Your TECHWR-L message

Subject: Your TECHWR-L message
From: "Marguerite Krupp" <mkrupp -at- cisco -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 09:13:53 -0400


Paul Carr asked about "Capabilities and Limitations" guides.
We used to call them "Concepts and Characteristics" guides, becuase we could
never get the word "limitations" beyond Marketing. In general, they fell out
of favor with the dominance of task-oriented documentation, but I think
they've just metamorphosed into white papers, extended product briefs, and
the like.

As to what goes into them, I would suggest a general overview of the product
from a user's standpoint, focusing on what users can do with the product
(essentially features and benefits, but with less of a marketing spin than
you'd find in a product brief), then a very high-level description of how it
works (no nuts-and-bolts), then the specifications expressed in a way
appropriate to your audience. This might be a list or table. In this way,
you are actually stressing the capabilities of the product and describing
its restrictions without actually calling them limitations.

You could feature user scenarios, describing typical uses of the product,
too, if you have time.

This type of document is always very popular with sales people, so you might
ask for their input, but take it with a grain of salt.

Good luck with your project.
Marguerite


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION: RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward
in Help authoring technology, featuring Word 2003 support, Content
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo

>From a single set of Word documents, create online Help and printed
documentation with ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 7 Professional, a new yearly
subscription service offering free updates and upgrades, support, and more.
http://www.doctohelp.com

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.



Previous by Author: RE: techwr-l digest: June 02, 2004
Next by Author: Re: waking up to the world of Technical Writing
Previous by Thread: capabilities and limitations
Next by Thread: Re: Your TECHWR-L message


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads