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Re: Error Message Appendix

Subject: Re: Error Message Appendix
From: Dick Margulis <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 18:27:57 -0500

Dave,

I've done this, but it does not make for a user-friendly document. As a first pass at improving the situation, I asked a friendly developer to create a printout that showed all embedded error messages and the source file/line number where they appeared in the code. I then redlines the printout, and a developer spent a couple of hours updating them all. Now that we have a fully fleshed out development organization, the error messages are negotiated during the design phase, with the designer, programmer, and tech writer all able to review the design before the programmer implements it. This ensures that for the most part a tech writer has at least laid eyes on every error message and had the opportunity to clarify it.

Dick

Dave Stewart wrote:

Hi,

For the software I currently document, the engineers have written a large number of error messages that appear when a user performs a task incorrectly.

For instance, an error message will pop up on the screen when a user neglects to import a required file or types a number that is outside the minimum and maxiumum allowed values for a certain parameter.

We've received feedback from customers that the error messages are not descriptive enough, and we're working on making the messages more comprehensible so users know exactly what went wrong and how to fix the problem.

I'm wondering if anyone has ever included an appendix in their documentation listing each error message in the source code, along with more extensive descriptions of the solutions to each problem?





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Error Message Appendix: From: Dave Stewart

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