Alexa Van Vliet

Writer and Tech Enthusiast

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Hey there! My name's Alexa and I'm glad to have you here. 🙂

I'm the person my friends come to whenever they need a proofreader or have a question about their phone or computer. I've found that the majority of my fellow writers are tech-shy, and I am a rare exception; whether it's learning a new coding language, tinkering with the latest version of Android, or finding the best application for a job, I'm not afraid to dive right in.

Like what you see? Have questions? Don't hesitate to get in touch!

Download my Resume

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LinkedIn

Portfolio

>> Download My Writing Portfolio as a ZIP File <<

(Note: The ZIP file only contains PDFs. The videos and other projects I have listed below are not included.)

Development Projects

  • This website. 🙂 Created using WordPress, though heavily tweaked by editing HTML/CSS.
  • MadCap Flare Project:
  • This project utilized MadCap's single-source content development software, Flare, in addition to other MadCap services, including Central (an SSO-secured cloud for developed content, for use among a team), Lingo (a translation manager), and Capture (a screenshot/screen recording software).
  • Source Control was handled using Git with MadCap Central, creating working branches and branches for translated content.
  • Using Lingo, translated versions of the content were easily created using the DeepL machine translation service.
  • A template project was created, and linked to be automatically used in any writer's deliverable. If the template was updated, all deliverables would automatically use the new template without additional effort on the writer's part.
  • Content only needed to be created once, and could be reused across as many deliverables as needed, eliminating the need to find and edit multiple documents containing the same information.
    • This includes generating different formats from the same content, such as PDF, Word, or HTML documents.
    • Utilizing features such as conditional text and snippets, information could be altered to suit each type of deliverable. For example, a cover page could be set to appear in a PDF but not when published to the web or in a Word document.
    • Another use-case would be manuals for different models of the same product: the same content could be tagged to display different model numbers in different documents, or hide features not applicable in certain versions from appearing in those documents.
    • The content of longer manuals could be reused in shorter quick guides, or recombined for different use-cases.
    • Additionally, Flare made it easy to track where content was used - if one needed to know all of the documentation containing a certain policy, a quick search in Flare would bring up the results.

While a project like this is difficult to share in full, an example can be found with three versions of a created guide utilizing templates created to reflect the Word template in use by writers at the time:

PDF file | Word Document (Please note that this project was ultimately left unfinished, and these examples are unpolished as a result.)

Web files (The HTML files here utilize the same style defaults as the PDF and Word documents, however, time did not allow for customization; this is to demonstrate some of the ways content can be reused.)

Guides and Manuals

Articles

Tutorials

Videos

(As of June 2025, these videos appear to have been made private and are unviewable at this time; I am keeping the links in case they become available again in the future)

Creative Writing

Research

 

Development Projects

  • This website. 🙂 Created using WordPress, though heavily tweaked by editing HTML/CSS.
  • MadCap Flare Project:
  • This project utilized MadCap's single-source content development software, Flare, in addition to other MadCap services, including Central (an SSO-secured cloud for developed content, for use among a team), Lingo (a translation manager), and Capture (a screenshot/screen recording software).
  • Source Control was handled using Git with MadCap Central, creating working branches and branches for translated content.
  • Using Lingo, translated versions of the content were easily created using the DeepL machine translation service.
  • A template project was created, and linked to be automatically used in any writer's deliverable. If the template was updated, all deliverables would automatically use the new template without additional effort on the writer's part.
  • Content only needed to be created once, and could be reused across as many deliverables as needed, eliminating the need to find and edit multiple documents containing the same information.
    • This includes generating different formats from the same content, such as PDF, Word, or HTML documents.
    • Utilizing features such as conditional text and snippets, information could be altered to suit each type of deliverable. For example, a cover page could be set to appear in a PDF but not when published to the web or in a Word document.
    • Another use-case would be manuals for different models of the same product: the same content could be tagged to display different model numbers in different documents, or hide features not applicable in certain versions from appearing in those documents.
    • The content of longer manuals could be reused in shorter quick guides, or recombined for different use-cases.
    • Additionally, Flare made it easy to track where content was used - if one needed to know all of the documentation containing a certain policy, a quick search in Flare would bring up the results.

While a project like this is difficult to share in full, an example can be found with three versions of a created guide utilizing templates created to reflect the Word template in use by writers at the time:

PDF file | Word Document (Please note that this project was ultimately left unfinished, and these examples are unpolished as a result.)

Web files (The HTML files here utilize the same style defaults as the PDF and Word documents, however, time did not allow for customization; this is to demonstrate some of the ways content can be reused.)

View My Resume
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