TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Have fun with this. I personally like writing procedures.
I like to keep procedures simple and to the point. Users just want to
know how to get stuff done, not a lot of fluff.
For organization, I like a style I saw that I think Microsoft uses where
it is segmented - first you state what the task is, mention any
prerequisites, then list the step-by-step procedures, followed by a few
paragraphs of extra information, non-essential to getting the process
done, but helpful nonetheless.
For document conventions, I follow the Microsoft Manual of Style as most
of the procedures we document are software related. I also follow
Chicago Manual of Style for other style guidelines.
This might also be a good opportunity for you to help develop an
internal style guide. There will be conventions you'll determine for
your company documentation (when to bold, whether to capitalize a term,
punctuation, and so on) that will be helpful for authors in the future
as they write, or for you as you document further procedures.
A quick way to capture styles as you go along is to create a one page
template with categories for heading styles, capitalization, trademarks,
numbering, company-specific styles, etc. Make several copies of it and
just handwrite in the decisions you make as you go along. Later, you can
take those sheets and compile them into a formal style guide. I use one
of these sheets for every document I edit, and later add the decisions
to my style guide. I keep them for reference too because some documents
may have different conventions.
For publishing the procedures, I'd recommend an online help format. As
far as technology, I would recommend finding a software (such as
FrameMaker and WebWorks Publisher - there are others too that are good).
This will allow users to get just the information they need, and then
move on.
Hope this helps.
Claire Conant
Editor, Techcom Manager, and Intranet Program Manager
Digeo, Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+claire -dot- conant=digeo -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+claire -dot- conant=digeo -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Ben Bristow
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 8:01 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Input on Employee Manual project
I work at a law firm, and have been assigned to write the Employee
Manual for the support staff. This would be a proceedural, rather than
a human resources guide; they want something that documents the duties
and responsibilities of each paralegal, as well as general workflow in
the firm. It would be used to provide basic training to new hires.
This is a big task that also happens to be incredibly fortuitous for
me, as I will be attending grad school for Technical Writing this
year. I've not done documentation like this before though, and so I'm
wondering if anyone has any suggestions on style guides for this sort
of thing. I can provide more details if needed.
I'm well aware that this is a fairly general question, apologies if it
is too general. Thanks for any help in advance.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
Easily create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to any popular
Help file format or printed documentation. Learn more at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as claire -dot- conant -at- digeo -dot- com -dot-
WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Easily create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to any popular Help file format or printed documentation. Learn more at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot-
