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I believe there is relief for the tech writer who is feeling the
tedium of delivering the same explicit directions over and over.
The obvious solution, from a wholistic perspective, is to have
re-usable instructions. If you work in a hypertext medium, link
to the detailed instructions instead of giving them each time.
In paper delivery, you can design procedures to refer to detailed
procedures (e.g., For More Informationm see...). By breaking out
procedures in this way, you have spared the initiated users from
having to skip through your procedure, while providing a safety
net for new users who need the detailed procedures.
For your own sanity, though, being responsibile for every minute
step of evey mundane procedure can be tiresome and demoralizing.
I have a few tricks that work for me,--my short list includes one
technique based in methodology (and mentioned in previous recent
threads on this topic), and one based in creative empathy:
Methodolgy:
Accept your fate as technical writer and learn to enjoy the
rythym of procedures. It isn't such a chore when your
professional self-esteem is tied to values like "thoroughness"
(especially in the analysis of the task), absence of ambiguity in
each documented instruction, and clarity of presentation.
The fundamental drum beat of any procedure is Action-->Result,
Action-->Result, ... If you are not describing expected results
of each step, you are missing out on the most satisfying aspect
of writing procedures, which is (all together now) "closure."
Tech writers are forever lamenting the fact that projects never
seem to have a clear end point, so I say get it while you can.
Close each step with a description of the step's result. I find
that this is one of those things that makes each step pop-out in
3D relief, adds significant realism and interest for the reader
(and writer), and contributes to the desireable end result of an
unimpeachable procedure.
Creative Empathy:
We all get the sense that we're preaching to choir about certain
repetitive tasks in our instructions. While it is arrogant to
assume that any and all users will be accounted for when we
decide that a step is too mundane for words, still we are tech
writers and not saints. I try to draw the line at a very
conservative place. One of the common instruction chains that
meets my criteria for shorting is where the software requires you
to click through a series of OK buttons to get out of a
deeply-nested configuration dialog. You've seen it:
...
x1. In the FiddleyBit dialog box, click on OK to complete the
task.
The FiddleyBit dialog closes, and the FiddleDeedee dialog
appears.
x2. In the FiddleDeedee dialog , click on OK to complete the
task.
The FiddleDeedee dialog closes, and the ...
I've taken to writing this simply as :
x1. OK your way back to the Main Configuration screen.
If there were any contingencies in OK'ing out of this, I would
have to specify the possible results of clicking OK buttons, but
that would be a different problem.
BTW, I've never had negative feedback from a user about this. I
have asked.
Hope this helps.
Ned Bedinger
Ed Wordsmith Technical Communications Co.
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com http://www.edwordsmith.com
tel: 360-434-7197
fax: 360-769-7059
> My
> question is the following: does it make more sense in an
installation
> procedure to: 1) "gloss over" these common windows and only
address in
> detail windows that are unique or specific to our product or 2)
address all
> windows, regardless of how many million times users may have
seen some of
> them.
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