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Subject:RE: Designing online help - book suggestions? From:"Myles Owens" <mowens -at- revereinc -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 4 Jun 2012 11:13:34 -0500
Standards for Online Communication by JoAnn Hackos and Dawn Stevens.
Myles L. Owens
Manager, Documentation Services
Revere, Inc.
E-mail: mowens -at- revereinc -dot- com
Web: www.revereinc.com
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+mowens=revereinc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+mowens=revereinc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Becca
Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2012 5:00 PM
To: tech2wr-l
Subject: Designing online help - book suggestions?
As I've said before here, I'm taking a class in learning how to use
RoboHelp, as part of the technical writing certificate I'm working on.
One of the weak points of the program (as far as I'm concerned) is there is
no design and best practices class. I have no idea what type fonts and sizes
work best for print, pdf, or on-line. I know not to over-use red, and that
online topics should be shorter and pithier than in paper documents, but
other than that, I have no idea what I'm doing.
I found a book on Designing and Writing Online Documentation by Bill Horton,
but it was last updated in 1994. Surely there is something more recent, with
more modern and current best practices?
Can anyone suggest a couple of books that might help me?
thanks!
-becca
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"Grant us, in our direst need, the smallest gifts: the nail of the
horseshoe, the pin of the axle, the feather at the pivot point, the pebble
at the mountain's peak, the kiss in despair, the one right word. In
darkness, understanding."
Paladin of Souls (HB page 35), Lois McMaster Bujold
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Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need.
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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.