Re: Most embarasssing error (was Finding errors in manuals)

["Suzette Leeming" <suzette -dot- leeming -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I was updating manuals for a company last year and I came across several
instances where sentences were left incomplete and other instances where it
would say something like, "The ABC screen (window, box, what do we call
this?)" were left in the manual. I asked them how them expected their
customers to read their manuals, when obviously their own staff didn't.
Several places where the company name and the product name were misspelled.

How about bone-head comments like "The Reverse Payment option is where you
can reverse a payment."

Weird stuff.

Suzette Leeming
Stouffville, Ontario



On 5/17/07, Van Boening, Tammy <tammy -dot- vanboening -at- fiserv -dot- com> wrote:
>
> So, I was the author of a hardware manual for a training class for a
> bunch of truck drivers years ago - seriously, the Hooters T-shirt, let's
> go to a strip club after work kind - and this made it through in the
> manual (to my absolute horror and to their absolute delight) -
>
> Instead of "tighten the wrench", it was "tighten the wench" - ah yes -
> that helped break the ice in the class. After something like that, I
> rarely get heartburn over a typo or two in a manual.
>
> TVB
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+tammy -dot- vanboening=fiserv -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+tammy -dot- vanboening=fiserv -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
> On Behalf Of Combs, Richard
> Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 3:00 PM
> To: Connie Giordano; Michelle Vina-Baltsas; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: RE: Finding errors in manuals
>
> Connie Giordano wrote:
>
> > I literally just came across this in a manual I'm editing right now:
> >
> > "Press <ENTER> to exit:"  Hope that makes you feel better ;-)
>
> Well, it sure looks funny, but it's not necessarily _wrong_.
>
> After all, we Windows users click Start to quit. ;-)
>
> Richard
>
>
> ------
> Richard G. Combs
> Senior Technical Writer
> Polycom, Inc.
> richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
> 303-223-5111
> ------
> rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
> 303-777-0436
> ------
>
>
>

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