Documenting Networks

Documenting networks is playing less with words, and more with diagrams. It also requires an engineering mind, an ability to think out-of-box, and creative mind. Technical writers can rise to a new scale and expand their skill sets if they are able to document networks.

EDITsphere (2007). Articles>Documentation>Intranets>Graphic Design

Empirical Proof for Presenting Screen Captures in Software Documentation    

None of the previous studies on screen captures addressed the functions in the framework. There was no empirical research on any of the four functions of screen captures. This article presents our research on these functions. Each section starts with a brief explanation of the function. Next, we illustrate the screen capture designs used to test the function. The remainder of each section explains the setup and results of the empirical study. The article ends with some general conclusions about the functions of screen captures.

Gellevij, Mark and Hans Van Der Meij. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Documentation>Graphic Design>Screen Captures

Screenshots with the Mouse Pointer

How to produce screenshots which include the mouse-pointer.

Springer, Hans. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Graphic Design>Documentation>Screen Captures

Using Graphics to Help Users Build Mental Models  

Research shows that adults learn more efficiently when they have formed an accurate mental model of the product they are trying to use. We can help our users form accurate mental models more quickly by graphically depicting that model on the interface. One product using that approach allowed engineers to become productive with no reference to user documentation.

Elser, Arthur G. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Graphic Design

So, You Want To Screen Capture, Huh?

Here's a quick tutorial about screen captures, thus the title. If you're not sure what a screen capture is, then think about the pages you've seen lately. Maybe some of them have had specific sections of the desktop or a program made into an image. It was almost as if they captured part of the screen as an image.

Burns, Joe. HTML Goodies (2004). Articles>Documentation>Graphic Design>Screen Captures