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I'm interested in learning about software manuals written in the
"minimalist" style. Info on it is scanty; so far all I can find are
two articles: The Minimal Manual, Human-Computer Interaction, 1987-88,
vol. 3, and Usability Testing a Minimal Manual..., IEEE Professional
Communication, Mar. 93, vol. 36.
Are there any good books available on the subject, particularly those
that give step-by-step instructions on creating a minimal manual or
editing a maximal manual? I'm looking for rules, guidelines, etc.
If any of you write minimal manuals, I'd also be interested in seeing
a few representative pages from which I can extract some guidelines.
I'll let you know in a summary what I learn.
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On an entirely different topic and assuming most of you are STC members,
does anyone know how to get an electronic index of articles published
in STC's Technical Communication, say of the past 5 years or so? I'm
going crazy looking through stacks of back issues for specific articles.
Thanks!
