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Subject:RE: User Guide Format From:John Posada <JPosada -at- book -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 9 Oct 2002 17:49:03 -0400
Karen...
>I am looking to update my company's user guide format. Currently, we
>create user guides in Word and publish them internally in Word. Most of
>our user guides average between 20 -30 pages, provide instructions for
>internally-developed applications and systems, and are for internal
>customers. Is PDF preferred as an output for these types of user guides?
That's the way I've tried to deployed them. In addition, since I'm a
contractor and must make sure all files can be passed on after I leave, I
place the Word version in the same network directory as the PDF.
OTOH...the preference shouldn't be from the perspective of the deliverable,
but from the perspective of your users. Shouldn't you be asking your users
what THEY prefer?
OTOH, they may come to you and say neither. They may want html, or as I
found out from a group of UNIX-geeks, they wanted Postscript...until the
network manager said, pretty much, "Are they F'in nuts? Have they seen the
SIZE of the PS files? Let them eat PDF!"
(I really liked that network manager...he referred to me as his "tech-writer
god" in an email...I printed it and put it in my portfolio.)
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
jposada -at- book -dot- com
212-414-6656
"Be accurate...the 4am wakeup call you prevent could be your manager's"
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