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-----Original Message-----
> I've decided to create a style guide for my company either after I get
> the training to do page layout or after I've successfully done a manual.
>
> Any advice as to how I should go about it? Primarily concerned with
> organization, length, and which software to do it in. Also, if you have
> any good Web sites, books and examples of style guides, that would be
> much appreciated.
The main thing to think about when deciding whether or not to create a style
guide is - who is it for?
If it's primarily for you, to remind yourself of the techniques you use and
learn, then do it in whatever way makes sense for *you*: I once did
something that I called a style guide that was really a manual on how to
write manuals for the company that I planned to leave. I told my manager
that it was a style guide, but fundamentally I intended it for my successor
so that s/he wouldn't start from scratch trying to figure out the hows and
the whys of why I'd done the things I'd done. (It was a small company. Not
only was there no handover period, I wasn't sure how long they'd leave it
after my departure before hiring a new technical writer, and I was fairly
sure they'd wait until senior management accepted that they urgently needed
one.)
I've also done Word templates that double-function as a form of style guide,
since instead of dummy/placeholder text in the style examples, each style
has text that describes where it is to be used.
And once when working with a large team on a large project, I helped produce
a classic "style guide" that even specified exactly what phrases to be used
to describe standard functionality. The aim then was to create a large Help
system that *looked* as if it had been written by one person.
If your proposed style guide is intended for other people, then you really
need to get authorisation from your line manager, and meet with your
intended audience to discuss the kind of things they need in a style guide.
Organisation and length should become clear as you process the information
from these meetings, and what software is used will depend on what your
audience will find easy and obvious to use.
A style guide is of no use unless (in the long run) it saves time and
increases quality. It has to be worth the time (in the short run) that it
will take to produce.
Jane Carnall
The writers all stand around a cauldron chanting and occasionally tossing in
a small style guide. Unless stated otherwise, these opinions are mine, and
mine alone. Apologies for the long additional sig: it is added automatically
and outwith my control.
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