TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Brian Jennings wrote:
> <<So your installation instructions can be as follows:
> 1. Things you need to know or do before installing
> 2. Options to think about before you run the installer.
> 3. Put away the manual and run the installer.>>
>
> In principle I completely agree. However, in my case I am
documenting
> an
> install of a product that can be networked and while this scenerio
> works
> perfectly for that, it does not work as well for the network
> installation.
>
> Still, even on the network install I only need to include
> instructions on
> parts of the process but it seems that once I comment on any part of
> the
> install process the user then gets antsy and insecure if other parts
> are not
> documented. Maybe it's a matter of trust. If I must provide external
> documentation on any part of the install, then the user must wonder
> about
> the rest. I.e. if they can't trust what they see on the screen for
> everything they need to know in one section of the install, how can
> they
> trust the rest. It seems an assurance issue more than anything.
>
If you use numbered procedures, you can say something like the
following (adapted to your purposes, of course):
5. Click Configure Blipple. Follow the instructions for configuring
the blipple that appear on each screen. When prompted, click Finish
and go to Step 6.
SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION: RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward
in Help authoring technology, featuring Word 2003 support, Content
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo
>From a single set of Word documents, create online Help and printed
documentation with ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 7 Professional, a new yearly
subscription service offering free updates and upgrades, support, and more. http://www.doctohelp.com
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -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.