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Subject:Re: Understanding vs. Instruction From:Bill DuBay <bill_dubay -at- PHOENIX -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 30 Jun 1997 10:48:29 PDT
Excellent, Mike!
I often give a short overview explaining how the parts fit together,
building on what the reader should already know. This informative part
establishes a vocabulary and a context for what follows. This can be very
short and simple, but very helpful before plunging into the instructions.
To support your argument, I think you can organize all of the informative
text--how the machine works--around reader's tasks. I don't think you should
ever list data without some indication of where and how you are to use it.
Bill DuBay
Technical Writer
Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
email: bill_dubay -at- phoenix -dot- com
(714)790-2049 FAX: (714)790-2001 http://www.phoenix.com
-------------
Original Text
From: M. Dannenberg <midannen -at- SI -dot- BOSCH -dot- DE>, on 6/30/97 1:03 AM:
The idea that documentation should tell how the product solves the
user's problems, rather than telling how to do it is throwing out the
baby with the bathwater, in my opinion. Everybody has probably been
annoyed about manuals that explain every stupid menu command of a
program without telling what the whole caboodle is good for, or how to
go about doing anything with it. Falling into the other extreme is
usually not a good idea, though.
A good manual has to do both, inform and instruct. Ideally the two can
be integrated, the instructions should be organised along the ways users
use the product and all that. For very complex products it may ne
necessary to include a separate theory part, but that approach is
probably not advisable for consumer products.
Mike
--
Mike Dannenberg
ETAS GmbH & Co.KG
midannen -at- si -dot- bosch -dot- de
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