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.
For item 1. One tact you can use is to document every step of the
procedure, which I prefer to do anyway, and then give it to your boss
and ask him which steps he wants you to remove to make the procedure
shorter.
For item 2. Some screen capture software allow you to specify the
size of the final output. The only software I have used is HiJaak
(the DOS version) and it has this feature.
Don Timmerman, dtimmerman -at- anl -dot- gov
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Installation Instructions & Screen Captures
Author: Michael Barwick <mbarwick -at- RCI -dot- ROGERS -dot- COM> at IPDLINK
Date: 3/20/97 9:49 AM
Greetings Techwriters!
I've got two issues on the burner for you:
Item 1:
I'm working on instructions for a piece of software. What's the
consensus about how thorough the installation instructions ought to be?
I've been working on the assumption that every step of the process
should be documented, screen by screen. My feeling is that at every
point where the customer has to perform an action, it should be spelled
out explicitly in the instructions. Today I've had this assumption
challenged, even though its generally acknowledged that some of the
audience for these instructions will likely be (somewhat technophobic)
newbies.
Item 2:
These instructions will be posted to a website and even if I cut down the
level of detail, I'm still going to have to include some screen captures.
My supervisor has specified that screen captures should keep to a width
of 400. My problem is that virtually all the screen captures for the
software are considerably larger than that and my efforts so far to
shrink them (using Lview Pro) have rendered them unreadable. Does anyone
know of a process or software or something that will enable me to make
the screen captures smaller without destroying them?
Any help regarding these two items would be greatly appreciated.
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html
