Some Useful Links for Technical Writers

Here are a few links that should be useful for technical writers, especially those who want to improve their technical skills. The first four are from the excellent freeCodeCamp site. 

• How to Make Your Web Sites Accessible. " Roughly 1 out of every 7 Americans lives with a disability. As developers, we should keep these folks in mind when building our apps. Thankfully, there's a well-established field called Accessibility (sometimes shortened to “a11y” because there are 11 letters in the word that fall between the A and the Y). This nuts-and-bolts freeCodeCamp course will teach you about Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Accessible Rich Internet Applications, Semantic HTML, and other tools for your toolbox. (2 hour YouTube course)" This should be useful to those writers who are producing web-based help or documentation as well as web sites.
• JavaScript in the Browser – How the Document Object Model (DOM) and Events Work. " The Document Object Model (DOM) is like a big Christmas tree that you hang ornament-like HTML elements on. This front-end development handbook will teach you how the DOM works, and how you can use it to make interactive web pages. You'll learn about DOM Traversal, Class Manipulation, Event Bubbling, and other key concepts. (full-length handbook)." Most high-end writing tools now use JavaScript or something close to it as a macro language (Word excepted, of course).
• Regular Expressions (RegEx) in JavaScript – A Handbook for Beginners. "freeCodeCamp just published another full-length handbook – this time on Regular Expressions. RegEx are one of the most powerful – and most confusing – features of modern programming languages. You can use RegEx to search through data, validate user input, and even find complex patterns within text. This handbook will teach you key concepts like anchors, grouping, metacharacters, and lookahead. And you'll learn a lot of advanced JavaScript RegEx techniques, too. (full-length handbook)" Regular expression syntax can vary depending on the application but the basic concepts are similar. 
• Advanced Prompt Engineering for Content Creators – Full Handbook. "But you don't have to learn a ton of Statistics and Machine Learning to get more out of AI. You can first focus on just getting better at talking to AI. This new Prompt Engineering Handbook will give you practical tips for getting better images, text, and code out of Large Language Models like GPT-4. (full-length handbook)"
• BookMaker Demo for Desktop Publishing. "This video will demonstrate the use of BookMaker, a software developed by Jack Lyon, to create a professional book design using Microsoft Word, starting from your own manuscript. You will be able to create a properly formatted book according to industry standards with a minimum of effort. However, the more you know about proper book formatting, the better you will be able to use this tool." I haven't used this tool, but I have used other tools of Jack Lyon's and he produces high-quality software. 
• Making a LaTeX document appear as though it were typeset in MS Word. Some advice on how to dumb down LaTex. 
• Intel One Mono. "Identifying the typographically underserved low-vision developer audience, the Intel One Mono typeface was designed for maximum legibility to address developers' fatigue and eyestrain and reduce coding errors." I like it though my personal preference would be for a higher x-height. It is especially good at distinguishing symbols and brackets.