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Re: FAQs

Subject: Re: FAQs
From: "Barry Campbell" <barry -dot- campbell -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "Diane Boos" <dianeboos -at- comcast -dot- net>
Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 15:48:01 -0400

On 5/15/06, Diane Boos <dianeboos -at- comcast -dot- net> wrote:

Many times technical writers produce these FAQs. How often are they really
used? Do companies ever check their effectiveness? Anybody have any
statistics about how successful FAQ searches are?

When I'm asked to develop FAQs, I try to organize them them into general
topic areas, even providing links to the topics to make access easier. What
has been your experience with FAQs and user feedback?

FAQs can be incredibly useful for tech writers--if they are, in fact,
Frequently Asked Questions.

If something is a FAQ, that means one or more of the following is true:

-- It isn't covered or explained adequately in the documentation, or
-- People aren't finding it in the documentation, or
-- People aren't reading the documentation, period.

My point of view is that a FAQ should be a living document, and is a
great place to capture quick answers to problems that you're going to
fix/information you're going to make easier to find in the next
revision of the documentation. The answer(s) to a *really* frequently
asked question probably belongs in your Quick Start guide and your
online help (at a minimum.)

- bc

--
Barry Campbell <barry -at- campbell-online -dot- com>
http://campbell-online.com
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References:
FAQs: From: Diane Boos

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