Re: advice on writing tutorials

[Sybille Sterk <sybille -at- BOFFIN -dot- BEYOND2000 -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

My tutorials are very task orientated. At first I make a list of the tasks
the user will want to perform, then I make a rough list of the steps
(usually the default settings apply). Then I try and put common tasks to
one side and explain them separately (this might answer your question
below), when and where they apply, so I can put references in for them
instead of explaining it all over again.

All the different settings and options for one task aren't explained in the
tutorial itself, but in the menus and dialogs section. However, if you
don't have such a section you might want to put a little references section
in the tutorial where the different settings are explained.

One thing to bear in mind is that tutorials should be very short - no more
then 10 steps seems to be the general rule - so you might want to break up
the tutorials into smaller sections with little headings in-between.

Hope this helps.

Sybille

>An example of what I'm puzzling over is how much detail
>I need to repeat. If in step 4, I detail all sub-steps, then if
>step 5 starts out in a similar manner as step 4, can I
>"short-cut" what I say? To explain further, in step 5 could
>I say "Group the objects" if in step 4 explains how to do
>that? To me it seems logical to do this, but it sure isn't
>consistent!
>
>If it helps, the tutorial is similar to showing how to create,
>in MS Access, a form or report. Lots of steps, each one pretty
>easy.
>
>As always, thanks for any advice, tips, or comments!
>Jessica
>
>---------------------------------------------------
>Jessica N. Lange mailto:jlange -at- oee -dot- com
>Technical Communicator, Ohio Electronic Engravers, Inc.
>
>From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==
>

Sybille Sterk
Technical Author and Translator (German)
email: sybille -at- boffin -dot- beyond2000 -dot- co -dot- uk

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=