Extreme documentation is an agile methodology for developing documentation in small to medium-sized teams in the face of vague or rapidly changing requirements.
#21385
Comparison of Online Help Formats
This article lists the basic differences between WinHelp version 4, Microsoft compiled HTML help, WebHelp and pure HTML help. Samples are available.
Unwalla, Mike. TechScribe (2003). Articles>Documentation>Standards>Help
#27544
A Comparison of Two Evaluation Techniques for Technical Documentation
This study compared two evaluation techniques, Usability Testing and Cognitive Walkthrough, in their ability to identify errors in aviation maintenance documentation. The techniques were evaluated to see how much unique information they each produced as well as the type of errors identified. Results showed that the techniques were complementary in their findings and both are recommended in the development of technical documentation.
Rogers, Bonnie Lida, Chris Hamblin and Alex Chaparro. Usability News (2005). Articles>Documentation>Assessment>Usability
#20135
Complex Technology Calls for Intelligible Documentation 
By means of the tekom guidelines (check list) the technical author can particularly check the documentation of a product. However it is not the product which can be checked by means of this check list, but only the product’s documentation.
Noack, Claus. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Technology
#13457
Concrete Methods that Promote Active Learning in Software Manuals 
To learn software, passive users prefer to have concepts and procedures clearly spelled out for them, while active learners prefer experimenting with the program. When designing a manual, writers should keep both types of users in mind. Writers at WordPerfect are currently experimenting with minimalist design models that encourage active learning. One such model is an “On Your Own” section which guides users through creating a document. Another model is a visually oriented “Applications” section which provides tips on how to create a document.
Bringhurst, Robert G. STC Proceedings (1993). Presentations>Writing>Documentation
#24008
Technical writing sounds like the ideal job.
Dyen, Natalie Zellat. NatalieWritings. Humor>Writing>Documentation
#29760
Constructing a One-Stop "Answer Station" for Software Users
The web allows us to easily provide updated documentation to our users, but why stop there? There is more to making users successful quickly than just providing documentation. By creating a complete "Answer Station" that is accessible from the application or product, we can not only direct users to that updated documentation, but we can also provide information about technical support, consulting, training, sales, etc. This paper discusses writing a proposal for an Answer Station, determining content, working with other departments to gather information, designing the site, making that design work with an existing corporate website, dealing with tool issues, and finally, going live.
Bleiel, Nicoletta A. and Beth A. Williams. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online
#27658
Constructing a One-Stop "Answer Station" Website for Software Users
The web allows us to easily provide updated documentation to our users, but why stop there? There is more to making users successful quickly than just providing documentation. By creating a complete 'Answer Station' that is accessible from the application or product, we can not only direct users to that updated documentation, but we can also provide information about technical support, consulting, training, sales, etc. This article discusses writing a proposal for an Answer Station, determining content, working with other departments to gather information, designing the site, making that design work with an existing corporate website, dealing with tool issues, and finally, going live.
Bleiel, Nicoletta A. and Beth A. Williams. WritersUA (2004). Articles>Documentation>Web Design>Help
#29050
This study suggests that documentation is a complex technical communication genre, encompassing all the texts that mediate between complex human activities and computer processes. Drawing on a historical study, it demonstrates that the varied forms given to documentation have a long history, extending back at least to the early days of commercial mainframe computing. The data suggest that (1) early forms of documentation were borrowed from existing genres, and (2) official and unofficial documentation existed concurrently, despite efforts to consolidate these divergent texts. The study thus provides a glimpse into the early experimental nature of documentation as writers struggled to find a meaningful way to communicate information about their organization s developing computer technology.
Zachry, Mark. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Articles>Documentation>History
#22601
An index is a vital part of a user manual and a help file. A manual without an index is like a 21-storey house without a names board on the ground floor. You will have to search through all the floors in the building to locate your friend’s residence.
Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2002). Articles>Indexing>Documentation
#12948
Context-Sensitive Disaster: Designing the Difference Between Help and Print
My first epiphany about online help struck while I was browsing through the latest release of a popular Windows program. After exploring for a few minutes, I stumbled across an interesting option that hadn't appeared in the previous version (let's call this 'option X'), and my curiosity was piqued. With the confidence of every naive Windows user, I hit the F1 key, certain that enlightenment was only a few words away. My optimism dwindled when I read the corresponding instructions in the online help.
#19504
Context-Sensitive Help: What Programmers and Technical Authors Need to Know
Context-sensitive Help is assistance that is appropriate to where the user is in the software application, and what they are trying to do. Carol Johnston's article describes what programmers and technical authors need to know about Context-sensitive Help.
Johnston, Carol. Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>User Interface>Help>Documentation
#28795
The Convergence of Web 2.0 with Help Documentation
This podcast talks about the convergence of web 2.0 with help documentation. It mentions examples of Web 2.0 sites, such as Flickr, Payscale, and Digg, and what help files need to incorporate these same Web 2.0 features.
Johnson, Tom H. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Design>Web Design>Documentation>Podcasts
#30418
Converting and Delivering 750,000 Pages on CD-ROM
The SIS Conversion Team and Electronic Media Development Team support the Service Information System development by providing data on CD-ROM for Caterpillar customers. This unique project covers eighteen different publication types, requires conversion of 750,000 pages and more than a million gray scale and line art images. The targetted data includes Parts Manuals and a variety of technical documents that were written to cover all Caterpillar machines and engines built since 1977. The conversion to electronic images and SGML-tagged text, and subsequent EMD processing and distribution via CD-ROM required extensive development efforts and a significant investment in leading edge technologies.
Bennington, Roger. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>CD ROM
#24787
Converting Documentation to Multimedia
Multimedia has proven its ability to sell products and educate users. But can it also perform tasks traditionally done with conventional paper documents? Yes. This demonstration shows how several hardware and software documents were converted to multimedia and provides a plan for converting your documents. You learn whether to display, speak, or just eliminate existing text. You see how to replace action words, descriptions of motion, and arrows with animation. YOU see how sound can guide rather than distract the user. You also learn to use interactivity to give control to the user. Along the way you see the compromises needed to keep the project on schedule, within budget, and down to size.
Horton, Katherine W. and William K. Horton III. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Multimedia
#23422
Converting Paper Mountains to Data Highlands
Big producers of equipment and systems of all branches often have piled up enormous volumes of product documentation in various formats on different media over long periods. How does one deal with that in the Internet age? How will brochure-like product catalogs be converted to type-specific clickable web pages, and printed price lists to present-day worldwide retrievable tables? Experiences with a large converting project show the process to achieve such document management.
Pichler, Wolfram. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>Documentation>Online
#20553
Converting to Information Mapping: A Case Study
Cisco Systems, Inc., uses electronic media as the primary delivery means for customer documentation and training. Information Mapping® techniques are being developed as a methodology for creating and linking modules of customer information. After selecting the Information Mapping methodology, we found it necessary to customize it for our needs. To implement Information Mapping methodology, we defined a system architecture consisting of three main subsystems: a document management subsystem, an authoring environment, and a publishing or delivery subsystem, In parallel with the customization and development of a system architecture, several writers began to implement the Information Mapping techniques to provide content to be put into the system being developed.
Garrett, Aviva, Haggai Mark and Jan Johnston-Tyler. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing
#24710
Cooperative Effort in Producing Paper and Hypertext Documentation
Using hypertext and paper creates a successful trip for the user of an interactive, mainframe software system. Building integrated, complementary documentation requires thoughtful planning, careful organization, and skillful implementation. The resulting product needs the cooperation of the entire team.
Bibus, Connie M. 'C.J.', Patricia J. Bishop, Mary Ann Clark and Deirdre A. Murr. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Hypertext
#19697
Cost Control for Online Help Localization
Localizing a large online help system often represents the most expensive part of a localization project. However, when international customers or markets are a product’s lifelines, eliminating the online help translation is not an option, especially when customers have come to expect it. Managers of online help localization are left with a paradoxical mandate: Keep localizing, but quit spending (so much).
Kock, Benjamin C. Intercom (2003). Articles>Documentation>Localization>Language
#22910
Review: Counterfeit Capital: Searching for a Silver Lining in Bernadette Longo's Spurious Coin 
Dr. Bernadette Longo, Ph.D., uses the metaphor of devalued currency to trace some of the roots in technological history for technical writing's lack of intellectual and cultural capital. She ingeniously incorporates early threads of management and industrial technology, like the formation of the railroad, in an attempt to contextualize her research. Academics must view Longo's text, Spurious Coin, as just one branch of what must be a webbed tree of intersecting social attitudes towards knowledge definition and science. In understanding the gaps in Longo's narrative, people interested in technical writing might find her book to act as a launch pad for better defining the questions guiding their own research. In this review, I will focus on some of the important gaps I see in Longo's research methodology as she historically situates the emergence of engineering as a discipline and then as the determining factor in technical communication's subjugated position within the academy and industry.
Trim, Michelle. Journal of Computer Documentation (2001). Articles>Reviews>Documentation>History
#27649
Creating "Smart Help" with Conditional Content
Discusses several methods for making Web-based Help systems 'smart,' by using conditional content to customize the appearance and behavior of your pages to the users' needs.
Gash, Dave. WritersUA (2005). Articles>Documentation>Help>Personalization
#21506
Creating a Hypertext Help System for a GUI-Based Client/Server Application
We are currently in the second phase of development of a large Windows online help system. This paper reviews the major decisions we had to make during the first phase of the project, and lists some project evaluation results that have helped us plan for subsequent phases.
Asher, Betsy, David E. Lasecke and John Wenstrom. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#30420
Creating an Electronic Service Manual
Developed by the Technical Information Division of Caterpillar Inc., the Service Information System (SIS) is a state of the art process using the latest in computer technology to electronically create, process and deliver technical service information to Caterpillar dealers worldwide. It utilizes authoring workstations and servers on a distributed network to create and store information elements (I/E's). The I/E's are written using Caterpillar Technical English (CTE) which allows for complete automatic language translation. I/E's are taken from the data base to make traditional publications as well as CD-ROM's. A personal computer is used to display information for shop and field servicemen and to perform interactive diagnostics.
Rennich, Merv and Gerry Meixsell. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation
#14404
Creating an Interactive Online User Guide
Want to create a colorful, interactive online version of your FrameMaker® documents? Not many steps are involved in making the conversion: start with template changes in the FrameMaker files; create a postscript file; convert it into a PDF (Portable Document Format) file using Adobe Distiller®; and add final touches to the PDF file in Adobe Exchange®.
Beren, Wendy G. STC Proceedings (1998). Presentations>Documentation>Online>Adobe FrameMaker
#14711
Creating an SDK: Writing on the Edge
Sarr presents guidelines for the challenging task of creating a software development kit (SDK). The purpose of SDKs, the author writes, is to 'provide developers with information and coding examples to enable them to develop applications that will work with a newly developed technology.'
Sarr, John T. Intercom (2001). Articles>Documentation>SDK
#24415
Creating and Using Online Documentation
This workshop provides hands-on experience in preparing and using online documentation as well as setting up and maintaining an online library.
Jedlicka, Linda Barnes, Margaret Eissler Jones and Herbert E. Vogt. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Online
