TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I have been assigned the task of rewriting and streamlining an existing
manual set (of approx 6000 pages) and I'm having trouble figuring out how to
begin. As I'm looking at these manuals, it would be easy to just start
editing which would only "reword" the existing manuals; that's not what I
want to do. What I need to do is really streamline and incorporate
procedural step by step instructions. The manuals are currently
informational type manuals of an intro, screen and the screen's field
definitions (of course with informational and conceptual info as well). The
manuals follow the software from program to program (so you end up having to
look back a few pages to figure out how to get to a program within a
program). These manuals are useful if you read the manual from front cover
to last page. Users don't use the manuals that way. I need to rewrite
these manuals to be more procedural and useful to the users.
Can any of you offer suggestions on where to begin? I'm thinking of just
setting aside the manual and work completely from the software .. but I
think that might be throwing away valuable information and creating more
work for myself.
I'm on digest so please, cc: me at gciotoli -at- ecs-inc -dot- com
Thanks.
Geri Lou Ciotoli
Enterprise Computer Systems, Inc.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Now's a great time to buy RoboHelp! You'll get SnagIt screen capture
software and a $200 onsite training voucher FREE when you buy RoboHelp
Office or RoboHelp Enterprise. Hurry, this offer expires February 28, 2002. www.ehelp.com/techwr
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
