RE: The 'user' in User Manual

["Chris Vickery" <cvickery -at- arenasolutions -dot- com>]

I'm in the midst of updating my user manuals, all of which are in the
second person. As other posters have said, "click the shiny, candy-like
button" is still second person, but with the "you" understood. I will
also agree that audience is the deciding factor for the person used.

My entire manual consists of procedures addressed to a specific
audience--either users or admins. If I'm addressing admins, I make that
clear in the context section before the procedure, and specifically say
"user" when mentioning the user role as the subject of a sentence.

I will definitely agree that writing "The user clicks the shiny,
candy-like button" when the user is the expected reader is not only
weird but a little creepy and Silence of the Lambs-esque.

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+cvickery=arenasolutions -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+cvickery=arenasolutions -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
On Behalf Of Cardimon,Craig
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 11:58 AM
To: Techwr-l
Subject: The 'user' in User Manual

Hello, folks,

 

When you all are working on user manuals, what viewpoint do you most
often take? Should I:

 

(1)   Remove all occurrences of "user" and "you" from the manual, and
recast all sentences.

(2)   Take a "user"-centric stance.

(3)   Take a "you"-centric stance.

 

Whatever I do, I need to be consistent throughout. How say ye?

 

-- Craig

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