#30318
No matter how simple a task may first appear, you're better off to thoroughly read through the documentation, especially if the equipment you're using is borrowed. I've also learned that perhaps department stores really don't charge a fortune in comparison to my home project.
Davies, Beth. Boston Broadside (1991). Articles>Documentation>TC
#29668
Predictive Metrics: How Long Will It Take? 
Presents a case study in which the authors develop methodology for calculating how long it will take a team of writers to produce a documentation set. The methodology takes into account different types of documentation and documentation quality, and accounts for variations in writer productivity.
Pope, Mike and Sharon A. Meramore. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Documentation>Case Studies
#29695
The Presentation of Safety Information in Product Manuals
Technical communicators may be asked to design and develop safety information for a product manual. During this process, technical communicators can add value to the presentation of safety information. In addition to adhering to a manufacturer’s internal guideline for the content and formatting of safety information, other factors can be considered as well. This paper presents the following factors: (1) an overview of common failure-to-warn allegations, (2) an analysis of current practices in automotive owner’s manuals for presenting safety information, and (3) an update on a new ANSI Z535 consensus standard for the presentation of safety information in product manuals.
Wisniewski, Elaine. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Documentation>Risk Communication>Technical Writing
#30457
Preserve Changes in RoboHelp for a Linked FrameMaker Book
While it is ideal to maintain all the content in FrameMaker, there are special situations which may require the RoboHelp content to be out of sync from FrameMaker documents either for short duration or for small set of topics. These special situations can relate to project deadlines or project requirements which make the process of maintaining a single source difficult.
Adobe (2007). Articles>Documentation>Software>Adobe RoboHelp
#19824
A Problem-Solving Process that Really, Really Works
Under the auspices of Hayes Quality Program we were introduced to a problem-solving process that really works for us. It gives writers (or anyone!) a truly objective means for addressing and resolving problems, issues, confusions, inefficiencies, and other stumbling blocks in the documentation development process. It also teaches one to remove the personal from the problem, and focus on root causes versus individual fault. I will walk participants through the step-by-step methodology by which the problem-solving process works, demonstrate how to apply the process to a specific documentation problem, and provide a hands-on exercise.
Jandel-Leavitt, Juliette. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Methods
#29670
Problems in Navigating Online Help: Clues from User Search Patterns
We examined qualitative data from participants' comments about difficulties they encountered in using the help systems in three versions of a popular programming language. Users' main problems were not knowing which help systems were available or being unfamiliar with them, determining when and how to use the help system, framing the search question, applying the initial search target to the help hierarchy, moving laterally to another topic, and switching between declarative and procedural topics. The lessons learned from these responses should assist help system designers and authors in supporting users' search patterns. In this paper, we will examine qualitative data from users' comments. The lessons learned from these responses should assist help system designers and authors in supporting users' search patterns.
Krull, Robert and Angela Eaton. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Documentation>Help>Search
#27642
Problems in Navigating Online Help: Clues from User Search Patterns
The largest problem our participants had in using the help system wasn't in processing the procedural information in the help, but rather finding the correct help topic, a topic generally unaddressed in the literature on how to write a help system. Specifically, participants had difficulty in searching for topics because their terminology differed from the terminology used by the help system, and they became lost in the unclear structure of the system.
Krull, Robert and Angela Eaton. WritersUA (2005). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online
#21022
Procedure development can be a challenging task, especially since the process of procedure development is not easily defined. The methodology portrayed in the Ten-Step Process for Procedure Development may serve as a useful model for you to adapt and customize.
Whitmer, Diane L. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Workflow
#21228
The Procedure Writer©: A Wizard, A Writing Guide And Nine Magic Templates
The Procedure Writer is an easily navigable collection of steps: a wizard with seven windows, nine templates, and instructions that offer the user-cum-writer the maximum freedom in determining how a module is written. At the same time, the instructions and the nature of the templates are designed to obligate the writer/user to follow P&P standards.
King, Geoffrey, Tom Tomasovic and Mandy Huang. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing
#24332
Procedures: The Sacred Cow Blocking the Road?
This paper questions the dominance of procedures in paper and online computer documentation and argues that the types of behavior and conditions demanded by stepped instructions are not consistent with typical user behavior. The authors suggest that the following hierarchy of information needs more accurately describes what users want to know when they ask, “How do I:” (a) What can I do? (b) Where can I do it? (c) What are the rules or principles? (d) What are the parts and their functions of the interface that does it? and (e) What are the steps?
Hughes, Michael A. and Loren Burke. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Policies and Procedures
#24331
Process Description Capture as a Basis for User-Centered Help System Design
As technical communicators, our role is information logistics expert: delivering the right information to the right user at the right time, using the right medium. Success depends on understanding how users do their jobs, shifting our focus from the software domain to the user’s domain. Help system design should start with a comprehensive capture of the user’s goals and the manner in which the software is used as a tool to achieve those goals. The information captured should then be analyzed to provide the basis for designing the help system. Each element of the help system should be derived directly from the analysis.
Futrell, Melanie Paschetag. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation
#14698
Process Documentation: The New Blueprint for Web Development
Fifield and Davis describe a way to apply process documentation--a set of documents that defines the development process by providing a management structure for a project--to Web development.
#24330
A Process for Creating Interactive Instructions
In an undertaking such as the metamorphosis from printed instructions to on-line instructions, it is important to have a process in place. Relying on the process used by the User Interface Design Department at Thomson Consumer Electronics has helped my department remain focused and on schedule with the project. This paper briefly outlines the Consumer Information Design Department’s process for creating an interactive instruction manual prototype, and might serve as a guideline for others who may also be making the leap from paper to interactivity.
Lesandrini, Jay. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Interaction Design
#20128
Producing a CD-ROM Manual: A Case Study
We are producing roughly 150 titles of telecommunications manuals annually for NTT and member corporations of the NIT Group. Accompanying the progress of multi-media applications in recent years, there has been a growing trend towards electronic versions of manuals in terms of the manner of thinking and usage of manuals themselves among producers and users as well. The existence of CDROM manuals in particular is attracting considerable attention. Here, we provide an introduction to some important points in terms of production using examples regarding the production of CD-ROM manuals at our company.
Nakata, Satoshi, Junji Taka and Shigehisa Iwai. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Online
#30543
Producing Online Documentation
The field of technical documentation is rapidly evolving from the production of printed manuals to online documentation. In the future, technical writers will become interface designers, as teams of writers and engineers produce user interfaces that require less documentation. The documentation, in fact, will become part of the software product. As we move in this direction, writers are attempting to produce online documentation that blends seamlessly with the software.
Poole, Dorothy L. and Susanne Vieira. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Online
#30544
PL is Product Liability -- the manufacturer's legal responsibility to provide a reasonably safe product, and to alert the customer to potentially dangerous uses of the product. PL covers three main areas -- personal injury, property damage, and economic loss.
Camm, Barbara L., Kenneth Ross and Gregory Scott. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Legal
#30548
Proposed Multimedia Courseware Documentation Design
With the growth of multimedia, design techniques to manage the contents and data structures for the media are becoming required We call this courseware in distinction from hardware or software, and we produce a production model by developing a uique technique not in imitation of the conventional ones using the following three points, layout, framework and linkage management.
Hayashizaki, Akira. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Multimedia>Documentation
#24328
Proposing a Standard Method for Creating Operating Manuals
Creating your operating manuals for technical devices includes attention to audience as well as to organization. Your highest priority is to deliver to the user an operation section with a safe and efficient sequence. After you have sorted information into audience-appropriate sections, the user suffers fewer interruptions during operation. In addition, your manual must support other audiences before the end user ever sees a technical device or your manual. The authors propose a standard method applied early in the process of creating your operating manual. The standard method is a tool for writers who must create manuals that simultaneously deliver uninterrupted sequence and meet worldwide requirements.
McDermott, B. and H.P. Wettl. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Standards
#24804
World Wide Web can often help both technical communicators and their audiences; however, this new vehicle for delivering information is not a panacea for all situations. This panel presents several different perspectives on providing documentation through the World Wide Web.
Ray, Eric J. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Online
#24802
Providing Documentation Over the World Wide Web—Pros and Cons
The World Wide Web is a global network that supports a hypertext protocol and is built on top of the Internet. Vendors can now supply a single source of hyperlinked documentation for their products for customer use. The advantages would be document control, faster revision, and automatic feedback. The problems are network reliability, hardware limitations, and lack of support for the unnetworked user.
Alper, Samantha. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Online
#24326
Providing On-line Documentation to the Non-Networked Enterprise
We have all heard the terms, ‘telecommuting,’ ‘groupware,’ and intra- or internet at one time or another. However, the best designed information retrieval system is useless if you cannot get on-line to use it. Most companies are taking advantage of technology, and publishing their policies and procedures on their own intranet or Local Area Network. Unfortunately, some organizations with field offices, off-site agents or consultants, even executives on travel are not always ‘plugged-in’ to this information. There is a way to make dynamic information available to enterprises without internet accessibility or LAN/WAN connections. What follows is one solution to the quest for getting ‘plugged in’ and taking advantage of dynamic data exchange.
Anderson, Michelle E. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#20706
Publishing Documentation in Microsoft Word: Don't Do It!
To save costs, many small businesses take the do-it-yourself route to publishing product and support documentation. The tool of choice is often Microsoft Word - after all, you probably already have a copy of it and know how to use it reasonably well. But while using Word to develop your materials is an acceptable choice, using it to publish documentation is not! Read on to learn some of Word's shortcomings as a publishing method, and what alternatives are available.
Rosteck, Tanja S. Suite101 (2001). Articles>Documentation>Software>Microsoft Word
#21245
Put Your Documentation Online--From Conception to Delivery
After attending this demonstration, you should understand: what constitutes online information; why they should consider producing documentation for online viewing and searching; how to plan for online documentation; how to prepare the text and graphic files; what is required to convert text and graphic files; into online documentation; what is required for the end user to view, search, and print the online documentation; the different ways to deliver online documentation.
Barnes Jedlicka, Linda, Margaret Eissler Jones and Herbert E. Vogt. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Online
#20112
Put Your Documentation Online: How to Deliver It to Your Users
After attending this demonstration, you should understand: what constitutes online documentation; why you should consider producing information for online viewing and searching; how to select a tool for converting text and graphics files into online documentation; how to set up an online documentation database for delivering your online libraries; what is required for the end user to view, search, and print the online documentation; the different ways to deliver online documentation; (such as diskette, on the same media as the product, CD-ROM, electronically, and on the Internet).
Vogt, Herbert E., Linda Barnes Jedlicka and Margaret Eissler Jones. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Online
#20096
Putting Service and Support Documentation Online—Avoiding the Perils and Pitfalls
Customer satisfaction studies are valuable tools for developing documentation strategies. Information developers at Compaq Computer Corporation used a satisfaction study to develop a comprehensive strategy for producing online service and support documentation.
Siemers, Linda K., Michael R. Cloud and JoAnn T. Hackos. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Usability
