RE: Narrative Technical Writing

Subject: RE: Narrative Technical Writing
From: "Mike McCallister" <mike -dot- mccallister -at- pkware -dot- com>
To: "voxwoman" <voxwoman -at- gmail -dot- com>, "Robert Lauriston" <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 14:55:04 -0600

Funny you should mention Google Wave. This just came out over the
weekend:

http://completewaveguide.com/

...and yes, it will be a book too.



Mike McCallister
Document Architect
PKWARE, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+mike -dot- mccallister=pkware -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+mike -dot- mccallister=pkware -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
On Behalf Of voxwoman
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 12:47 PM
To: Robert Lauriston
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Narrative Technical Writing

Not too many. What I see happening is that someone figures it out and
then posts instructions to their FB friends. These instructions get
reposted in a viral fashion.

Google Wave is using instructional videos, which I'd rather be reading
instead of watching/listening. But I suppose for an increasingly
illiterate society, videos are a better way to go. ("Illiterate" in the
sense that people actively avoid having to read a lot of text - which is
what I see in the current crop of teenagers that I'm exposed to). They
could benefit from a glossary, as they are using "wave" and "blip" (and
other terms) in new and not contextually comprehensible ways.

-Wendy

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 1:39 PM, Robert Lauriston
<robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>wrote:

> How many users can figure out how to configure Facebook "Friend Lists"
> and privacy settings so as to share different information with
> friends, family, and professional contacts without consulting some
> extra-Facebook documentation? How many can figure it out even then?
>
> I just documented a purchasing application based on a subset of Oracle

> Financials. I did write a one-page cheat sheet for end users, but it
> took more like 25 pages to cover all the tasks four groups of users
> with different privileges regularly have to perform.
>
> On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 10:14 AM, Janoff, Steve
> <Steve -dot- Janoff2 -at- teradata -dot- com> wrote:
> > ... Web applications are becoming so easy to use, the eventual
"help"
> might
> > be a 1-page cheat sheet. ...
> >
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author,
build, test, and publish your Help files with just one easy-to-use tool.
Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at:
http://www.doctohelp.com/

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual authors
and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write once, publish
to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control!
http://www.helpandmanual.com/

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

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Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at:
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once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

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Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: Narrative Technical Writing: From: Chris Despopoulos
RE: Narrative Technical Writing: From: Janoff, Steve
Re: Narrative Technical Writing: From: Robert Lauriston
Re: Narrative Technical Writing: From: voxwoman

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