Pages, Books, the Web, and Virtual Reality: A Response to Negroponte's "Books Without Pages"

Inclusion of Nicholas Negroponte's paper on 'Books Without Pages' (1979) in this Journal requires explanation, as the paper does not concern itself directly with computer documentation. However, the implications of its assertions and questions ultimately involve all of us who teach, practice, and learn about documenting computer programs. As we leave paper and move to other media to deliver our instructions to users, we are faced with the same questions that Negroponte was asking over 15 years ago. Just as the MIT researchers were doing, we look for new metaphors and new ways to define the relationship between our 'readers' and the information we are providing to them. We search for that perfect controlling metaphor that will clarify how our communications in new media work, and how we can apply some sense and some structure to them, a new 'grammar', if you will, for our books without pages.

Dicks, R. Stanley. Journal of Computer Documentation (1996). Articles>Publishing>Online

Paper to CD-ROM: A Case Study in Converting from Paper to Online Documentation  

Cisco Systems, Inc., releases a CD-ROM volume each month that contains documentation for all versions of products currently in use. Cisco spent 8 months preparing for the release of the first CD Regular monthly releases require adherence to a strict schedule of incorporating errata and enhancements into online manuals, placing new and revised books into a CD database, resolving problems that occur during the build, and testing that all books are in their proper locations. This process has affected how managers schedule documents so that they are included on the CD that is current when a product ships. It has also changed the roles of the writers and editors, who must now manipulate files in the CD database and incorporate errata and enhancements into both paper and online documents.

Cote, Joanna C., Elizabeth R. Fitch, and Aviva Garrett. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Online

"Paper" Revisited  

Introduces new technologies intended to lessen office reliance on paper and discusses their potential effects on technical documentation.

Perlin, Neil E. Intercom (2001). Articles>Collaboration>Online

Paradigms Restrained: Implications of New and Emerging Technologies for Learning and Cognition  

Mary B. Shoffner, Marshall Jones, and Stephen W. Harmon survey a broad range of educational technologies, including those mechanical and those philosophical, and conclude that it is the underlying pedagogical philosophy, and not the delivery mechanism, that most affects what students learn.

Shoffner, Mary B., Marshall Jones and Stephen W. Harmon. Journal of Electronic Publishing (2001). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Online

Patterns of Revision in Online Writing    

This study examines the revision histories of 10 Wikipedia articles nominated for the site's Featured Article Class (FAC), its highest quality rating, 5 of which achieved FAC and 5 of which did not. The revisions to each article were coded, and the coding results were combined with a descriptive analysis of two representative articles in order to determine revision patterns. All articles in both groups showed a higher percentage of additions of new material compared to deletions and revisions that rearranged the text. Although the FAC articles had roughly equal numbers of content and surface revisions, the non-FAC articles had fewer surface revisions and were dominated by content revisions. Although the unique features of the Wikipedia environment inhibit strict comparisons between these results and those of earlier revision studies, these results suggest revision in this environment places unique structural demands on writers, possibly leading to unique revision patterns.

Jones, John. Written Communication (2008). Articles>Editing>Online>Wikis

PDF in Practice: Simple Creation of Electronic Publications, Catalogues and Archives

In electronic media we come across the two 'competing' formats, PDF and HTML. A closer look reveals, however, that the two formats are used with a different aim in mind and therefore cannot be considered as competitors.

Boegler, Peter. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Information Design>Online

Performance Support in Internet Time: The State of the Practice  

Discussion between Gloria Gery, Stan Malcolm, Janet Cichelli, Hal Christensen, Barry Raybould, and Marc J. Rosenberg.

Dickelman, Gary J. EPSScentral (2000). Careers>Management>Online>EPSS

Personal Publication and Public Attention

What makes weblogs a genre different from the autobiography, the diary, the researcher's journal or any other pre-Internet writing? While weblogs have many non-digital predecessors, blogs cannot live outside of the computer. They are ergodic texts (Aarseth 1997), and demand the assistance of technology in order to be created and used.

Mortensen, Torill Elvira. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Publishing>Online>Blogging

Personalising Electronic Books    

The paper addresses how hyperdocuments, accessible via electronic books (e-books) which are read using the World Wide Web, can be endowed with features that personalise the interaction process that takes place between the reader and the e-book. A novel, abstract approach to modelling the personalisation of hyperdocuments is introduced. This approach aims to make available features that allow readers to interact with these documents in a manner much closer to that with paper-based documents. The research is based on a formal characterisation of personalisable hyperlink-based interaction. This characterisation is unique in formally modelling a rich set of user-initiated personalisation actions that allow users to come closer to satisfying their specific, often dynamic, information retrieval goals.

Ohene-Djan, James and Alvaro A.A. Fernandes. Journal of Digital Information (2003). Articles>Publishing>Online

Planning an Online Help Project

This paper outlines some general principles you need to consider when planning an online help project and creating WinHelp files.

Hollis Weber, Jean. Technical Editors Eyrie (1999). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Planning and Creating a Windows Online Help System  

The basic requirements for creating accurate and useful technical documentation are good writing skills, an understanding of the audience, knowledge of the tools used for producing documentation, ability to use the product, and ability to successfully interview subject matter experts. While the same skills are essential for creating an online help system, writers also need to understand how help projects are set up, how to modify their writing to produce modular help topics, how to test the program-to-help links between the product and the help topics, and how to align help file development with engineering build dates. In addition, writers expand their hypertext awareness to include new terms such us jumps and pop-ups.

Mandavilli, Lavanya K. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Portable Devices Can Cause Usability Problems

Take a moment and think about the various portable Internet devices available. You see everything from wireless hand held devices, to web-enabled pagers, to cellular phones with email access. The list goes on and on. Every day you can scan the technology headlines and read about several new Internet technologies being announced. Think about the nature of these portable Internet devices: they probably are not very usable.

Rhodes, John S. WebWord (1999). Articles>Usability>Online>PDA

Posting User Documentation on the Web  

Our company posts user documents on its Internet web site as PDF files. Announcements are sent to customers and company staff to inform them of the latest document updates. Customers log on a password- protected documentation page, where they can view the documents in a Reader or save them to their PC hard drives. There are several advantages to distributing documents in PDF on the Internet for both customers and our company.

Utz, Dana. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Documentation>Online>Adobe Acrobat

Practical Lessons for Small-Scale Web Publishers  

Electronic publishing through the World Wide Web offers tantalizing opportunities for small-scale operators such as individuals in academic or other non-profit institutions trying to reach a wide audience. Early users of the Web quickly recognized it as a ground-breaking medium for electronic publications. By making it easy to display and read texts online, the Web became a platform for materials that were too specialized, too ephemeral or too experimental for publication as traditional books or articles. However, the recent explosive growth and widespread commercialization of the Web have eroded or at least marginalized small-scale electronic publications. Successful small-scale Web publishing is still possible, but that success must be preceded by careful planning and goal-setting.

Sowards, Steven W. Journal of Electronic Publishing (1999). Articles>Publishing>Online

Review: Preparing Learners for e-Learning  

Finally, give this book to the CEO who blithely assumes that the corporation can simply replace classroom learning with e-learning without missing a beat. This book goes a long way toward dampening the hype surrounding online education by acknowledging that e-learning requires a shift in organizational priorities, teacher and learner attitudes, and ways of operating.

Kitalong, Karla Saari. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>Education>Online

Print to Online: Conflicting Tales of Transition    

This is a success story of how a large, high-tech service support organization made the transition from print to online documentation in both CD-ROM and Web media. But this is also a cautionary tale of the damaging drawbacks resulting from that changeover. The co-existence of two such very different evaluations, both based on accurate reporting about common products and circumstances, is emblematic of the challenges that new technologies can bring to information developers. The success story, told by the publications group responsible for the transition, is focused on new features and reduced production expenses. The cautionary tale highlights larger issues of process, product suitability, and indirect costs that affect both users and the company, including the publications group itself. The instructive value of considering two such versions of a single case history is in developing a fuller view of how technology advances can lead to unintended consequences for information developers.

Rehling, Louise. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Content Management>Publishing>Online

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

The Processed Book  

The 'processed book' is about content, not technology, and contrasts with the 'primal book'; the latter is the book we all know and revere: written by a single author and viewed as the embodiment of the thought of a single individual. The processed book, on the other hand, is what happens to the book when it is put into a computerized, networked environment. To process a book is more than simply building links to it; it also includes a modification of the act of creation, which tends to encourage the absorption of the book into a network of applications, including but not restricted to commentary. Such a book typically has at least five aspects: as self-referencing text; as portal; as platform; as machine component; and, as network node. An interesting aspect of such processing is that the author's relationship to his or her work may be undermined or compromised; indeed, it is possible that author attribution in the networked world may go the way of copyright. The processed book, in other words, is the response to romantic notions of authorship and books. It is not a matter of choice (as one can still write an imitation, for example, of a Victorian novel today) but an inevitable outcome of inherent characteristics of digital media.

Esposito, Joseph J. First Monday (2003). Articles>Publishing>Online

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

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

Professionalizing Knowledge Sharing and Communications: Changing Roles for a Changing Profession    

Web 2.0 technologies are becoming increasingly ubiquitous among younger generations of IT users and this is creating a new set of expectations about accessing quality information for business, research and academic purposes. The article looks at how this situation has impacted on the expectations of users of library and information services. Although there are solid reasons for standing by professional standards, there is little doubt that the next generation has a greater expectation around being participants in, rather than recipients of, knowledge sharing. How will this impact the status of the professional librarian and information manager, and to what extent should they change with this paradigm shift looming?

Cullen, John T. Business Information Review (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Collaboration>Online

Prototypes in Technical Writing: What are They?

A prototype is, generally speaking, a preliminary model of a larger, more detailed object. In technical writing, a prototype might be a full table of contents (with summaries for each major section) and one or two complete chapters. If conducting a survey is an important part of your project, your prototype might be a complete survey of a small number of subjects, designed to iron out the kinks in the questions you want to ask. A good prototype will help you identify flaws (such as incomplete research or mistaken assumptions) before you have multiplied their harmful effects by investing additional effort in them. A sculptor makes a scale model in clay -- a prototype -- before chiseling away at a full-sized chunk of marble. It it much easier to fix major mistakes in clay than it is to throw away a ruined chunk of marble and start over again.

Jerz, Dennis G. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (2000). Articles>Writing>Online>Technical Writing

Providing a Backbone for an Online Master's Program in Technical Communication    

Classrooms without walls. Textbooks without pages. Thinking outside the box. These are the hip phrases that describe contemporary e-learning. What is it, then, that provides structure, cohesion, and foundation for distance learning degree programs in technical and scientific communication?

Coppola, Nancy W. CPTSC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Online

Providing Documentation on the Internet with the Choices, Challenges, and Constraints: World Wide Web-Based Information Delivery  

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