Steve Saunders

Bio

Steve Saunders is a Microsoft veteren who helped pioneer the design of hypertext help systems that paved the way for the design of today's Web sites. He was lead designer for the award-winning Microsoft Access and Basic help systems, and was a charter member of the Visual Basic product team. Later, Steve wrote documentation for Access programmers and became an Access programmer himself, creating applications for his group at Microsoft and for a growing list of clients outside the company.

Businesses and non-profit organizations use Steve's affordable custom applications to track their critical information, including customers and orders, lodging reservations, real estate listings, donors and donations. Since 1996, the Methow Valley Sport Trails Association (MVSTA) has used his race management application, Racetracker, to produce accurate and timely results for its popular cross-country ski and running races.

Before his years at Microsoft, Steve was a reporter and editor for newspapers in Utah, Maine, and Massachusetts, and a technical writer in the database group at Digital Equipment Corp. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Boston University, a graduate certificate in technical writing from Northeastern University, and a bachelor's degree in technical writing and creative writing from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Currently a principal of Smiling Country, Steve enjoys combining his technical, design, and editorial expertise to help businesses succeed.