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Profile of Johannes M. Heuss
Who is Johannes M. Heuss?
I am a male German, born 1960, raised in Essen in North Rhine-Westphalia. Since 1973 I live in Nuremberg located in Middle Franconia  (Northern Bavaria).
After studies in Communications Engineering I gained professional experience in several industries, namely in the development and manufacturing of electronic assemblies, in automation engineering, software development, audio engineering, and in varied jobs as a technical writer, eventually in 2009 resulting in the start-up of a new business as service provider for technical documentation, content management and audio processing.
The whole story
Johannes M. Heuss
It was in my early life when I began to implement technical projects – electronic audio circuits mostly built from publications in journals but also self-developed. I used to be named a hobbyist but this did not match my self-perception as an ambitious developer. An electronic device needs detailed instruction documents for its production and, when completed, operating instructions for the user can be of avail, especially when operated by others. So I started to document my hobbyist work.
After military service as a radio operator in Donauwoerth (Bavaria) and a practical at Frieseke & Hoepfner in Erlangen (Bavaria) I studied Communications Engineering at the Ohm University in Nuremberg. In that course, I had an internship at PKI Philips Kommunikations Industrie in Nuremberg. During studies I learned to competently craft electronic assemblies using printed circuit boards. I created an eligible design for the chassis, operational controls and connections, and I wrote proper documentation, at that time by means of typewriter, drawing board and photocopier.
Having finished studies in 1985, I took up a job as a constructing engineer at zsi Zertz & Scheid Ingenieurgesellschaft in Nuremberg. They produced electronic assemblies for automation engineering but also worked on automation projects, so I learned to program Simatic automation systems starting from simple sequence chains up to complex time-critical processes.
Privately in 1985 I engineered a digital metronome featuring special functions for drumming. This turned out to be a paradigm for the coordination of circuit design, product development, user interface, and manufacturing. Its electronics were based on a quartz-driven phase-locked loop circuit using CMOS logic chips, to be set directly in beats per minute. A functionally comparable device was the Korg DTM-12 Digital Tuner/Metronome launched in 1986.
In 1986 I started up a business to combine electronics engineering, audio engineering and software development. I developed electronic circuits for measurement applications, operational logic for audio equipment, and many other devices, and I participated in automation engineering projects, e. g. for Schering in Feucht (Bavaria) and for Volkswagen in Wolfsburg (Lower Saxony). In Untertrubach (Bavaria) I was in charge of maintenance engineering at the Trubach Digital recording studio.
In 1989 I taught myself to work with software for computer-aided design (CAD) to construct electronic circuits, and I noticed the lack of ready-made pictograms for electronic parts. So I decided to develop and launch a symbol library for the Draftsman-EE CAD system under the trade name PicTron that I had registered as a trade mark  . Articles in trade journals were to follow, such as elektronik industrie or Elektronik-Praxis, causing lively interest but not leading the enterprise to commercial success.
Starting from 1991, I developed software programs for the Microsoft Windows operating system, at first using QuickBasic and QuickC and later using Gupta SQLWindows, a 4GL database programming environment. Commissioned by Engel EDV-Systeme in Nuremberg, a comprehensive modular order management program for the toolroom industry was realized that was later complemented by me with a document management software interfacing with Microsoft Word.
More software development was done by me in 1997, namely components for Borland Delphi which were then to be documented in an on-screen help system, available also as a manual. So I started creating single-source documents using Word and WexTech Doc-To-Help, which was then fully deployed in an extensive modular help system designed for an application program for the communication industry. These German documents were also translated into English language by myself.
In the years from 2000 to 2005, I translated engineering standards and educational material originating from the IPC (Intellectual Property Committee) from English to German language for the Fachverband Elektronik-Design in Berlin, the German association for the construction of electronic circuits. Here my experiences in the development and production of electronic assemblies proved to be extremely beneficial, that text material being very inconsistent for the authoring qualities as well as for the peculiarities to accentuate, in particular on the topic of assessment criteria for the manufacturing of printed circuit boards and assemblies.
In my spare time I used to create documentation using Aldus PageMaker and Adobe FrameMaker since 1998. I appreciated particularly the features of template pages in order to create documents efficiently and goal-oriented. On the other hand, I learned to create web pages by HTML coding which I employ to date for homepage maintenance of the “Bund Naturschutz Nuremberg”, a Bavarian environmental organisation.
From 2006 to 2009, I worked as a technical writer employed at Mohles, a local personnel-services provider in Nuremberg. Part of the job was working for Ziehm Imaging, a company for medical equipment in Nuremberg, where I was responsible for the creation, update and final layout of all technical documents as well as for editing pictures such as screen shots, drawings and photographs, and I managed the translation supervision and final layout in foreign languages. Adobe FrameMaker was in heavy use here, but also the initial contact to content management took place attending workshops for the Schema ST4 system.
Subsequently I worked in the office of Mohles in Erlangen (Bavaria) where I created a wiki system that was to collect the corporate know-how using MediaWiki software. I also supported editing and translating documents using FrameMaker, PowerPoint and Word.
Since September 2011 I work as a technical writer at Ziehm Imaging in Nuremberg.
You may download my job profile here as a PDF document.
Job items in review
1979–1984 Studies in Communications Engineering at Ohm University  in Nuremberg
(internships at Frieseke & Hoepfner in Erlangen (Bavaria) and PKI Philips Kommunikations Industrie in Nuremberg
1981–1982 Summer jobs at Foto Quelle in Nuremberg
1981–1983 Mixing engineer for Ernie's Band in Fuerth (Bavaria)
since 1981 Engineering and manufacturing of various electronic assemblies for use in recording studios
(amongst others: reproduction amplifier, switching equipment, digital metronome)
since 1982 Sound recordings for SelbstLernZentrum  (institute for self-learning) in Nuremberg
since 1983 Installation of my own recording studio
1984 Freelancing for refurbishment of the Colosseum recording studio in Nuremberg
1985–1986 Employed as constructing engineer at zsi Zertz + Scheid Ingenieurgesellschaft in Nuremberg
(engineering of electronic assemblies; automation engineering using free-programmable controller systems)
1986 First start-up business
1987 Automation engineering for various engineering companies
(projects for Kabelmetal and Schering in Nuremberg and for Volkswagen in Wolfsburg)
1988 Attendance of the advanced training course Current problems in technical acoustics at the Academy of Technology Esslingen 
1988–1989 Maintenance engineering at the Trubach Digital recording studio in Untertrubach (Bavaria) Fachverband Elektronik-Design e.V.
1990 Conductorship of a training course for automation engineering at ibp  in Nuremberg
since 1991 Member  of Fachverband Elektronik-Design (German association for the construction of electronic circuits)
since 1991 Development and launch of a symbol library for CAD systems for the construction of electronic circuits
(trade name: PicTron)
since 1992 Compilation of a database containing references to articles in several German sound recording journals
1993–2010 Activities for the University of Erlangen (Bavaria)
(research project in hydrogeology)
University of Erlangen - Institute for Geology and Mineralogy
Engel EDV-Systeme
1994–2005 Activities for Engel EDV-Systeme in Nuremberg
(software development, on-screen help files, documentation work)
2000–2005 Activities for Fachverband Elektronik-Design in Berlin
(translation of US-American engineering standards and educational material, articles und manuals)
2006–2009 Employed as a technical writer at Mohles  in Nuremberg Mohles
Ziehm Imaging
2006–2008 Working as a technical writer at Ziehm Imaging  in Nuremberg
(editing and layout of manuals using Adobe FrameMaker)
2008–2009 Working at Mohles in Erlangen
(creation of a corporate wiki system)
2009 New start-up business for technical documentation
since 2009 Activities for Engel EDV-Systeme in Nuremberg
(documentation work, BPMN diagrams)
since 2011 Employed as a technical writer at Ziehm Imaging in Nuremberg
Good engineering deserves best documentation
engage Heuss !