techauthors.eu

Technical writers, technical authors, technical communicators

We author, update and maintain technical documentation for you

Our moto is: deliver fast and make it brief. We believe in concise and precise text, supplemented with rich content, including visuals, like diagrams, images and video.

01

Who we are

We are technical writers in the European Union. Toma Kashamov is the founder and key figure behind techwriters.eu.

Toma Kashamov, in a stencil portrait on a concrete wall.

Some words about Toma

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, his story in writing begins ever since he was a kid. He had a passion for writing and learning languages, which helped shape his linguistic skills, even though he did not realize it at the time.

Becoming a translator

In college times he knew he had to find a job. His fluency in English helped him find translation projects, English to Bulgarian and the other way round. But English is the most popular language for translations and competition was harsh. To keep the inflow of projects, he had to stick to one of the less coveted options that were still popular: legal or technical texts.

Being a student in the Technical University of Sofia makes such a decision look like an easy one, but it wasn't a smooth start. In the beginning, he did try with both legal and technical documents. However, this proved time-costly and rather prevented him from keeping his focus and getting traction with customers. So the decision was made: in the late 90s he started taking more and more technical content translation projects and was forced to ditch most others.

Becoming a writer

By the time Toma graduated the TU of Sofia, he had established relations with a list of clients who kept him busy for a while. But little did he know that as his abilities with linguistics and his ways with the keyboard evolved, so did his passion to write literature. He started authoring poems, short stories and generated a fair amount of literary content, predominantly in Bulgarian.

Going IT and becoming a full-time tech writer

Prior to getting his first job in an IT company as a technical writer, Toma had managed to establish a name for himself as a writer. He was still involved with translations of technical content but had also translated books, created content for numerous websites, including copywriting. And this is where it took off: his first job in an IT company combined the roles of a content writer, a technical writer and a coordinator of releases across the R&D and Marketing teams.

Tech authors are the scholars of the modern world and together combined we forge the link between users and technology. We constantly create instructions, guides, manuals and books that bridge the gap between humans and the vast range of opportunities that machines may grant us.

We care about other technical writers too. Albeit competition, or possible disagreements over best technologies, methodologies, approaches and software, we form a strong community.

A laptop, a pen and reading glasses on a dark desk.

02

What we do

We provide tech writing services for the IT community:

  • create text, diagrams, images and video technical content from scratch
  • deploy and maintain documentation portals
  • reorganize your library, wiki, blog or doc web portal
  • help establish tech writing processes in your organization
  • migrate documentation across different platforms and formats
  • improve content SEO
  • provide consultancy on content strategy
  • consult you on any tech writing-related matter

All about doc portals

Doc portals is what we call any web hosted library of technical documentation. If your library consists of PDFs, Word docs, Excel sheets and other supplementary standalone files, that is not really a doc portal.

Create doc portals from scratch

That is usually what startup companies need. Whether it is developer's docs, pluggable components, APIs or SDKs, we know what to do. Usually, you just need to decide if you want a CMS or would rather go with a Git repo for the job. The rest is up to us.

Migrate doc portals to better platforms

Usually it happens with companies with a long history that offer multiple products and services. It is hard enough to maintain all documentation sets for all products, but as content grows bigger, so do the challenges with migrating it to something better. Moving everything from one platform to another is not a simple task: everything you do must be searchable and it is often impossible, for example, to export and import images. We know the challenges and are able to do it for you.

Reorganize doc portals and update existing documentation

If you have an existing doc portal but aren't happy with its content, or receive negative feedback from your users, we can help. You might need help on proof-reading and editing, restructuring of sections, or simply applying best practices. We can consult you on what to do, or you can hire us to do it for you. Depending on the size of your documentation, this may turn out to be a very cumbersome task, and it often requires research to identify the weakest spots to address.

We also update existing documentation. Updates vary from simple refreshing of images to match the latest UI, to breaking down sections, or removing obsolete content. We also do diagrams, videos, GIFs and other visuals.

Technical documentation covered

  • user guides and manuals
  • API references
  • installation and deployment guides
  • administrator guides
  • developer guides
  • marketing and technical articles for blogs
  • whatever tech-related you might think of

We know formats

We can work with any format or toolset. We'd rather focus on doc-as-code platforms.

  • good old Word files: DOC, DOCX or ODT
  • XML-based WYSIWYG authoring tools, like Madcap Flare
  • doc-as-code platforms, like MkDocs, Slate, Docusaurus, Jekyll
  • web portals, such as Zendesk, Helpdesk, Hubspot
  • wikis, including Confluence and Wikimedia

03

CV

Toma Kashamov, technical writer and content strategist, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Work experience

  1. Senior technical and content writer, Next BasketApr 2023 to Aug 2023. Marketing and PR articles; the knowledge base built from scratch on Hubspot, kept in a Git repo with an MkDocs structure. Tech writing processes set up in Jira for SCRUM deliveries.
  2. Senior technical writer, QredoJun 2021 to Oct 2022. Documentation for Qredo's APIs and pluggable components: API reference guides, developer guides, technical papers.
  3. Senior technical writer, AxwayMar 2017 to Jun 2021. Documentation for SecureTransport, an enterprise managed file transfer platform: administrator guides, user guides, release notes, developer guides, kept current with patches and releases. Tech writing processes set up in Jira.
  4. Senior technical writer, Secure GroupDec 2015 to Feb 2017. Documentation for a product line of encrypted mobile solutions, including a full revamp of the WordPress Heroic knowledge base and interactive web tutorials in Inline Manual.
  5. Senior technical writer, NaxexDec 2014 to Dec 2015. Documentation for the Naxex FOREX trading platform: release notes and user guides, in Webhelp and print.
  6. Senior technical writer, TradoLogicSept 2012 to Aug 2014. Documentation for the binary options trading platform: release notes, user guides, integration guides, API reference guides.
  7. Sales manager and technical writer, ZoiperApr 2012 to Aug 2012. Enterprise customers buying, customizing and deploying VoIP software. Updated documentation and wrote templates for tech support responses.
  8. Technical writer, ProSystNov 2010 to Oct 2011. User and developer guides for the home automation modules of an OSGi-based platform, published as web content.
  9. Technical writer, PlaytechMay 2008 to Sept 2010.
  10. Technical and marketing content writer, ZoiperSep 2006 to May 2008. User manuals, API reference guides and provisioning documentation for the Zoiper softphone. News articles, press releases, website content and SEO.

This list of past jobs is not complete. For the sake of brevity, it only includes roles that are pertinent to IT, software and technical or marketing content.

Tools

  • Office tools: MS Office, Open Office, Google Docs
  • WYSIWYG authoring: MadCap Flare, DrExplain
  • Web publishing: WordPress, Hubspot, HelpDesk
  • Code and text editing: VS Code, Notepad++
  • Doc-as-code: MkDocs, Docusaurus, Slate
  • Wiki: Confluence, WikiMedia

Education

Technical University of Sofia, 1997 to 2004. Master's degree in Electrical Engineering.

Languages

Bulgarian (mother tongue), English, Spanish, Russian, German.

CV in other formats

04

Knowledge

This section contains samples that showcase what we can do, and it is where we share what we know. A lot of the content in our portfolio and knowledge sections shows different ways to present documentation and information. For starters, it is a blog space.

Sample doc portals and web widgets are planned and not published here yet.

Contact

Reach out to us to discuss your needs and request quotes.

Email
contact@techwriters.eu
Phone
+359 889 452 410