Owner, Avatar Tech Pubs and Technical Writer/Editor
San Francisco Bay Area
- Current
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- Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor) at General Electric
- Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor) at PLX Technology
- Owner, Technical Writer/Editor at Avatar Tech Pubs
- Past
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- Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor) at LumaSense Technologies
- Document Form Designer (Contractor) at Global Contract Manufacturing
- Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor) at SensArray
- Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor) at ThyssenKrupp Elevator
- Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor) at RoboToolz
- Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor) at Aristo-Soft / Internet Factory / Software Made Simple
- Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor) at Immersion Corporation
- Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor) at Everex Communications
- Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor) at Logical Automation
- Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor) at Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation
- Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor) at AITech International
- Technical Writer/Editor at International Consulting Group Inc.
- Design Technician, Systems Analyst, Project Manager, Document Analyst, etc at Amdahl Corporation
- Education
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- Milpitas High
- California State University-East Bay
- De Anza College
- Mission College
- Recommended
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17 people have recommended Trish - Connections
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453
connections
- Industry
- Writing and Editing
- Websites
Trish McDermott’s Summary
18+ years experience, specializing in producing user documentation (writing, editing, formatting, proofreading, illustrating, indexing, etc.)
Resource for companies that require outsourced technical publications support. Key abilities include documenting products from user’s perspective, product testing, and providing usability feedback during product design and development.
Trish McDermott’s Specialties:
Using Conditional Text in FrameMaker; Hardware, Software, and Firmware user documentation; Chip data books; Preparing documents that meet NRC electronic submission standards.
Trish McDermott’s Experience
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Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor)
General Electric
(Public Company; Mechanical or Industrial Engineering industry)
2000 — Present (9 years )
Edit, format, and rewrite documents, which include radioactive material transport package Safety Analysis Reports (SARs), Xenon XE-133 Diagnostic brochure, and Material Laboratory Operations General Employee Training Manual.
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Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor)
PLX Technology
(Public Company; PLXT; Semiconductors industry)
1995 — Present (14 years )
Edit, rewrite, and format PCI/PCI Express chip data books, errata, conversion documents, Rapid Development Kit (RDK) hardware reference manuals, quick start design guides, and other user documentation. Work with Product Marketing Engineers (and other staff, including Field Applications Engineers) to resolve technical content conflicts.
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Owner, Technical Writer/Editor
Avatar Tech Pubs
(Writing and Editing industry)
August 1990 — Present (19 years 4 months)
Contract Technical Writer/Editor specializing in software/hardware/firmware user documentation.
Company name was Desktop Effects, changed to Avatar Tech Pubs in 2004. -
Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor)
LumaSense Technologies
(Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)
1995 — March 2008 (13 years )
Write, edit, and/or maintain user and quick start guides for various in-situ process control instruments (some with DOS and Windows user interfaces). Work with programmers to improve software usability.
Worked with LUXTRON from 1995 to 2001. Resumed working with LumaSense Technologies 2007 - 2008. Currently not working on any writing projects for LumaSense. -
Document Form Designer (Contractor)
Global Contract Manufacturing
(Medical Devices industry)
2006 — 2007 (1 year )
Edit and redesign in-house forms.
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Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor)
SensArray
(Semiconductors industry)
August 2004 — October 2007 (3 years 3 months)
Write and maintain user documentation for temperature-sensing hardware, for use in litho track and similar systems.
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Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor)
ThyssenKrupp Elevator
(Public Company; Mechanical or Industrial Engineering industry)
October 2004 — May 2007 (2 years 8 months)
Edit, format, and rewrite Operations and Maintenance manuals for elevator systems, including six BART elevators and one SFO elevator.
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Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor)
RoboToolz
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Consumer Electronics industry)
2001 — 2004 (3 years )
Write user and/or maintenance and repair guides for professional grade, measurement tools for construction professionals. Products include RoboLaser, RoboVector, and RT-7690-2.
RoboToolz Ltd. was formerly known as Toolz Inc. -
Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor)
Aristo-Soft / Internet Factory / Software Made Simple
(Computer Software industry)
1990 — 2002 (12 years )
Took over writing/updating the user manuals for a Ventura Publisher tool, and Wired for Sound (I believe Daniel Will-Harris wrote the original), after their initial release. Wrote all other user manuals for the company after that…including Wired for Sound Pro, Talking Icons, Clinton Spoofer, and others. Worked with the programmers to improve product usability. Also worked with the German and French translators (localization project) for Wired for Sound Pro, then formatted the final documents. Also worked on the product documentation for Internet Factory ecommerce products.
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Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor)
Immersion Corporation
(Public Company; Computer Software industry)
2001 — 2001 (less than a year)
Wrote user guide for VirtualHand Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) software for Windows 2000. Worked with programmer to resolve software bugs and improve usability.
For a school project, created a RoboHelp online help system, using the user guide content as a base. -
Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor)
Everex Communications
(Wireless industry)
July 2001 — October 2001 (4 months)
Wrote a quick start guide for the installation and use of the IntelliWAY High Performance Wireless Broadband Server, and co-wrote the product's HTML-based help system. Tested product for usability and reported bugs to development.
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Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor)
Logical Automation
(Mechanical or Industrial Engineering industry)
1999 — 2001 (2 years )
Wrote user guides, as well as maintenance and troubleshooting guides. Products included LA8300 Device Inspection and Tape & Reel System, SE200 Device Programming System, and SD200 SanDisk POD Loader/Unloader. Worked with programmers to improve software usability.
Unfortunately, Logical Automation is no longer in business. -
Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor)
Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation
(Public Company; Semiconductors industry)
1998 — 2000 (2 years )
Edited, rewrote, and formatted chip data books.
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Technical Writer/Editor (Contractor)
AITech International
(Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)
1996 — 1998 (2 years )
Wrote user and/or quick start guides for image capture and scan converter products with DOS and Windows 3.1/95/NT user interfaces. Products included WaveWatcher Net-TV 98, WaveWatcher TV/PCI, AIGotcha!, Pro PC/TV 1, PC/TV AirLink, MultiPro Plus, and I-Point.
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Technical Writer/Editor
International Consulting Group Inc.
(Writing and Editing industry)
1993 — 1996 (3 years )
One year as an intern, several more as a contractor.
Intern: Technical writing, editing, page layout, and design. Projects included several Novell, Inc. guides (glossary, software developer’s guides, and other documentation), and the Intuit Principles and Practices Guide.
Contractor: Produced user documentation, including Sony VAIO (Desktop) System user manual (co-writer with several others; it won an STC award), user and administration guides for Roving Apple Remote Access and user guide for Usenet, Novell NetWare documentation, and Cabletron ATM switch software user guide and hardware installation guide. -
Design Technician, Systems Analyst, Project Manager, Document Analyst, etc
Amdahl Corporation
(Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)
1980 — 1992 (12 years )
Positions included:
Systems Analyst / Project Manager (one year)
Managed board artwork release project.
• Produced meeting minutes for board artwork schedule meetings, and memos confirming artwork part numbers, ship dates, and design changes.
• Produced new product process flow documenting path from initial design to implementation.
• Developed and taught two-day hands-on MVS/TSO commands class.
Engineering Design Technician (seven years)
Produced procedural documentation.
• Wrote procedural documentation describing how to track board artwork design changes.
• Edited three software reference guides for use by programmers and design technicians, thus eliminating need for three additional guides.
• Edited and combined more than 80 board rework process documents into one user guide, thus streamlining the process and improving usability.
Trish McDermott’s Education
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Milpitas High
1975 — 1979
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California State University-East Bay
RoboHelp Online Help Class
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De Anza College
Certificate , Technical Communications
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Mission College
Associate of Arts , Liberal Arts, with minor in English
Additional Information
Trish McDermott’s Websites:
Trish McDermott’s Groups:
Fremont Chamber of Commerce
Girl Scouts of Northern California
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GE (General Electric) -
DeAnza College Students and Alumni -
LinkEds & writers -
Girl Scouts -
Linking Northern California -
The Content Wrangler Community -
Brigham Young University -
Amdahl Alumni -
Adobe Software Users -
Apple Employees, Contractors & Alumni -
California State University, East Bay Alumni -
Cal State Hayward Alumni -
Bay Area - Silicon Valley Network -
Technical Writer Forum -
Semiconductor - Sales & Marketing -
Technical Writer of Writers -
KLA-Tencor Corporation Alumni Group -
Baywolf -
Adobe® Acrobat® | LiveCycle® ES | PDF -
PCI Express -
Friends of FrameMaker -
Linking Milpitas -
Vitesse Employees and Alumni -
Fremont Chamber of Commerce (California) -
ThyssenKrupp USA -
PLX Technology -
Mission College Alumni -
Ohlone College Alumni -
Chabot College Alumni
Trish McDermott’s Honors:
Received an STC award for the first SONY VAIO desktop system's user guide (team effort, I wrote the A/V section of the guide, while a contractor for International Consulting Group). Documentation team included Midyne Spear and Rebecca Altman.
(Haven't seen the award, so don't know the specific details :)
Trish McDermott’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
