Nigel E. Richardson — Curriculum Vitae
Full Name: Nigel Edward Richardson
Limited Company: NE Richardson Ltd
Address: 35 The Cricketers, Leeds, LS5 3RJ
Email:
[email protected]
WWW:
http://come.to/nerichardson
Telephone: 0113 2745680 (Home/Answerphone)
Mobile: 0802 766939
Fax: 0870 1641430
Date of Birth: 19th November 1957
Marital Status: Single
Availability: Immediately
Preferred Locations: Flexible, but preferably West Yorkshire
IT Experience from: 1986
Position sought: Technical Author (Contract)
Skills
Operating Systems: Windows (NT, 98, 95, 3.1), DOS, VAX/VMS, UNIX
DTP Packages:Ventura 5 and 7, PagePlus, Pagemaker, Interleaf, Framemaker
WP Packages:Word 97, Word 6.0, Word Perfect 6.1
Graphics Packages:Powerpoint, Adobe PhotoShop,
Visio, Corel Draw, Corel Paint, Paint Shop Pro
Help Tools:HDK 3.3, Doc-To-Help, RoboHelp, WinHelp, Help Author, HTML Help
Workshop
Web Tools:Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash, MS FrontPage, HomeSite 4
Others:Netware 4.11, Excel, Adobe Acrobat Exchange/Distiller, Access
Programming Languages: Visual Basic 5, JavaScript, VBA/Word Macros, Perl
Those in bold have been in use during the last six months.
Summary Of Relevant Experience
October 1998 – March 1999: Smart PeopleTime, Lynch Wood
Business Park, Peterborough PE2 5FZ
Technical Author (5 month contract)
Wrote, edited and produced, using Word 98, Corel Draw 7
and HDK 3.3, the Windows online help and reference material for Universal
PeopleTime, a Time and Attendance system for Oracle or Sybase databases used by
such companies as Jaguar, Glaxo and Elizabeth Arden. Also designed and
programmed the installation CD for the latest releases of the
product.
August 1998 – September 1998: National Air Traffic
Services Ltd, Porter. s, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 9AX
Technical Author (1 month
contract)
Wrote, edited and produced detailed design
specifications for flight plan software using Word and Visio.
April 1998 – July 1998: GEC Alsthom T&D Protection
& Control Ltd, St Leonards Works, Stafford ST1 4LX
Technical Author (15 week
contract)
Wrote, edited and produced the Windows online help for
the MV Platform PC Support module. This software, running under Windows 95 and
NT, and customisable to the user. s language, is sold throughout the world to
control, program and monitor the performance of power station relays either
on-site or via a modem.
The software used to write the helpfiles was HDK 3.2 and Word 6.0, with Visio to create diagrams.
October 1997 – April 1998:
Environment Agency, Stockdale House, Leeds LS6 1PF
Technical Author (6 month contract)
Edited and maintained the library of standards and
procedures produced by the National Harmonisation Project. s PC and Server
Design Team as paper documents and HTML web pages. This project was set up to
define, create and maintain a WAN linking all offices and outposts of the
Environment Agency in the UK using NetWare 4, ManageWise, GroupWise, Windows
95.
August 1993 – September 1997: BACG,
Leeds
Senior Technical
Author
Wrote and produced on-line,
electronic and paper documentation for BACG. s RDW/TIS (Retail Data Warehouse /
Traded Information System), an enterprise-wide client-server package for the
retail industry, managing and accessing terabytes of historic sales data; plus
two new packages to deliver optimisation solutions for space management and
pricing.
Over four years my responsibilities included overseeing
the move from the traditional large, function-based and text-heavy paper documentation to process-driven, user-friendly media such as Windows. On-line Help and Acrobat documentation on CD. I was also instrumental towards using the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web as a means of distributing documentation to clients and BACG staff at other locations.
I was earlier involved with producing user guides for mainframe systems for the retail/distribution-chain industries including warehouse management, purchasing, short cycle ordering, etc.
Packages used included Windows Office, Visio, Acrobat, Corel Draw, HomeSite and Ventura.
February 1993 – August 1993: BACG, Leeds
Technical Author
(Contract)
Edited and produced documentation for mainframe and
PC-based retail/distribution-chain software, and worked on the creation of
Windows Online Help for a warehouse/stores system.
December 1992: British Aerospace Space Systems Ltd,
Bristol
Technical Author
(Contract)
Responsible for revising and updating Working
Procedures for the Pyramid Systems computer used by Space Systems to run their
Business Information System.
July – September 1992: ICI (Chemical & Polymers),
Teeside
Technical Author
(Contract)
Produced Quality Assurance documentation for safety and
backup procedures for the Teeside Operations Computer Applications Group (TOCAG)
within ICI. This was required for TOCAG. s application for ISO9000/1
accreditation.
July 1991 – July 1992: IBM, Leeds
Learning Centre
Administrator
Responsible for running the local IBM Learning Centre
used by IBM dealers, agents, customers and internal staff. This included the
production of learning material, maintaining the Learning Centre network of PCs
and interactive laser-disk players, and assisting with courses.
I was also responsible for maintaining the IBM database of customers and prospects for the Northern Commercial and Enterprise branches, using it to produce mailshots and management reports using AS/400 Officevision.
December 1990 – June 1991: Personal writing projects
March – November 1990: Unisys, London
Technical Author
(Contract)
Responsible with a second author for producing 10
manuals from existing, inadequate documentation to match extensively revised
software. Later, with a further three authors, also produced another 12 manuals
from scratch for newly-developed modules. The software packages were part of two
accountancy suites written for the construction and contracting industry, one
running under LINC on Unisys Series A machines, the other running under UNIX.
All documentation was produced using BS5750 standards in a small in-house run
for which we prepared the camera-ready copy.
September 1989 – March 1990: Legal & General,
Surrey
Technical Author
(Contract)
One
of a team of three writers producing user guides and reference material for
CLASSIC (Client Advice, Sales, Servicing and Information Capture), a PC-based
integrated pension, mortgage, insurance, life assurance and financial services
package for Legal & General. s sales consultants.
March – August 1989: Mega Products,
Surbiton
Technical
Author
Responsible
for writing and producing the user documentation for the MAGICAL suite of Sales
Order Processing, Purchase Order Processing and Inventory Management
packages.
July 1986 – March 1989: BOS Software,
London
Technical
Author
Responsibilities included writing and editing user
manuals for the whole range of BOS accountancy, business, office and programming
products, together with release notices, brochures, information sheets and
associated documentation. I was involved at all stages of production – from
initial liaison with developers to dealing with customer feedback; from
discussing the look and layout of the documentation through to delivering the
camera-ready copy for the printers.
I also started and produced the company. s in-house newsletter to improve communication when expansion forced the company to split over several sites.
February 1986 – May 1986: Guardian Computer Training,
Leeds
Software Documentation Course
I attended a fourteen week full-time course in technical writing for the computer industry that led to the City and Guilds examination in Technical Communication (in which I received a Credit for the examination and a Distinction for my project).
Professional Training Courses
1986: Guardian Computer Training, Leeds
Software Documentation Course
See previous section for details.
1982 – 1983: Systime, Leeds
Commercial Computer Programming
Course
Computer theory and programming in Basic+ and
COBOL..
1979: CDI, Leeds
Computer Operating Course
Computer theory and the operation of ICL and IBM
mainframe machines.
Also, various in-house (and bought-in) courses on programming, editing, proof-reading, HTML and information mapping.
Education And Qualifications
1976 – 1977: Sheffield Polytechnic,
Sheffield
HND
Applied Chemistry (first year only)
1969 – 1976: Garforth Comprehensive,
Leeds
A Levels:
Chemistry, Pure and Applied Mathematics, Physics.
O Levels: Art, Astronomy,
Chemistry, English, Mathematics, Physics.
Additional Information
My
interests include multimedia computing, the Internet, writing for a variety of
publications both amateur and professional, local history, modern fiction,
listening to music, travel (most recently Iceland, New York, South Africa and
Texas), photography and chess.