RE: "How to Write a User Manual"

Subject: RE: "How to Write a User Manual"
From: "Wright, Lynne" <Lynne -dot- Wright -at- Kronos -dot- com>
To: "Cardimon, Craig" <ccardimon -at- M-S-G -dot- com>, "'TechWhirl (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)'" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 8 May 2018 18:33:02 +0000

Its a basic overview, for people totally unfamiliar to tech writing, and is fine for what it is...

Except this concept of a documentation plan is odd to me. When I started my first job as a tech writer, I was told to start with a documentation plan; but after a bit of head-scratching I abandoned it, because it was a chicken-an-egg situation: there was no way I could plan out an entire document up front, without knowing anything about the app I was going to write about.

So in effect, my doc plan would have included the target audience, a scope of "describe every feature in the product", and a timeline of "have it done in time for the release of the software, which at this point, is only vaguely projected to be 'sometime in December/maybe january'". So... not useful in any way.

The structure of the information was built/evolved as I worked through researching and documenting each feature. Developing a detailed "plan" to do that would have been a waste of time.

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com <techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> On Behalf Of Cardimon, Craig
Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2018 9:17 AM
To: 'TechWhirl (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)' <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Subject: "How to Write a User Manual"

Greetings,

What are your thoughts on this article:

https://clickhelp.co/clickhelp-technical-writing-blog/how-to-write-a-user-manual/

Cordially,
Craig Cardimon | Senior Technical Writer




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Follow-Ups:

References:
"How to Write a User Manual": From: Cardimon, Craig

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