Summary of changes in EU law and implications for technical documentation

A number of new EU directives and regulations have been published in recent months, which also place requirements on technical documentation. In view of the numerous changes, it is not easy to keep track of everything. In this blog article, I will give you a quick insight into the upcoming developments. Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 The new Product Safety Regulation comes into force on 13.12.2024 [...]

How do I explain it to the AI? - Prompt engineering for Excel programming

Some even want to turn it into an apprenticeship. This is certainly an exaggeration, but prompt engineering should not be underestimated. If you proceed correctly, GPT-4 is a great help and you can save a lot of time. GPT-4 helped me to create an Excel VB program. This opportunity also showed me what you can do with [...]

Are you a translator? Then use your language skills and become a technical editor

Fachkräftemangel als Chance: Quereinstieg in die Technische Dokumentation In Zeiten des Fachkräftemangels haben viele Branchen Probleme, offene Stellen zu besetzen – dieses Problem betrifft natürlich auch die Technische Dokumentation. Was also tun, wenn auf dem Arbeitsmarkt keine Technischen Redakteurinnen/Redakteure zu bekommen sind? Genau – man bildet sie selbst aus! Als Marktführer für die Aus- [...]

Standards with relevance for technical documentation - June 2024

Date of issue: December 2022 DIN EN ISO 7010/A4, A5 and A6: Graphical symbols - Safety colors and safety signs - Registered safety signs - Amendment 4 to 6 Three supplemented drafts of DIN EN ISO 7010 have been published. The standard deals with safety colors and signs for accident prevention, fire protection, protection against health hazards and for escape routes. [...]

Current changes to publication options for operating instructions/declaration of conformity

Note: This text is an initial, subjective assessment of the new guide to the Machinery Directive, which is currently only available in English. On April 18, 2024, the EU Commission published a new guide to the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC as version 2.3. The guide replaces version 2.2. By and large, with the exception of statements on technical documentation, there have been no [...]

Technical documentation in the age of AI and IoT - mandatory becomes optional

It all started with the Product Liability Act, which first stipulated in 1989 that the safe operation of products must be guaranteed in every respect. This was followed in 1993 by the Machinery Directive, which explicitly stipulated this requirement for machinery and plant engineering. After a transitional period of 2 years, the Machinery Directive became a mandatory basis for manufacturers and [...]

Time travel into the past

I recently took a trip back in time. By chance, I got my hands on a set of instructions that I created around 20 years ago for a Cobi (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ConferenceBike). I still have fond memories of the research and creation of the instructions. At the time, it was the company's first and only product and [...]

CCMS introduction: import or create from scratch?

Anyone introducing an editorial system is faced with the question of whether the existing documentation should be imported into the new system or whether everything has to be rewritten. Importing sounds tempting because it appears to be less work. However, the following comparison of customer thoughts and expectations shows what rework is necessary and what preparatory work is worthwhile [...]

How do I explain it to the AI? - Prompt Engineering

"It remains exciting" were the closing words when I reported on my first experiences with GPT-3.5 a few weeks ago. I had written about ChatGPT possibly becoming a new partner at work. In fact, shortly afterwards I had the opportunity to use GPT-4 in a project. The assignment A customer [...]

2024-06-21T11:03:22+02:0010.01.2024|Kategorien: General, Technical Communication, Outside the box|Tags: , , , , , , Prompting|0 comments

tekom Annual Conference 2023

This year, tecteam will once again be present at the tekom annual conference in Stuttgart. We look forward to seeing you at stand 2E10. In addition to the actual trade fair presence, the program will again include plenty of presentations and workshops on technical communication topics. Our guidelines and standards expert Olaf Dömer will provide you with an overview on November 15 from 3 p.m. [...]

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