Re: What good is it if you can't find it?
So the manual was incomplete and inaccurate.
No, it wasn't incomplete. As I said, the information was there, it was just too hard to find.
As for 'inaccurate', you could certainly argue that it was, as it did not give the customary name to a common feature. But that means that consistency is at least part of good content, which in turn means that a writer - in the pursuit of good content - needs to be concerned with consistency.
You even say later that it had some
"bizarre title." I'd call that a content inaccuracy. The writer of that material
gave the section a bad title, which means they didn't understand the material.
No, they just used a term that was common inside the company and little known outside of it.
Badly designed documentation is bad documentation, just as incorrect
documentation is bad documentation.
No...badly designed documentation (i.e. crude text file) can be very valuable to
people who don't care about design.
True, bad things can be valuable as well, given dire enough straits. But that doesn't make them good. (You can drink tainted water, and it's better than nothing to drink at all. But that doesn't make it good or indeed potable in the usual sense.) Badly designed documentation is bad documentation.
To argue otherwise means to treat documentation as an end unto itself. But it isn't: Documentation is a tool, it's a means to help people perform a task. This tool - the documentation - is good only if it fulfills this purpose. In the real world this means that it has to enable the user to do so in a reasonable amount of time - not just eventually.
Good documentation requires both accurate and complete content as well as a good design. It is useless and a waste of time for a writer to argue which is more important unless he or she intends to deliver the most mediocre documentation he or she can get away with.
Regards
Jan Henning
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jan Henning
ROSEMANN & LAURIDSEN GMBH
Am Schlossberg 14, D-82547 Eurasburg, Germany
Phone: +49 700 0200 0700, Fax: +49 8179 9307-12
E-Mail: henning -at- r-l -dot- de, Web: www.r-l.de
--------------------------------------------------------------------
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check out SnagIt - The Screen Capture Standard!
Download a free 30-day trial from http://www.techsmith.com/rdr/txt/twr
Find out what all the other tech writers, including Dan, already know!
Order RoboHelp X3 in November and receive $100 mail in rebate, FREE WebHelp
Merge Module and the new RoboPDF - add powerful PDF output functionality
to RoboHelp X3. Order online today at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
References:
Re: What good is it if you can't find it?: From: Andrew Plato
Previous by Author:
Re: What good is it if you can't find it?
Next by Author:
Re: What good is it if you can't find it?
Previous by Thread:
Re: What good is it if you can't find it?
Next by Thread:
Re: What good is it if you can't find it?
Search our Technical Writing Archives & Magazine
Visit TechWhirl's Other Sites
Sponsored Ads