Re: Two Techwriting Issues

[Steve Fouts <sfouts -at- ELLISON -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM>]

 |} Issue 1:
|}
|} We are presently rewriting our reference manuals, and a proposal has
|}  been made to rewrite them in the second person instead of the third
|} person.

[snip]

|} I would appreciate some opinions on this matter.
|}

Opinion mine: Great! It is a far better way to write, and better for your
readers. The justification that I use when I am forced to explain this to
engineers who think it looks somehow "unprofessional," is to say that it is
far to easy to obscure the actor in a third person piece. This can lead to
confusion; do I do this? or does it happen automagically?

|} Issue 2:
|}
|} As we rewrite the new manuals (in Framemaker 4), we are hoping that we c
|} an easily use the files to develop the on-line help for the Windows
|} applications that these manuals document.

|} Unfortunately, as far as we know, all Windows online help packages (such
|}  as RoboHelp) use Microsoft Word files.  This makes it necessary to
|} maintain two files: the Framemaker file for the documentation and the
|} Word file for the on-line help.  Can anyone out there offer some
|} possible resolution to this matter.

Hmmm. Frame has a rather nice package for building online docs available on
DOS and Windows, but since I'm not a DOS/Windows weenie, nor a Frame weenie
so I don't know if "Windows Help" is a special form of online docs? or a
generic term.

Cheers,
Steve
    _______________________
   /  ___  __/__\  \ /  / _\    Steve Fouts
  /___ \|  |  ___\  |  /  __\   sfouts -at- ellison -dot- ti -dot- com
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