Net-Teams - Bookmark Tag user document

There are 12 articles associated with the tag user document!

#	Total Bookmarks	Article Title/Link and Description
1.	Bookmarks: 1	New Technical Writer: Avoiding The Interview-writing Disconnect OVERVIEWLost or garbled information is a terrible waste. Especially if it's the information you gathered from an interview and must now write into your User Document. Here's how to prevent that waste.THE SITUATIONYou had an interview with a Subject Matter Expert (SME, someone who has the information that you need) for your product. He/she told you all that you needed to know. However, by the time you got to write the material into the User Document, you have f...
2.	Bookmarks: 0	New Technical Writer: Use The Persona To Create The Most Useful Section Of Your User Document OVERVIEWA 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 article describes this procedure.THE MOST USEFUL SECTION OF A USER DOCUMENTThe most useful section of a User Document is the one that helps the User get what he...
3.	Bookmarks: 5	How Poor In-house User Documents Cost You Twice & What To Do About It OVERVIEWMany 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 answering the Users' questions (technical support).* The second cost, arises from the lost time of your employees trying to...
4.	Bookmarks: 0	Great Technical Writing: The User-Product Life Cycle - A Documentation Tool The User-Product Life Cycle (U-PLC) is a powerful tool for the User Document writer. Use the U-PLC to generate the high-level topics for your User Document.THE USER-PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE (U-PLC)Usually, when we think of a Product Life Cycle, we think in terms of the development and production of the Product itself. When writing User Documentation, consider the U-PLC to help you generate all the topics necessary for a complete document. User Documentation should support y...
5.	Bookmarks: 1	New Technical Writer: Don't Confuse Your Reader With Your Words OVERVIEWStop 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 WORDSUser Documents are not meant to be entertaining. Do not try to be creative, especially by using synonyms for specific concepts in your product. When you talk about a topic use the exact same wording ...
6.	Bookmarks: 5	Great Technical Writing: Tell Your Users What To Expect OVERVIEWIn your User Documentation, you direct your Reader to perform tasks with your product. If you don't tell your Reader what to expect when performing those tasks, you will have a baffled Reader, resulting in dissatisfaction and expensive calls to technical support.EXAMPLE: REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER FILTERI bought and installed a Reverse Osmosis water filter. The instructions told me to fill, and then empty (the instructions foolishly used the term "dump," which ...
7.	Bookmarks: 0	Great Technical Writing: Make Your Product Fit OVERVIEWMost product documentation sounds like their product is the only thing in the User's life. Such thinking results in User confusion and dissatisfaction. This article presents three real-life examples of this attitude, and what should be done to remedy these unfortunate situations. The article concludes with some techniques for the writer.BACKGROUNDThere are two important facts that User Documentation ignores:1. Your product is a only minor item in your ...
8.	Bookmarks: 0	Great Technical Writing: Improve Document Searches OVERVIEWSearches in User Documents (manuals, etc.) often fail because the Reader uses different words for a concept than the author uses. Since the Reader's words do not appear in the document, the document search mechanism cannot find them, resulting in frustration. This article describes a User-friendly technique for improving searches, without having to change the Users' behavior or the search software.YOUR READERS' WORDSPeople use the words that they know whe...
9.	Bookmarks: 0	Great Technical Writing: Beware Of Your Editor/love Your Editor OverviewYour editor should be an integral part of your writing team. Do not think of him/her as a judge, but rather as a resource to help you in all phases of the writing project. This article will help you overcome any fear of your editor, and how to effectively use your editor during the writing process.Beware of Your EditorSome of the changes that an editor might suggest could make the User Document more difficult for your Reader to understand.Improving You...
10.	Bookmarks: 3	Great Technical Writing: Banish These Two Attitudes OverviewIncomplete User Documents disappoint your Readers. Two attitudes of many Technical Writers result in incomplete User Documents. These two attitudes are:. "Everyone Knows That", and. "The User Can Figure It Out"This article describes these attitudes and presents methods for overcoming them. The result is more effective User Documents and more satisfied Users.1. "Everyone Knows That"The "Everyone Knows That" attitude makes assumptions about your ...
11.	Bookmarks: 0	Benefits Of Creating User Documents In-House OVERVIEWFor 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 OPTIONSIf you have no in-house writing staff you have three options:1. No User Document for the product. This is NOT a valid option. Every product needs User Documentation. It completes your product package, an...
12.	Bookmarks: 0	Writing Helpful Help – A Minimalism Checklist User documentation is all too often written by programmers for programmers. It tends to focus on the product’s features, rather than the user’s tasks. Generally, programmers aren’t in the ideal position to be writing user documentation. They’re too close to the bits and bytes, and they’re too far from the user. To them, what the product can do tends to be far more important than what the user can do with the product.