Re: Most embarasssing error (was Finding errors in manuals)

["Melissa Nelson" <melmis36 -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

This thread reminded me of a manual I have been reading at work. Among other 
things, it has a bunch of bookmark errors, that were printed when they made 
it a PDF, but my favorite boo-boo is a line that I believe is supposed to 
say "Community involvement is very important to  successful emergency 
response.", but instead it says "Communist involvement is very important to 
successful emergency response." It kind of makes me wonder if Boris and 
Natasha went into the tech writing business after they gave up chasing moose 
and squirrel!

Just goes to show we all make mistakes and some of us don't get caught!

Melissa





>From: "Suzette Leeming" To: "Van Boening, Tammy" CC: 
>techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Subject: Re: Most embarasssing error (was 
>Finding errors in manuals) Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 20:00:24 -0400
>
>I was updating manuals for a company last year and I came across several 
>instances where sentences were left incomplete and other instances where it 
>would say something like, "The ABC screen (window, box, what do we call 
>this?)" were left in the manual. I asked them how them expected their 
>customers to read their manuals, when obviously their own staff didn't. 
>Several places where the company name and the product name were misspelled.
>
>How about bone-head comments like "The Reverse Payment option is where you 
>can reverse a payment."
>
>Weird stuff.
>
>Suzette Leeming Stouffville, Ontario
>
>
>
>On 5/17/07, Van Boening, Tammy wrote: > > So, I was the author of a 
>hardware manual for a training class for a > bunch of truck drivers years 
>ago - seriously, the Hooters T-shirt, let's > go to a strip club after work 
>kind - and this made it through in the > manual (to my absolute horror and 
>to their absolute delight) - > > Instead of "tighten the wrench", it was 
>"tighten the wench" - ah yes - > that helped break the ice in the class. 
>After something like that, I > rarely get heartburn over a typo or two in a 
>manual. > > TVB > > -----Original Message----- > From: 
>techwr-l-bounces+tammy -dot- vanboening=fiserv -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com > 
>[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+tammy -dot- vanboening=fiserv -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] > 
>On Behalf Of Combs, Richard > Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 3:00 PM > To: 
>Connie Giordano; Michelle Vina-Baltsas; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com > 
>Subject: RE: Finding errors in manuals > > Connie Giordano wrote: > > > I 
>literally just came across this in a manual I'm editing right now: > > > > 
>"Press to exit:"  Hope that makes you feel better ;-) > > Well, it sure 
>looks funny, but it's not necessarily _wrong_. > > After all, we Windows 
>users click Start to quit. ;-) > > Richard > > > ------ > Richard G. Combs 
> > Senior Technical Writer > Polycom, Inc. > richardDOTcombs AT 
>polycomDOTcom > 303-223-5111 > ------ > rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom > 
>303-777-0436 > ------ > > >
>
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