RE: terminology question (and a bit of a rant)

[John Posada <JPosada -at- book -dot- com>]

-----Original Message-----
>The first product I wrote help for (6 months ago) has not yet been
released.
>It's an internal product to be used by one department. The holdup was that
>the IT dept wouldn't release it til that department had written a business
>process doc that described how it would be used. They're finally doing it,
>but what they've done is try to write, from scratch, a "manual" that covers
>all the same material I did in the online help (company policy is that help
>should only be online, there aren't supposed to be printed versions of
>anything because that would make it too easy for people to take home
>proprietary application information). And of course, I don't think it's as

Gee...that will stop them...for maybe a minute?


>Right. So what this has prompted me to do is start a style guide for online
>help. I'm the only writer, and I've had my own standards in my head, but
>never felt the need to write them down. Now I think it will help me point
>out what I see are the problems in this new doc, rather than whining
vaguely
>that I don't like it :-)

Let's see...by now, I'm sure that someone(s) knows you don't like it..I have
a feeling that you aren't afraid to make your feelings known. So, along
comes a style guide, that you wrote, where everything you like (your style)
is in the style guide as good, and everything you don't like (their style)
is not in the manual, or documented as bad style.  

Not long on credibility, dontchathink?.


>Btw, the author of the manual I mentioned above uses "screen" all over the
>place, which I haven't been using at all. It's mostly in places where I

But I LIKE screen shots in the help...it isn't whether it is done or not,
but whether their use helps the user.


>I don't have access to the Microsoft Manual of Style or any other style
>guides, (but I'm going to request one very soon I think <g>) so I'd really
>really appreciate any of your opinions.

So buy one...$25 bucks won't kill ya.

Tell me...is the problem that their document is SO bad that the product will
be less usable because of what they've done, or are you afraid that someone
will see what you did as redundant?

John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
jposada -at- book -dot- com
212-414-6656


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