DataHand Defunct?

Sad news, folks. It looks like DataHand Systems is teetering on the edge, and is no longer selling the futuristic DataHand keyboard. Their rather cyptic message on their webpage says:

DATAHAND SYSTEMS, INC. ANNOUNCES IT IS NO LONGER MARKETING AND SELLING THE DATAHAND ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD

Unfortunately our supplier has advised us they can no longer produce the DataHand Ergonomic Keyboard and until a new manufacturer can be identified and is in production, the company will no longer offer the DataHand Keyboard for sale. The 90 day warranty will be honored for units shipped since October 28, 2007.

There is no mention if there is any hope of finding another manufacturer.

Why PDFs Suck

Though it stands for Portable Document Format, PDF might as well stand for Printable Document Format. That's because printing is just about the only thing a PDF is good for.

OK, that might sound a little harsh... but for reasons well elucidated elsewhere, PDF is a poor choice of document if:

1. The document is longer than a few pages in length


2. The document is going to be read online

Most technical documentation for software falls into the above categories. This isn't to say that there is no place for PDFs in technical communication...it is just to say that PDFs should be used for what they do best: facilitating the printing of content.

When I try to read PDFs online, I regularly encounter the following:

• Acrobat hangs Firefox. Yeah, isn't it lovely having to kill the Firefox process, relaunch Firefox, find the page with the link to the PDF, and try to open it again just to find that one piece of information I need to accomplish what it is I am trying to do.
• Acrobat hangs itself. This doesn't happen as often as the above, but it IS still frequent enough to give me that "will it work this time?" feeling any time I open a PDF.
• In addition to that, if I do get the PDF open without crashing anything, I have to search the document. Opening the PDF to the cover or title page doesn't do anything for me. Searching, of course opens a sidebar search that inevitably obscures some of the content. This sidebar, is, of course, persistent... If I go to search another PDF document, the same search term from the first PDF is still in the sidebar.
• Some PDFs are constructed to dynamically download content from the web as I jump from page to page. This is infuriatingly slow and cumbersome.
• Using the sidebar scroll control to scroll vertically throughout a PDF document jumps between pages. Why can't it scroll the document as I move the location bar?
• If the PDF opens embedded in the web browser, it breaks all sorts of usability features I've come to rely on. What does File->Print do in the menu? What does File-> Save do in the menu? Why doesn't it ever do what it should?
• It inserts another toolbar in the browser that I'm not used to working with. On top of that, it's cluttered with buttons I never use (unless it's the Save button that I inevitably use AFTER trying File-> Save).
• Toolbar buttons use non-standard metaphors. Why is the Search button a set of binoculars and not a magnifying glass like every other Search button? Every time I look for the Search button in Acrobat, I see the binoculars and it registers as some sort of Zoom feature and not a search feature.
  

The best solution, of course, is to provide content in both HTML (familiar web-paradigm) and PDF format. This lets users access the web version of content for reading online, while providing them an effective mechanism for killing lots of trees if they want to print out the whole thing.

If you are writing technical documentation, single sourcing to both web and PDF should be on your roadmap...as it is the right thing to do for your readers. If you have to choose between one format or another, think long and hard about it. Go PDF-only and you make all your documentation that much less accessible, but placate those who would want to print it. Go HTML-only and you'll be doing right by your users (even if they don't know it), but prepare to hear people complain if you don't provide an easy mechanism to print out all the content (a feature that is sorely lacking from most web help systems).

Top 12 Non-Expert and Non-Solicited Pieces of Advice on Technical Writing

12) You should not type with your eyes closed.
-- OK. Fair enough. Nobody is saying that you should type with your eyes closed. However, there is no reason why you can't type with your eyes closed if you want to (providing that you know how to touch-type). If you've ever been inspired, or trying to transfer a perfect model of a concept held in your brain through your fingers and onto the screen, you'll know that everything else in the world is nothing but a distraction. ...and you'll realize that sometimes, the best thing...and perhaps the only thing that you can do to avoid losing the thought is to close your eyes and write. Of course, if you've never had this experience, there is no reason why you'd ever need to or want to close your eyes while typing...and even less likelihood that you'd understand what someone was doing if you saw them typing with their eyes closed.

11) Dense content is better because it is shorter.
-- If dense content increases complexity, cognitive load required to understand the topic, diminishes the accessibility of information within the content, and generally destroys any semblance of usability, then dense content is definitely NOT better. I've had more than one person (none of them writers) hold up the most compacted, impenetrable piece of gobbledygook to me as a model of how technical content should be written, and roll their eyes when the same content is revised for usability and understandability. In this context, the opposite of dense content would be content that has been revised by breaking information out into task, reference, and concept sections; content that has been reworked by chunking information, making use of parallel structure, increased whitespace, logical headings, etc... Such content often has a higher aggregate page count than the same information compacted into a block of text so tight that it is near impenetrable for the reader (and damn near impossible to maintain and change without springing the whole works).

10) Technical writing is easy. Just do it this way: _____________.
-- We've all been there. Schmitty's Law states that the less informed someone is on the theory or praxis of technical communication, the more amusing "their way" will be. The corollary to Schmitty's Law states that the more amusing "their way" is, the more vehemently they will argue for the immediate adoption of their approach and the less willing they will be to consider other approaches.

9) A low page count is more important than comprehensive content.
-- "Anything said in 40 pages would instead be better said in 10. (Regardless of the scope of material covered.) If it is not possible to decrease page count, consider changing font size, line spacing, and page margins to accommodate the requirement." If you've ever been the recipient of such myopic advice, you were probably damn near apoplectic thinking of how to even respond.

8) Users don't read documentation.
-- Even in the face of direct evidence to the contrary, people will still spout this adage and attempt to use it in order to justify doing "very bad things" to the resident technical writer, or asking him/her to do "very bad things" to the reader. An example of this would be, "Since users don't read documentation anyways, let's remove all task oriented procedures from the online help." Of course, the kernel of truth to this statement is that a) users quickly learn to avoid poorly written, dense, and inaccessible documentation and b) users do not read a user's guide, online help system, etc... cover to cover. They look for topics relevant to their current context.

7) You don't need to know when the software will be released in order to schedule your efforts.
-- Documentation should "just be ready" whenever the software is ready. This is sometimes called the jack-in-the box method of technical writing. That is, the tech writer cranks and cranks and cranks away on his/her projects and one day, SURPRISE! The software is posted to the web and we've released with nary a warning.

6) You don't need specifications to write software documentation.
-- Our software is so easy, you don't need specifications. In fact, users probably won't even need to read the documentation anyways...so you shouldn't need a specification to write it. This is a classic, and is usually the mantra of the engineers and experts who design the software in the first place. Needless to say, more often than not, the software is pretty darn complex when mere mortals are asked to use it.

5) You shouldn't use "you" in technical documentation.
-- Use of "you" is not formal enough for technical documentation. This seems to be a holdover from fifth-grade composition classes devoted to some ridiculous paradigm of "formal writing". Granted, there is no need to superfluously use "you" if a reference to the reader is not needed, but in some situations you can't avoid using it without sacrificing clarity and usability upon the alter of some misguided notion of formality.

4) The imperative voice is insulting to readers.
-- A task or procedure step should avoid being constructed in the imperative voice, "because it's insulting." I was told this by someone who then added, "I mean really, who are YOU to tell ME what to do!?!?" Uh, ok....

3) Users don't want to be told how to do anything. Instead, they just want the bare facts, and they will figure out everything else on their own.
-- Despite all the research to the contrary, this lovely gem comes up again and again. Reference material on window and system objects is all anyone needs to figure out everything they can do with the software. This bit of advice is often used in conjunction with numbers 4 and 2 in an attempt to advocate for number 11.

2) Everything can and should be reduced to a diagram with callouts.
-- There's no need for tasks/procedures. All a user needs is a screen-shot or diagram with callouts describing the main elements of the application/window/procedure/etc.... Everything else, the user can figure out on his/her own.

1) You are not allowed to cut and paste content.
-- Yes, I encountered this little bit of wisdom quite recently. I was even told I was "fooling readers" by making them read something twice, and that in general, "cut and paste is evil". That "cut and paste is evil" is, in fact, an adage that I agree with...when it comes to writing code. However, look at any number of competently written online help systems, user guides, etc... and you will see that content re-use is an essential element of technical communication. The idea that one cannot or should not cut and paste in technical documentation is about as ridiculous as it is misinformed. It's even more ridiculous when many a HATT has built-in support for managing content reuse.

Long Term Review - Adesso TruForm Pro

The Adesso TruForm Pro has a lot of promise, unfortunately it just didn't seem to live up to it all.



I'd like to start this review with a note to hardware manufacturers: It is 2007. Stop making devices that are incompatible with USB. Enter my first gripe with the Adesso keyboard: Incompatible with USB.

On the one hand, I'm reluctant to hang them from the halyards due to the fact that Adesso didn't make a direct claim that the keyboard was USB compatible. I took it on faith that I could use a PS2-USB converter and all would be well. Since Adesso does pimp their own PS2-USB adapter, one could assume that this keyboard would work via USB. And it does, sort of....

The problem is with the touchpad. When the keyboard is plugged in to a USB adapter, and subsequently plugged in to a computer, the touchpad provides its basic pointing functionality. However, any advanced features of the touchpad are unavailable until it is plugged directly in via the PS2 connectors. That's kind of a bummer, as I use multiple monitors and without even being able to adjust the touchpad sensitivity, I have a hard time easily pointing, dragging, etc... across my entire desktop.

Adjusting to the Keyboard
Adjusting to the TruForm Pro was essentially a non-issue. Anyone familiar with working on a MS Natural or most other split keyboards will likely find themselves getting back up to productive speed within a day or less. If you are used to working on a traditional unsplit or other "radical" keyboard design, it may take longer. It took me about a day to acclimate for typing, and rather longer to acclimate for pointing via the embedded touchpad. (More on this further on.)

Media Keys
The Adesso comes with a bevy of media keys (play, pause, volume, etc) splayed out in a row above the Function keys. In addition, it comes with some system keys above the number pad. Frankly, I didn't use the media keys at all and would have payed extra for a keyboard without them. The system buttons (above the number pad) I didn't use either, so I'm not even sure if they worked. However, I think it's a mistake to have such keys on a professional keyboard. Not only do they (and media keys) take up extra space on the oft-overcrowded desktop, but the idea of inadvertently shutting down my computer by pressing the wrong button sends shivers down my spine. (OK, part of this fear is because my XP box doesn't always act gracefully when it is told to shut down. Often it will proceed to shut down, regardless of whether or not there are open documents, etc...). So, I'll give the media keys a rating of "Useless" and the system keys a rating of "Useless, possibly dangerous". I do so with the knowledge that undoubtedly some people think these keys are the greatest thing since sliced bread. To each her own!

The Feel
Adesso's keyboard has quite a unique tactile feel to it. The keys themselves are comfortable, with a slightly convex shape to each that provides the ability to properly align your fingers without looking at the keys. "F" and "J" keys have an embossed dash on them, assuring the touch-typist the ability to properly orient each hand on it's home row.
All and all I really enjoy the feel of the keys...the cupped shape of the keys, is just enough to notice and scores big points (my preference).

Tactility
The actual act of typing with the keyboard is kind of underwhelming. The key action is, essentially, what I call "Jello Type". When depressing a key, there's no real break to indicate when the key has been successfully pressed. As a result, the key press registers at some magical level that takes a while to get used to. This keyboard gets low marks for tactility.

Touchpad
I really like the idea of a pointing device integrated directly into my keyboard. However, I'm somewhat split as to how well the Adesso pulls it off. I do like the integrated touch pad, but over the year I've used this keyboard, I never really got used to it. Most of this problem is the result of the touchpad functionality being reduced to its most basic mode when plugged in via a PS2-USB converter. Up until the end of my trial with the Adesso, I still preferred to use my Kensington trackball for mousing. I'm willing to concede that if I ever got the touchpad working properly, I may have found it more natural to use.

When I did use the touchpad, I found it natural and convenient to use either thumb to point, thereby minimizing the movement of the rest of my hand from the home position. This was really only useful for gross pointing activities like selecting between open windows and such. Any type of fine pointing work (pixel editing in Photoshop, designing in illustrator, and even dragging files between folders) required more dexterity and accuracy than my thumbs can offer, so I'd wind up moving my right hand off of the home position in order to point with my index finger. Inevitably, once I realized I'd switched my hand off of home in order to use the built-in touch pad, I'd often just wind up giving up on the touchpad and using my trackball. This isn't really a limitation of the keyboard...I'd attribute it to my natural preference and the fact that I can work faster and more accurately using my trackball. Those who prefer working with touchpads may have a different experience entirely.

Clicking either left or right mouse button on the touchpad was easy and intuitive with either thumb.

Size and Split
Overall the keyboard seems quite big. It has roughly the same horizontal split to it as does a Microsoft Natural (at least my hands did not notice a significant difference between the two). Still, it is quite a bit larger in both height and depth. Fortunately, much of the dimension seems to be the result of accommodating the built in touch-pad at the bottom and the media keys along the to, so it is natural that it is bigger than its peers.

Support
I'll give Adesso high marks for their support. When I wrote them regarding the problem with using the touchpad when plugged in via a PS2-USB converter, I actually got a human to respond (the same day). We continued a friendly email exchange for a few more days regarding the USB support problem, but ultimately, that dog just won't hunt. This is the only keyboard manufacturer I've ever bothered trying to contact support for, and I was pleasantly surprised by my experience. I'd like to mention this and give them high marks in this area, since it seems to be antithetical to the general trend in manufacturer support we've seen over the last few years.

Overall
Overall, the Adesso held up very well for the year+ I used it at the office. I have no complaints as to its build quality, and it held up like a champ. I used it to author and maintain 30+ technical manuals (3-5Kpages probably), so it got a workout. There were some situations where I did enjoy the integrated touch pad, it just didn't prove to be quite the boon that I had hoped it would be. Honeslty, I would have continued using the Adesso had it not been for one simple fact: my hands would no longer let me.

After a year, I had roughly the same amount of pain working on the Adesso as I did before I got it. It seemed to do the trick for a while though. At the end, I had taken to pulling off the fruit stickers off my lunches and sticking them across the palm rest of the keyboard. Over time, the wear pattern on the stickers indicated that my hands wanted to be further apart than the split in the keyboard allowed. So, I retired the Adesso to my home, where I use it occasionally when I'm working on my laptop.

Conclusion and Rating
This is a tough one. I think for someone who can connect the keyboard to their computer directly via the PS2 ports, it could perform admirably. However, I have a strong personal dislike for the typing action of the keyboard. Initially, it did seem to help with the carpal tunnel pain, but after a year of use, the pain was back in all its glory. I will recommend this keyboard, but with reservations. It has some issues, the most significant of which reduced my rating by a few points. When all is said and done, I'd give it a 7/10.

**Update**
I see that Adesso has released a newer version of this keyboard that now provides USB connectivity. In light of this, I would give the USB version of this keyboard a rating of 8/10. This, of course, assumes that the functionality, build, and feel are identical to the model I reviewed and that everything works as it should.

ePublisher User (as in content consumer) Reaction

Looks like Quadralay's WebWorksPublisher (ePublisher) output is not endearing the users.

I work with WebWorksPublisher Pro 2003 and tried ePublisher, but quickly grew tired of the bugs they kept telling me didn't exist. Finally I gave up on it and stuck with WWPP 2003. It's output is rough, but it plays well with Frame and does some things nicely. Still, Quadralay won't get another dime from me.

http://forums.worsethanfailure.com/forums/thread/116913.aspx


Oops...I guess you'd call my post venting. I was, however, interested to see an end user's reaction to a helpset created by the oh so venerable tool.

UI Hell

This is one of those UI problems that really should have been fixed a long time ago. From perhaps the best application for authoring large documents, comes perhaps the worst interface for checking spelling.



You might not see the problem at first glance (and lo, that is what makes it so dastardly). But trust me, after the second pot of coffee, with the clock at 1:00AM, and half way through spell checking a 1000 page document, the mind starts to play funny tricks on you... like make you unsure of whether or not "Correct" in this instance is used as in, "Please correct the word" or as in, "This word is correct."

This is FrameMaker 6.x. Anyone know if it looks the same in 7.x?

Engineering Humor - Part II

I had to chuckle when I saw this. Installed with this particular application are 6 different sets of online Help. One for each different "type" of user of the system.

Here's how the Installation Wizard handles the Help system install:



(Emphasis added.)

The Dangers of Kerning

I found myself quite stricken by FrameMaker's rendering of this text:



Fortunately, it only appears in FrameMaker (chalk it up as yet another of Frame's endearing qualities I suppose) and does not appear in either of the output formats I generate.

It reminded me of something similar back at HP...it turns out that when the online Help was printed, and when printed only, the same unfortunate kerning calamity appeared. Back then, this came to me through our support channel. A customer didn't so much as complain about it, as mention it to our support rep when calling about another issue. She of course, had to check it out herself. Soon thereafter, I heard about it.

Well, can you guess how many times one writes "click" in a software manual????

Engineering Humor

I'm sure other technical writers working with software engineers have come across similar things. This one was brought to my attention after an explosion of uproarious laughter from the engineering manager.



This, the first window of an application's Installation Wizard.

What are some whimsical examples of engineering humor you've come across?

The Quest for the Perfect Keyboard

Perhaps it does not exist, but I'm fast reaching the point where I have to have something to help me with my work. As a technical writer, I spend most of my time working on a keyboard and I'm fast reaching the limits of my tolerance and/or those that my body can endure in regards to the standard keyboards that come with most computer systems these days.

My first gripe is the linear layout. Try this little test to see what I mean:
Clear some space on your desktop and lay your arms out on it in a comfortable position. Now, take a look at the position of your body, arms, and wrists. If you are anything like me (no guarantee), you've created a triangular shape with your hands close together pointing towards the apex of the triangle and your elbow and body forming the line of the base.



What a nice, comfy position this is to hold. In fact, I feel like I could hold it all day. Why not have a keyboard that supports this position?



Instead, I have a keyboard that forces me to turn my nice comfortable triangle into a funnel shape by bringing my arms in closer to my torso and bending my wrists so that they are parallel to each other.



A long time ago I thought that a keyboard system that completely separated the two halves of the keyboard would be the best bet. I'm not talking about simply curving the keyboard here...I'm talking about making the two halves completely independent to support whatever angle my arms and wrists happened to find most comfortable. After much searching, I found the following two that looked as if they could fit the bill:

Datahand Professional II

This is hands-down the coolest looking keyboard I've seen in a while. I really like the fact that each hand is a completely separate entity that can be positioned independently of the other. The other bonus is that it's so different from a normal keyboard that it will discourage people from mucking around on my PC when I'm not there to use it. It does require that you learn a new way to type, but that seems like a fun challenge to me. Sadly, at $675 (for the Pro version) it's just frankly out of my league and there's no way I'd get my current employer to cough up the scratch for it, or for that matter, even the cheaper standard model. I think that at half price, I'd be more inclined to take the plunge.

• Product Link: http://www.datahand.com/

• MSRP: $649 Pro./$479 Std.

Kenesis Evolution

This was my second favorite. Again, it offers completely independent left and right side keyboards, with the added bonus of having a touch-pad built in to each side (for a price). I think that the integrated touch-pads are an excellent idea, as I've been getting more and more annoyed with switching my posture just to use my pointing device(s). I would have loved to try this out, but alas it looks like Kenesis doesn't make it anymore. You might still be able to find one from a reseller or specialty shop, again likely for a pretty penny. It's too bad this went away, as it looked to be exactly what I wanted, and seemed to be on par with the Datahand for looks. Oh well, to replace the Evolution, they are introducing the Freestyle.

• Product Link: http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/evolution.htm

• MSRP: $279 (one touch-pad), $349 (two touch-pads) (Note: Though discontinued, it seems this is still available here.)

Kenesis Freestyle

It doesn't look as comfy as the Evolution, and it doesn't have the integrated touch-pads. However, it does split the keyboard into independent left and right halves. Since it's not yet available for purchase, I guess we'll have to wait and see how much it costs. In the mean time, I decided to compromise with the Adesso.

• Product Link: http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/freestyle.htm

• MSRP: ??? (Product not yet available)

Adesso 308 Tru-Form Pro

As I've been searching for ergonomic keyboards, various Adesso keyboards seemed to keep popping up. They make quite a few models, and the ones that seemed to best fit my needs adopted a form factor similar to the old MS Natural keyboard. A few of the models even had a built in touch pad...and to top it off, they seemed reasonably priced. So, for $68 dollars (including shipping and handling) I put an order in for the Adesso Tru-Form Pro. Unfortunately, they don't yet seem to offer it in a USB version...and the similar keyboards that they do offer in USB don't have the touch-pad. It's not the end of the world, it now just means I'll have to rejigger my USB KVM switch to accommodate this.

• Product Link: http://www.adesso.com/products_detail.asp?productid=296

• MSRP: $60-$90

Conculsions
Sadly, ergonomics comes at a price...and so far, the price has been such that I cannot afford the top tier ergonomic keyboard solutions out there. I'm not opposed to paying for quality and design, especially if it will reduce some of the pain I'm experiencing. But this is quite a bit of money to fork out without really knowing for sure that it will improve things. For now, I'll hope for the best with the Adesso. It's a sad compromise, as I still believe that the idea of having a keyboard that conforms to my natural resting position would be the most therapeutic in the long run. Until the pain gets too bad or I get a raise, I'll give the Adesso Tru-Form Pro a whirl at the office and let you know my thoughts on it. In the meantime, if anyone at the Kenesis or Datahand companies wants to throw a sample my way for a review, just send me an email!

Requisite First Post

This is the first post. There is nothing to see here.
Move along.