+Manual in Slovakia! The website is up and running: