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> I've been researching around and looking at different types of user
manuals
> and I'm wondering what you all think is the best approach for a
useable
> manual. <snip>
In the absence of any information at all about the context -- what kind
of product, what kind of tasks, what kind of users, ... -- you're just
going to get the kind of broad generalities covered in the first week of
your local community college tech writing course or in chapter 1 of Tech
Writing for Dummies.
So here's the first such broad generality: Consider the kind of product,
kind of tasks, and kind of users for which the documentation is
intended.
:-)
Richard
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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