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> In my experience, I'd say that the task-oriented principles
> outlined by the MS style guide really did enter the
> mainstream during the 1990s, and now most tech writers
> practice them to some extent whether they are aware of them or not.
Caution, stack about to blow ...
My first manual was for a custom time billing program in 1983 and it was
task-oriented, then I wrote the manual for a Wordstar clone and it was
task-oriented, then I wrote hardware docs for North Star computers and
their docs were task-oriented, then I wrote user manuals for
electron-beam lithography tools and those manuals were task-oriented,
then I ...
All these were in Silicon Valley. Admittedly, that's in California, but
I doubt you can say the computer industry here isn't in the mainstream.
Don't tell me it took a decade for the rest of the country to catch on
to what we were doing.
= Mike Bradley
Tech Pubs>>
I agree, Mike... I was taught task orientation from IBM while contracting with them in 1986 and they had had it for a while!!!
Rose A. Wilcox
CHQ, 14th Floor
Tranz1 QA/Documentation
602-250-2435
Rose -dot- Wilcox -at- PinnacleWest -dot- com
For I am a bear of very little brain and long words bother me -A. A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh)
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