RE: Quick Reference Material in User Guide?

["Spreadbury, David C." <David -dot- Spreadbury -at- marconi -dot- com>]

I have seen this done but the Quick Reference section was it's own section
at the front of the User's Guide. This was also offered independently from
the main User's Guide. I can't see it being interspersed throughout the User
Guide. It think it would cause some confusion, especially if the complete
procedures are complex. An experienced user could then just make a copy of
the Quick Reference section, if it wasn't offered as a separate smaller
document/pamphlet/card, of the User's Guide and keep the main manual on the
shelf for reference or refresher.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Hager [mailto:jhager -at- techrx -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 3:18 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Quick Reference Material in User Guide?



Hi,

I'm working on a user guide for a complex application for the medical
industry. It involves lots of screens with lots of fields and some complex
tasks for the user. 

I'm contemplating adding some quick reference material inside the user
guide. These blocks of material would be like a quick summary of the tasks
that are rather compex. These would interspersed throughout a chapter as
need and would be in adition to the chapter summaries. 

Naturally, these would also be in the online help for the application. 

Has anybody here used this technique?

If so, can you provide any guidance?

If you have not used this technique, what do you think of this? (Note. I'm
not asking about separate quick reference guides, I'm asking about imbedding
some quick reference material inside the user guide.)

Thanks for your input.

Jim Hager
Lead Technical Writer
jhager -at- techrx -dot- com


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