RE: Butt-or-ego insulation query

[kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com]

John "the Pope of Technical Writing" Posada wrote:

> I'm a big fan of visual logic decision trees which I do in Visio to help me
> determine how to write the instructions.
> 
> 1) Do you have a token
> Yes - Initialize it and go to step 3
> No - Go to step 2
> 
> 2) Do you Need a token
> Yes - Contact xxx and when received, go to step 1
> No - Got to End
>
> etc., etc.
> 
> Every step along the way must have a Yes or No. You'd be amazed at what dead
> ends you place the reader if you don't include something to do at every Yes
> and No point.  Ever see a document that says:
> 
> 1) Do X. You should see Y
> 2) At Y, do Z.
> 
> The problem is that the instruction never says what to do if you DON't see
> Y. This process eliminates that trap.



John, THAT is the coolest thing I've learned on this list in years. 

Seriously. 

THANK YOU!




Keith Cronin
1) Do I have a beer?
Yes - get another one, because this one will be gone soon.
No - for God's sake, man, get a beer!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A new book on Single Sourcing has been released by William Andrew
Publishing: _Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation_
is now available at: http://www.williamandrew.com/titles/1491.html.

Help Authoring Seminar 2003, coming soon to a city near you! Attend this
educational and affordable one-day seminar covering existing and emerging
trends in Help authoring technology. See http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l2.

---
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.