Net-Teams - Bookmark Tag user documents

There are 6 articles associated with the tag user documents!

#	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: 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...
3.	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 ...
4.	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...
5.	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 ...
6.	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...