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I took everyone's emails, took parts verbatim, and came up with the
inconclusive summary I am including at the end of this email. Our document
is a hybrid. It IS a how-to because it explains to CSRs how to use the
database. However, it will not contain sequential procedures.
I think of Larry S. Bonura's The Art of Indexing as a template I am going
for; however, my manager has in mind a very "user-friendly" guide. None of
what I've said determines to me whether to make it a user guide or a
reference guide.
If you can read through the following and provide advice, I thank you for
your input, and your input thus far:
Customer Service Reference Guide
Audience: New Customer Service Representatives
Project Managers
Objective This guide explains to the Customer Service Representative how the
CSR database works, and why it works in the manner that it does.
Its objectives are:
To explain the environment in which Clear Technology Customer Service
Representatives must operate.
To provide Clear Technology Customer Service Representatives with guidelines
by which to evaluate customer service requests.
To educate Clear Technology Customer Service Representatives in using the
tools for tracking customer service requests.
Its purpose is not simply to give step-by-step instructions for a particular
service request, especially because there are variations in the uses of the
screen, and the writer must present the ?whole picture? to the user.
The guide explains the interface.
It answers the question ?What is it?? The Customer Service reference guide
explains terms, window sections, etcetera, and their definitions and is more
general when it comes to procedures. It does not have as its primary
organization how to perform steps in a logical manner to achieve a single,
given end like the training guide does, for example: how to configure
Tranzax. There is no ?map? here.
Example of the presentation of the majority of information in a user guide
versus a reference guide:
User Guide:
Assigning Prepaid Federal Excise Tax at the Product Level
---------------------------------------------------------
You can set whether federal excise tax (FET) is prepaid
for an individual product.
1. From the Product Maintenance window, click Additional Data.
2. From the Additional Data list, select Product Information.
3. In the Prepaid FET field of the Product Information screen, select one of
the following:
- Y. Federal excise tax is included in the product price.
- N. Federal excise tax is not included in the product
price. It is added at the time of invoice.
4. Press ENTER to accept changes and exit the screen
See Also:
- Including Federal Excise Tax upon Invoicing
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