This worked for me:

Within WordPress

Go into Appearance > Editor and select “functions-setup.php.”

Hit Ctrl + F (Find) and paste this: $categories = get_terms

That will take you to line 1135:

Change ‘orderby=count&hide_empty=1’

to this:

‘orderby=slug’

For the mobile version of the site, find the next instance of $categories = get_terms on line 1269:

Make the same change: ‘orderby=count&hide_empty=1’

to this:

‘orderby=slug’

Click Update File.

Then go into Product > Categories and rename your category slugs with numbers first, in the order you want, such as:

1-appetizers
2-salads
3-burgers

That should do it!

Via FTP

In the theme folder there is a sub-folder named “setup.” In the “setup” folder, find the file “functions-setup.php.”

On line 1135 you’ll see this:

$categories = get_terms(‘producttype’, ‘orderby=count&hide_empty=1′);

Change ‘orderby=count&hide_empty=1’

to this:

‘orderby=slug’

Save the file and upload.

In your WordPress dashboard, go into Product > Categories and rename your category slugs with numbers first, in the order you want, such as:

1-appetizers
2-salads
3-burgers

Boom.

Another approach is a large corporation whose industry requires a communications-related department or a strong need for documentation. One of the best such industries is pharmaceutical manufacturing and packaging. Highly regulated industries, such as pharmaceuticals, have an inherent need for good documentation. There is an old axiom in this industry that “if it isn’t documented, it doesn’t exist.” These companies understand that not only is documentation needed to do the job safely and correctly; it is also necessary to keep the FDA happy and the doors open.

Strike out on your own? Sure, but it is tough and you had better be ready for work load fluctuations. Freelancers can often command a very good rate, but that rate can be deceiving. During the good times when you are locked in with one (or a number of) client(s), all is good. But during the slow times you had better be comfortable with marketing and being able to sell the fact that the skills you have to offer will have a positive effect on the bottom line of their product.

Also, remember whatever rate you are using needs to cover all your benefits, including vacation—often freelancers handcuff themselves to the idea that they need to work all the time because no work means no pay. Build time off into your model.

Along with the degree and/or experience come the intangibles or perhaps the attitude. Our best writers are inquisitive by nature and have a passion for clear writing. In general, technical writers are in positions helping very bright people who have little patience for explaining their concepts. We need to enter their world and care enough to ask good questions to lay the groundwork for communicating their ideas. We don’t have to become engineers or programmers, but we need to get involved in their processes to gather the necessary information to communicate their message.

And hone your listening skills. Our most effective communicators are the best listeners. This may sound trite, but if you aren’t listening, you will not understand the needs of your client.

Finally, writers/communicators have to be open to new and emerging technologies for communicating the information. My career started when cut and paste literally meant to cut and paste an article on a board for production. Now we have a variety of vehicles for communicating—various software packages are available to support traditional hardcopy items (SOPs, Work Instructions, Newsletters), as well as electronic delivery via blogs, websites, and video.

So, in a nutshell, a strong candidate will have solid communication fundamentals (grammar, sentence structure, writing concepts), a passion for writing, and a very open and inquisitive mind!

That being said, experience is still a strong factor in the decision making process when hiring a new member of our staff. I love it when a recent grad can display writing experience, whether it is from writing stories for the college paper or an internship with an engineering firm. Any type of experience shines over great grades and working in fast food or some other unrelated field. You’ve got to find a way to develop a portfolio or at least verifiable experience. If you can’t find work in the field find a way to hone the skills. Freelance an article—anything.

As for degrees, clearly a technical writing (or related) degree is the best place to start. English and Creative Writing are also good to build from. Engineering can also work, but whether it’s a left brain/right brain thing or whatever—many engineers lack the passion for writing. Their passion is often focused on creating the device or program, not explaining the need for it. To them, the need (and the logic behind it) is as clear as the nose on your face! There are exceptions; Prima Communications, Inc. was founded by an engineer whose passion was in writing—a powerful combination.

1. The unselfish reason: We like to make people happy, and this guy was unhappy.
2. The selfish reason: Giving it away might lead to paying business later.

I was manning our booth and offering website and documentation services to the attendees when another exhibitor walked across the aisle and asked if we work with existing websites in addition to creating new ones.

We do, I assured him.

He and I talked about his site’s issues, the most urgent being incorrect contact information and an absent developer. Of course, the site was set up to require the developer to update the contact information.

Job security for the developer, pure frustration and lost business for an unhappy client.

We talked a bit more and he agreed to send me the site’s access information. I don’t recommend this in general, but we were right across the aisle from each other. If I started doing anything shady he could have walked across and flipped my table over, so we were both comfortable with the situation.

I had a laptop in the booth, and it took about twenty minutes to log into the site, edit the contact info, and get everything up to date.

A frustrated fellow exhibitor became a happy new client. Those free twenty minutes led to a contract to redo several websites and a delighted customer who recommends us every chance he gets.

If you have an opportunity to make a difference by giving something away, do it.

You can’t afford not to.

I entered the field “officially” about 18 years ago when I moved back to Michigan and was hired to work at Prima. I say officially in quotes, because until I moved back I had never heard of technical writing in terms of a job classification; I simply looked at writing as a component of many jobs. Upon reflection, I think I was a technical writer for the prior ten years of my career in Washington—although the job was as a research analyst!

I think those first ten years laid a solid foundation for a career in the technical writing field. The reports we produced were for an audience (government decision makers) who had little time for fluff. This demanded that the reports get to the point quickly yet provide enough support so that the reader understood the logic that led to the conclusions.

So I entered the field without a formal writing degree, though I had the benefit of on-the-job training; writing concise, technical reports that needed to convey complex information in an understandable form.

Of course in the late 1970s to early 1980s there were not many degreed programs for technical writing, so times were a bit different.

How about you—how did you end up in technical communication? Through a degreed program or did you develop the path through experience?

What lies ahead for 2011? Slowly but surely signs are pointing toward a recovery and like many of you, we are trying to be poised to respond. Looking forward, we recognize that some of our old ways of doing things will probably be simply that—the old ways.

Oh, we will always maintain an absolute commitment to producing and supporting top quality technical communications. But the avenues of support appear to be changing. Moving forward, we are helping more and more of our clients with their websites and social media needs. Within those areas we will still focus on customer support and the best quality product to meet our clients’ needs.

How about you and your respective businesses? Is the rising tide simply allowing you to recover and return to your past production methods or are you also refining and refocusing to a potentially changing market place?

What do you see as your needs in the next three to six months? Please share your comments—maybe we can help each other with a healthy exchange of ideas.

A few recent situations had me comparing the technical writer’s job to inanimate objects in an effort to clarify the role. This was new territory, as we usually save that comparison for IT professionals.

One of our technical writers, after a bit of an exasperating day, shared, “You know, technical writers really need to be sponges!” She went on to explain that we are often tossed into a role where we need to absorb a great deal of information with which we may or may not have expertise, digest the information, and then put it into an understandable format.

I almost added that sponges are often used to clean up messes, much like technical writers, but felt her analogy was perhaps a bit more pleasant!

This picture of our writers as sponges stayed with me for a day or two until we had a meeting with a totally different client.

This client was upset because we weren’t poking him enough to get the information we needed. I was sitting in on the meeting with the writer/designer who worked directly with the client and we were both a bit stunned. We thought it had been pretty clear that we were waiting for the client to make some decisions and get back to us.

In the meantime we had been working on a number of small issues with the client, so it wasn’t as if there had been no communication. But the client was unhappy, stating, “I need you guys to poke me, like a cattle prod, if you need information!”

After the call I talked more with the writer and shared how we often get placed into the role of poking, prodding, and bugging our clients because although they wanted their communications needs met, all too often the task was low on their list due to production concerns.

A sponge, a prod—just a few of the many objects that may represent our duties. Are there other objects that also represent our role? I am sure there are. Feel free to share some of your experiences and the objects (or perhaps roles) you have had to represent or assume to get the job done.

¹Dilbert, a comic strip written by Scott Adams, United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

But not as embarrassing as the “Pubic Schools” billboard touting the 15 best things about South Bend, Indiana’s public schools. Credit to Blue Waters Group for taking responsibility for the typo, admitting four people looked at it and didn’t see the error.

Photo by Lee MacMillan

I didn’t catch it the first time I read the sign, and spell check certainly wouldn’t help. So how can you make sure your content is correct?

5 Proofreading Tips You May Not Have Learned in Pubic School

1. Let virgin eyes read it.

If you helped write it, chances are you’ve seen it at least a dozen times. You’re probably sick of it. This increases the chance of skimming. Let fresh eyes take a look and ask them to:

2. Read it out loud.

Slowly. Someone saying “pubic” out loud in an office is going to get attention. And when that’s done, ask your proofer to:

3. Read it out loud backwards.

This will help prevent the aforementioned filling of blanks. It’s much easier to skim “pubic schools” than “schools pubic.”

4. Change Case

Depending on the letters, misspellings and missing letters can be harder to spot if your text is ALL CAPS or lowercase. Observe:

PUBIC SCHOOLS

pubic schools

The missing L is more obvious in all caps.
Change it up for review.

5. Go big.

While you’re changing the case, bump the size up. Keep going, get to one word per page. If you’re scrolling through the pages and come to one with

PUBIC

sprawled across it, you’ll probably stop the presses.

When answering the question I have to decide, hmm, do I go with the stock answer and list all the services or does the questioner want to truly engage in a conversation regarding the talent technical communicators bring to the work environment.

In answering the above I would like to share an email I recently received from Stephanie Stamm, a Prima employee for over 10 years, who has worked in a variety of assignments.

From Stephanie:

“I’m struck again by how much of my job—and I’d bet this is true of most Primas—is making sure communication is happening between various clients.

For example, I received an email today from one of the sites asking me to post a number of documents to the HR library on the plant’s SharePoint website.

She also asked me to add a “Safety” folder to the HR library and upload a document there. Well, there is a separate Safety library on each plant’s site and a similar, but not identical, document was already uploaded in that library. So I emailed her the following (copying the Safety Manager):

As far as Safety goes, there is a 1.0 Safety library where Safety documents are located. The “General Safety Work Rules” document you sent is similar to, but not exactly the same as a document that is already uploaded, 1.02 General Plant and Safety Rules. Rather than having two documents that might possibly conflict, I’d suggest you work with [your Safety Manager] to make sure all the relevant items are covered in 1.02. I won’t upload the “General Safety Work Rules” until I hear from you or [him] about that one.

I got a reply back from the Safety Manager, saying he agreed and all safety-related documents should be under the Safety library.

I guess another way to put all this is that a lot of times our job involves NOT doing exactly what we are asked to do, but figuring out what the client really needs instead.”

Technical communications is more than tools and the ability to write. A true technical communicator is going to understand the mission of the organization and the intricacies of their communications tools (both internal and external).