Re: Doc Design and Convention ( was TECHWR-L Digest, Vol 48, Issue 27)

[Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>]

Paul Hanson wrote:
> Hanging on my cubicle wall:
> |
> When documenting something, you must answer the five golden questions:
> 1) What is it?
> 2) What does it do?
> 3) What is its purpose?
> 4) How does it work (or how does it do what it is supposed to do)?
> 5) Why is it relevant?
> |
> Thought that'd be helpful.
> 

I disagree with these questions - not all of
these questions are ones that product users are
interested in knowing. These questions are from
the point of view of how to *document* the product,
not from the point of view of how to *use* the product.

Here are mine, off the top of my head:

* Who is likely to be buying and using the product?
* For what purposes are they buying and using the product?
* What information do they need in order to use the
   product effectively?
* What is the best way to deliver that information for
   these users?
* What knowledge can I assume that most of these users
   already have?

-- Janice

***********************************************************
Janice Gelb          | The only connection Sun has with
janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com  | this message is the return address
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author, 
build, test, and publish your Help files with just one easy-to-use tool.
Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at:
http://www.doctohelp.com/ 

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/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat