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.
To: TECHWR-L -at- VM1 -dot- ucc -dot- okstate -dot- edu
-> I want to create a software demo without sound. Can anyone suggest a program
-> for undertaking such a task.
It all depends what platform (Mac, PC, other), and operating
environment, and what kind of demo you'd like to do. We do lots of
different kinds of demos, ranging from slide shows created in
Powerpoint, to fully functional working versions of the software,
depending on what points we feel we need to get across.
If I were putting together a software demo today, I would want to know:
1. Who is the target audience: end users? resellers, so they can pitch
the product to their customers? people who are familiar with our
products? people who have never seen anything like what we do?
2. What programming resources should I call upon to do this? Is a
presentation package with screenshots enough, or should we do a custom
compile of the product itself, with limited functionality?
3. How to limit functionality? By removing features, or by setting an
expiration date that allows them to try the program for a limited time?
4. Is this going to be a live demonstration, with a human using the
product and pointing out its features to an audience of one or more, or
is it going to be a disk we hand out to a customer, that they can run
themselves? In the first case, the demonstrator can answer questions as
they come up. In the second, the person preparing the demo has to
anticipate the most likely questions a user would ask, and answer them
as part of the demonstration.
