Re: style guides

[Rose Wilcox <RWILC -at- FAST -dot- DOT -dot- STATE -dot- AZ -dot- US>]

TO:
nlnda -at- ttacs -dot- ttu -dot- edu -dot- 
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Style guide Survey

1. Your e-mail address: rwilc -at- fast -dot- dot -dot- state -dot- az -dot- us

2. Your job title: Contract Technical Writer/Project Planner

3. Short job description:
Perform project planning for small tech. writing team.  Create
on-line help systems, user manuals.  Define, edit, manage
system documentation.

4. Your place of business:
Arizona Department of Transporation (FAST project)

5. Name of primary commercial style guide used at your place
of business:
Chicago Manual of Style
6. Why do you use this one?
It was here when we got here!
7. Do you have a "personalized" style guide (one written
specifically for your business)?
We have created style guides for both on-line help and
end-user documentation.
8. Why? or Why not?
Because we use a Word template for hard copy documentation.
Because Chicago manual of style does not address any
of our on-line help style issues.
Because we want our documentation to have a
similar look and feel although we have three
very different writers on our team.
9. & 10. From your experience, IF your business has its own
"personalized" style guide, what are the two most-used
entries in it?
For hard copy doc this is impossible to say, since we aren't in
the phase of the project for creating hard copy doc much.  I
would guess we would use the parts describing the
headers/footers the most though.
For on-line doc, we refer to structural information the most;
that is, how to you handle documenting menu structures, dialog
boxes, popup boxes, etc.
(If you don't use a "personalized" style guide, leave 9 & 10
blank.)

11. & 12. From your experience, what are the two most-used
entries in the commercial style guide used at your business?
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hyphenated words
Otherwise, I think we ignore it.  Computer terminology is
the next looked up item, but it is looked up in
computer dictionaries and documentation for the related
products our client's use (so that we spell brand
names correctly for instance.)
Please try to respond before Thursday, November 17, 1994 (my
birthday.)
Happy Birthday!

Thanks so much for your help and time in answering and
returning the survey to me at:

nlnda -at- ttacs -dot- ttu -dot- edu

Lenda
You're welcome Lenda.