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Subject:Re: To FAQ or not to FAQ From:"Miksovic, Beth" <beth -dot- miksovic -at- capitalone -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 16 Sep 2003 09:22:17 -0400
/kevin wrote:
>
> My question to everybody is:
>
> Do you think that there's value in perpetuating an issue
> in the form of a FAQ, or does it make more sense to just
> incorporate it (with perhaps some emphasis) in the regular
> documents, when the next opportunity arises?
>
My answer is "why not have both?"
I was hired at a start-up company to write a document about the networking
aspects of their product (my background is network support). They had an
existing FAQ directed at IT managers to explain the impact of placing their
(non-IT) equipment on a company's Ethernet network. That document was
written by the IT manager of the company.
It was from this FAQ (and other support material) that I formed the basis of
my manual. It turned into 250 pages, and was directed to the installer of
the equipment (the FAQ was 3). When I finished the manual, the marketing
people decided they still needed a tool to hand to the IT folk to calm their
fears...and they didn't think a 250-page manual was the right tool. So I
rewrote the FAQ and each question (concern) summarized some manual content.
I then made cross references to the appropriate section in the larger manual
if they wanted all the geek detail.
The FAQ served a need for 50,000-foot information, and my manual provided
the 2-foot detail. Different tools, though related, for different
audiences.
Beth
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