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.
RE: Online help and the elimination of the printed doc
Subject:RE: Online help and the elimination of the printed doc From:"Goldstein, Dan" <DGoldstein -at- DeusTech -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L (E-mail)" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 16 Jan 2004 13:17:13 -0500
IMLE, good online help takes longer to create and maintain than good printed
documentation. If you don't have time to do both, you might not even have
time to do online standalone the way you want to.
Also IMLE, if you can get Corporate to give you the resources to create and
maintain both, certain customers will appreciate it.
That having been said, did I understand correctly that the product itself is
accessed through a Web UI? If so, I strongly recommend using comprehensive,
per-screen help *and* succinct, control-level help, as you propose. Once
again IMLE, each of those venues will attract its own group of customers.
In short: three venues (printed, per-screen, and control-level), each of
which presents similar content in a different format, and each of which
attracts its own audience.
HTH,
Dan Goldstein
(who's wondering which of us is the real "Dan the Tech Writer" from the
SnagIt ads)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Daniel_Hall -at- trendmicro -dot- com
> Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 12:58 PM
> To: DGoldstein -at- DeusTech -dot- com; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
> Subject: RE: Online help and the elimination of the printed doc
> Limited resources - it's sort of an either/or question.
> Since the product is being completely revamped (even the
> underlying architecture will be completely different),
> none of the documentation will be "updated" - it will need
> to all be rewritten, mostly from scratch. Knowing that, I can:
> 1. Invest most of my time in the printed manual (general
> practice here), with help that's mostly just re-purposed
> manual content.
> 2. Invest most of my time in the help system (with all that
> detailed, control-level, stuff) and trim down the manual.
> 3. I could have both of about "average quality."
> There just isn't time for both, so I thought it might be worth
> investigating if there was anyone who'd done something
> similar... and received feedback, or had experience to share.
> Another factor I forgot to mention: This is mostly a "set it
> and forget it"-type product, where the user periodically
> checks on status, but interacts with it (changing settings
> through the interface) infrequently. Another reason I was thinking
> of focusing more intently on the help.
> Dan
