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I have seen an option in Word to determine readability-
On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Spelling & Grammar tab.
You have a "Show readability statistics" check box, Just click OK. When Word
finishes checking spelling and grammar, it displays information about the
reading level of the document. (though understanding and interpreting the
score is herculean work)
Personally, I feel using a tool to check readability/usability would be
risky. The best judges of these criteria are the users themselves. Try
taking a snap survey or get your QA guys to test the documentation for
usability. This way would be much more professional and you would also be
able to collect metrics that can help you in future documents.
You might even use these metrics to come up with a BEST PRACTICES rulebook
for your technical documents. What say?
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A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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