Integrating techie stuff and user guide

Subject: Integrating techie stuff and user guide
From: geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 12:29:45 -0600

Jane Bergen is <<looking at combining some very technical
material with a user guide>>, and asked for suggestions.

Since it sounds like you've got a fairly even mix of the
two kinds of information, you'll probably not be able to
use the standard trick of using a simple format to make the
two types of information distinct:

1. Pick X from the Y menu.
Here's the explanation/techie stuff.
2. Continued...
Techie stuff for 2. and so on.

One thing that can work well is to break the chapters into
basic and advanced sections; a physics textbook I own does
this quite well. The basic sections come at the front of
the chapter, and cover just the basics (in this context,
step by step procedures); the latter half of the chapter
then goes into the gory details (e.g., why you do the
procedures, what was Bill Gates thinking when he programmed
this, how many angels can dance on a pinhead <grin>).

One question, though. It's very helpful to explain the
overall metaphor to users (so long as you don't go
overboard and carry the metaphor to the point it becomes
inconsistent or ridiculous), and if your "techie" info.
falls into this class, it might perhaps form an "overview"
section for each chapter of the user guide. Feasible in
your case?

--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.




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