Re: What does a Tech Writer Do?

["Rollings, Gill" <WGILLR -at- WOK-MSMAIL-GW -dot- ISL -dot- COM>]

Julie Barker and I obviously move in similiar circles:  I, too, have been
asked to sort out other people's problems with computers (although I
document software, not hardware); and I have to change the timer on my
mother's VCR when we put the clocks back and forward (next appointment will
be on October 23 if I'm not much mistaken).  Is it a universal attribute of
"women of a certain age" that they are incapable of using their VCRs without
being supervised by one of their children or grandchildren?  (Actually, I
think it's the idea of lying flat on the floor pressing tiny buttons on the
control panel to make the change that is the deciding factor - the manual is
reasonably clear, with lots of well-labelled diagrams.  Mum's just a bit too
old to be grovelling on the floor fiddling with the VCR when her daughter
can grovel on the floor and fix it for her.)

As well as my sister's impulse buy of a second hand ZX at a car boot sale
("all the bits are there and the bloke I bought it from said that it
works..."), I've been roped in to sort out my older brother's fairly new
Dell.  After a few basic tests (saving files to floppy disk, trying to open
a file on a disk, swapping known clean disks and a dubious one in and out),
I recommended getting the diskette drive checked.  Sorry, Mike, you'll have
to call out a real expert after all :-).

Just think, if I'd qualified to be a History teacher, I'd have missed out on
all this!

Gill Rollings, Technical Writer, Internet Systems Ltd
gill -dot- rollings -at- isl -dot- com