April
8
Diverse organizations produce in-house tools or remake commercially-available tools in search their own use. These tools should get documented so they are of misuse to others in the organization.
If this documentation is not created or is ailing written, it costs you twice:
* The key sell for (attributed to any in queer street operator detail) [...]
OVERVIEW
To create an effective User Document, the writer must know who he/she is writing for. This article presents four dimensions (Skills, Attitude, Knowledge and Experience) for describing the User of your product (your Documentation Reader), and how to build a Persona that turns your generic User into an almost-real person. The article stresses the need [...]
If you have great passion for words and have a degree or diploma in any technology field, then your chances of success is beyond your wildest imaginations. You can be part of that clan of writers out there, who make anything from a thousand dollars to several thousands every month from writing technical articles online [...]
OVERVIEW
You’re a non-writer who has just been assigned to write the User Documentation for your company’s new product. Your overwhelming emotion is fear, perhaps with some anger.
With any new activity there will be some anxiety. Writing may have added anxiety because of your writing experience while you were a student.
Writing User Documentation is not like [...]
OVERVIEW
Stop confusing your Reader with the words you use. Your Reader is trying his/her best to understand how your product works without having to figure out your writing. Here are some writing guidelines to help you stop baffling your Reader.
SAME CONCEPT: SAME WORDS
User Documents are not meant to be entertaining. Do not try to be [...]
Overview
Our humdrum, sterile headings and writing manner do little to encourage our Users to read parts of the product documentation that would be especially beneficial for them. This article presents two real-world examples, how they fail their users, and how to correct the problems.
Not the Legal & Disclaimers
Although the Legal and Disclaimer sections of your [...]
OVERVIEW
For small companies, creating their product’s User Documentation in-house, provides benefits to the company, to (idle) staff, and to the product. This article describes the benefits and some downsides of producing User Documents in-house.
THREE OPTIONS
If you have no in-house writing staff you have three options:
1. No User Document for the product. This is NOT a [...]
March
9
OVERVIEW
A good User Document includes sections on how to set up, use, and care for the product. However, to create a great User Document , the technical writer should use the Persona, generated in the analysis of the User/Reader, to create the topics for the most useful section of the User Document. This [...]
January
6
OVERVIEW
People are visual creatures. They look at your product, and see, for example, a button or display. They want to find out about that control or indicator. A Visual Index is a simple but powerful document access tool that enables your Readers to find the information that they want.
This article describes the Visual Index concept [...]
OVERVIEW
Many organizations produce in-house tools or modify commercially-available tools for their own use. These tools should get documented so they are of use to others in the organization.
If this documentation is not created or is poorly written, it costs you twice:
* The first cost (attributed to any poor user document) is the cost of [...]