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Re: Describing field meanings and instructions

Subject: Re: Describing field meanings and instructions
From: Bernd <Hutschi -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2015 17:54:37 +0200

Hi,
we have different kinds of manuals.
There are step by step instructions and general overview information in the User manual and field descriptions and set-up information in the separate reference manual. So each module has a user manual and a reference manual.
All manuals have a manual designed index and a full text search, as well as table of context.

Additionally there are other kinds of manuals, not on topic for this question.

Best regards
Bernd

Am 22.10.2015 um 16:58 schrieb Cardimon, Craig:

Excellent question. I will be following the responses.

~Craig

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Lesli Ritchie
Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2015 9:36 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Describing field meanings and instructions

I always struggle with this one. Our software User Guides describe all the fields on a screen and give the user step-by-step instructions on how to do something, such as add a new record. I usually add a table that describes the fields and their options in the context of the steps, but I feel that this breaks the flow and could be confusing to a new user (our users have a wide skill range). How do you handle this? Do you reference a table of field descriptions within the instructions and then add it to an Appendix? Do you keep it in the instructions? I'd be grateful for ideas.
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References:
Describing field meanings and instructions: From: Lesli Ritchie
RE: Describing field meanings and instructions: From: Cardimon, Craig

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