John V. Hedtke
FSTC
OR, USJohn Hedtke is the award-winning author of 26 books and close to 200 magazine articles, John has been a writer on high tech, management, and business topics for close to 30 years and has developed and written documentation and books for many leading software products. His writing has received 26 regional and international writing awards to date.
John started as a programmer analyst working on accounting and large records database systems. After 5 years in development, he switched to technical writing and training. His background in development gave him an edge when working with developers. John's first contract, writing user document for Microsoft Multiplan 3.0, was the first Microsoft manual to ever get rated "Excellent" by Infoworld, who said "Because this manual is top-drawer work and has no flaws, we rate it excellent."
John's first book, Microsoft Word Power User's Guide, outsold all the other books in the Power User's Guide series 3-1. He proceeded to turn out as many as four books a year on topics such as bulletin board systems (BBSes), Windows tips and tricks, shareware, accounting software, MP3s, podcasting, Firefox, Visio, Robohelp, and many other topics. His most recent book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Disaster Preparedness, with Dr. Maurice A. Ramirez, was released in August 2009. Several books are planned for release in 2010 on a variety of subjects.
His past clients include many of the leading names in high tech and services, including Microsoft, AOL, Visio, VoiceStream, Alcatel, Boeing, GTE, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board among many others. He has frequently been interviewed as a technical expert on MP3s and digital rights, computer security, and online communications by Time, The Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, and many regional and local newspapers. Additionally, because of John's three books on BBSes in the 80s through the mid-90s, he was tapped to be an expert interviewed in BBS: The Documentary, Jason Scott's fascinating look at the development and history of BBSes and how the Internet as we know it formed out of innovations originally developed with BBSes. John joined High Alert Publishing as the Editor in Chief and Partner in 2009 to provide writing, consulting, and training to private, public, and government clients in all 18 critical infrastructure industries.
When not engaged in writing books, articles, and documentation, John does a considerable amount of work as a speaker, doing presentations on technical, writing, business management, and planning skills. He has also taken part in training and teaching as a guest lecturer and adjunct professor for several Technical Communication programs at colleges and universities, including the University of Washington and the University of California system. John also appears at science-fiction conventions, where he speaks on topics such as publishing, finding an agent, enhancing creativity, and business management for writers. He also does numerous radio and magazine interviews and frequently travels to do lectures and guest appearances at conferences and seminars. John was a Director on the Society for Technical Communication's Board and became a Fellow of the Society in 2005.
John Hedtke is the award-winning author of 26 books and close to 200 magazine articles, John has been a writer on high tech, management, and business topics for close to 30 years and has developed and written documentation and books for many leading software products. His writing has received 26 regional and international writing awards to date.
John started as a programmer analyst working on accounting and large records database systems. After 5 years in development, he switched to technical writing and training. His background in development gave him an edge when working with developers. John's first contract, writing user document for Microsoft Multiplan 3.0, was the first Microsoft manual to ever get rated "Excellent" by Infoworld, who said "Because this manual is top-drawer work and has no flaws, we rate it excellent."
John's first book, Microsoft Word Power User's Guide, outsold all the other books in the Power User's Guide series 3-1. He proceeded to turn out as many as four books a year on topics such as bulletin board systems (BBSes), Windows tips and tricks, shareware, accounting software, MP3s, podcasting, Firefox, Visio, Robohelp, and many other topics. His most recent book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Disaster Preparedness, with Dr. Maurice A. Ramirez, was released in August 2009. Several books are planned for release in 2010 on a variety of subjects.
His past clients include many of the leading names in high tech and services, including Microsoft, AOL, Visio, VoiceStream, Alcatel, Boeing, GTE, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board among many others. He has frequently been interviewed as a technical expert on MP3s and digital rights, computer security, and online communications by Time, The Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, and many regional and local newspapers. Additionally, because of John's three books on BBSes in the 80s through the mid-90s, he was tapped to be an expert interviewed in BBS: The Documentary, Jason Scott's fascinating look at the development and history of BBSes and how the Internet as we know it formed out of innovations originally developed with BBSes. John joined High Alert Publishing as the Editor in Chief and Partner in 2009 to provide writing, consulting, and training to private, public, and government clients in all 18 critical infrastructure industries.
When not engaged in writing books, articles, and documentation, John does a considerable amount of work as a speaker, doing presentations on technical, writing, business management, and planning skills. He has also taken part in training and teaching as a guest lecturer and adjunct professor for several Technical Communication programs at colleges and universities, including the University of Washington and the University of California system. John also appears at science-fiction conventions, where he speaks on topics such as publishing, finding an agent, enhancing creativity, and business management for writers. He also does numerous radio and magazine interviews and frequently travels to do lectures and guest appearances at conferences and seminars. John was a Director on the Society for Technical Communication's Board and became a Fellow of the Society in 2005.
