This is your main working page for Essential Utilities for Technical Writers. Use this page to find out what to name your files, see when projects are due, go to the online textbook and other resources for this course.
This course features free applications only. No purchases necessary, except for FileZilla Pro, which you can skip.
When you complete a unit, click the completed< button for that unit.
Links have been removed from this page. To take this fully linked course, contact admin@mcmassociates.io.
Course Startup
Go to the Course Overview.
Unit 1. Edit with macro-based Sublime Text, Visual Studio Code or vim
For your HTML and CSS work, you need a powerful text editor that has extensive macro capabilities. Sublime Text and Visual Studio Code are two such editors, both free. Sublime Text is the best to start with. Visual Studio Code is much more complex and the favorite of full-stack developers, but not the best to start with. This unit provides installation and configuration for both, extensive macro tutorials for both, and directions on installing and using the most useful plug-ins.
Go to the Editors study unit.
| Recommended due date: unit_date |
Unit 2. Learn basic FTP functions with FileZilla
As a technical writer, you need to upload and download files from your server, your company's server, or your client's server. FTP tools like FileZilla, one of the best such tools, enables to do those uploads and downloads. This unit provides tutorials for successfully accomplishing those tasks.
Go to the FTP Applications study unit.
| Recommended due date: unit_date |
Unit 3. Edit images with GIMP
As a technical writer, you will often need to crop and size images, make image backgrounds transparent, combine pages, blur out portions of images, and more. Learn these tasks using GIMP, which is free.
If you want to see how do these task in Adobe Photoshop, let your instructor know.
Go to the Work with Images in GIMP study guide and do the study and practice.
Let admin@mcmassociates.io know if you want a similar study guide for Adobe Photoshop.
| Recommended due date: unit_date |
Unit 4. Archive ("zip") files and directories
Whether it's sending a bunch files to a client or stowing a bunch files away for safe keeping, you need to have an archiving tool in your repertoire. This unit provides tutorials in these tools on Windows and Linux system (of which the Mac OS is a version).
Go to the Archiving Applications study unit.
| Recommended due date: unit_date |
Unit 5. Use scripts for large-scale changes in Windows, Linux, Macs
No tutorials have been written yet for this unit. Like to try your hand . . . ?
The sed script originated in UNIX systems to enable repetitive changes across a whole set of files—for example, all the files in a directory (folder). It's generically called "batch edting." These are scripts that contain a set of commands that run as a unit to accomplish those changes. (sed is an abbreviated form of "stream editor.")
Go to the Batch Editing study unit.
| Recommended due date: unit_date |
Unit 6. Get questions answered at a technical question-and-answer website
You simply cannot know enough about the Internet and computers to have all the answers. You have to rely on the larger body of knowledge possessed by communities in these areas. One such well-established community is Stack Overflow. This unit orients you to using Stack Overflow and asking questions in its forums. But beware! This is one place not to ask dumb questions—for example, what is a file. This unit provides some coaching in asking reasonable questions.
Go to the Stack Overflow study guide
| Recommended due date: unit_date |
Unit 7. Accomplish common file system tasks in UNIX-like OS
UNIX-like operating system are all descended from the original UNIX operating system developed at the University of California–Berkeley in the 1970s. Basic commands in Linux, Ubuntu, and macOS all resemble original UNIX commands. In this environment, you need to know how to change to a different directory (folder); create or delete a directory; move files in and out of a directory; list files and directories; selectively copy, move, or delete files in a directory; and reference a directory absolutely or relatively, and more. This unit provides you with hands-on practice with these tasks. If you are a Mac user, you're in luck: the Mac OS uses a UNIX-like OS.
Go to the File System Tasks study unit.
| Recommended due date: unit_date |
Unit 8. Use a text-expansion app for often-used information
Learn to use text expansion apps in which you create t that expand into lengthy phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. For example, use an abbreviation like mit to expand into Massachusetts Institute of Technology when you press a key like Tab.
Go to the Text Expanders study unit.
| Recommended due date: unit_date |
Unit 9. Apply file permissions in Windows, UNIX, Mac operating systems
Currently and for the foreseeable future, Linux and Linux-like systems (with the grandparent being UNIX) are likely to be the backend work for developers and technical writers both. One of the first things you need to know with these systems is undestanding and setting file permissions.
Go to the File Permissions study unit.
| Recommended due date: unit_date |
Unit 10. Provide simulated technical support
Much of technical writing about problem solving. Just about all of work in technical support is problem solving. If you ever work on the front lines of technical support answering user questions, you will discover that it is good experience for your technical writing skills. Such work gives you a strong, direct sense of your users. You come away with a much better perspective on what users need. This unit provides some hands-on experience in a tech support environment answering user questions effectively.
Go to the Technical Support study guide
| Recommended due date: unit_date |
Unit 11. Use GenAI for quick look-up information
As a technical writer, you may be trying to explain how a JavaScript method works, for example. Ask a chatbot app about it. Paraphrase what the chatbot tells to avoid plagiarism charges or lawsuits!
Go to the GenAI look-up study guide
| Recommended due date: unit_date |
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