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.
I can't compare apples to apples, but I think a lot of it has to do with how your user consumes those PDF documents. If you suspect or you know that people are printing hard copies and using the PDFs on paper, then a feedback email like Alec suggests is a great idea for you to do and offers a portal for users to respond, but they have to work a lot more to use it.
If, however, your readers are consuming the PDFs online, then such an email option becomes a lot more useful to the reader. Make sure it's an active email link (not a static printed email address) and when the reader wants to send feedback, they can open their email client, address a message, and possibly fill out a subject line (depending on how you format the link) with a single click and tell you what they found or what question they have.
In our environment we have a couple of feedback loops that are based on our internal online knowledge base. Each article contains a feedback link within the article for users to send questions or corrections or other feedback. Also we have a battery of SMEs that we use to follow up on feedback via traditional email and verify if there's anything that may have changed or be inaccurate or requires editing.
Any good documentation for any living product or service has got to include the invitation for dialog with the end user. Of course, how much that invitation is accepted and acted upon by the end user depends on how many of them actually use the documentation, how useful they find it, and how passionate those users are about seeing things done "the right way" (whatever that means to them). And as with the example of the printed vs. online PDFs mentioned above, you'll also find that ease of use of that feedback mechanism makes a world of difference. The more steps a user has to take in order to be able to tell you what they think you should know, the less likely they are to take them.
That sounds interesting. Do you do that with PDF, too, or only online? My deliverables are just PDF right now.
Craig
-----Original Message-----
From: Alec Chakenov [mailto:alec -dot- chakenov -at- gmail -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 1:03 AM
To: Cardimon, Craig
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Techno-fuddyduddy getting anxious
Craig, you can set up an e-mail address specifically for gathering feedback and then advertise that address in the documentation. In our online documentation in HTML, we have the link "Send feedback on documentation." It's really useful.
Information contained in this e-mail transmission is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, do not read, distribute or reproduce this transmission (including any attachments). If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender by telephone or email reply.
End of TECHWR-L Digest, Vol 75, Issue 19
****************************************
________________________________
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, purge it and do not disseminate or copy it.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days. http://www.doctohelp.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
