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Some time ago now I asked for ideas that may be of use for my MA project -
traditional academic thesis/project etc. I got quite a bit of feedback,
all of which was very useful, and opted for producing the online docs for
our new software product. All went well but, as happens, the project has
been delayed about 6-9 months due to changing priorities and as such is no
longer feasible to me in the timeframe I'm looking at. Fortunately another
suitable project has come along - migrating the documentation for our main
product to CD.
Two main reasons for the move:
The need to "refresh" the literature - style, content etc. This will be
partly practical (I'll be doing it!) and partly academic -
review/research into different styles, layout designs, how people
read/learn etc. Aim is to make the lit as inviting, readable and usable
as possible.
Cost (isn't it always?!). The current version of the software is sent
out on 6 floppies with the associated docs. With the ever decreasing
cost of CDs it is now cheaper (not counting the cost of the lit) to send
out one CD rather than 6 disks. The idea is to provide minimal hard
copy (installation/user information) and the rest on the CD in some
format which can be accessed by the end user. Again there is a mix of
practical (actually doing it and providing an "attractive" front end
that minimises the work for the user (less they can do wrong) and
research into HOW best to provide the information - as locked WP files,
Help files, PDF, HTML etc or a combination thereof. Investigation
(survey) to find what people are happy with - like online, want to print
etc.
Step 1 cover the "what" - what information is required, who'll use it etc.
Tied with this is some research into how people read/learn - do they read
cover to cover, skim read, use contents page/ index etc. Results of this
research will determine how the documents look and exactky what is in them.
Step 2 covers the "how to" part. This will detail the various options for
providing the "all new" material.
Also to be looked at is how best to make use of the new delivery medium -
after all there is 650Mb of disk space to play with and the software and
lit will take up only a small proportion of this. What will we use the
rest for? Online tutorials? Sales/product lit? Video? Different
versions (languages) of the software?
This is just a brief outline and I've got approval from my tutor so it's
all systems go. Fortunately a lot of the work I'd already done can be
re-used (and it'll be useful when the original project is up and running
later this year).
And now to my question. What format to use on the CD? I've already done
some research and will probably opt for PDF due to the better print options
- initially I fell a lot of people will want to print out what's supplied
(the comfort factor).
However, I need to look at all the options and I'd like to hear what others
have used and how. We currently use Word (files usually < 100 pages),
CorelDraw and HDK so these are readily available - looking at Frame but
don't see much chance of getting it before the end of the year. What
options are available?:
HTML (and variants)
Javascript
other??
Any and all suggestions welcome. The fun will be balancing practical and
the academic.
