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Subject:Re: Defining Your Tasks From:"David M. Brown" <dmbrown -at- BROWN-INC -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 27 Jul 1998 13:26:13 -0700
NetBrett Thorson wrote:
> "What do you want from the documentation?"
> :
> how do we as tech writers discover what the user wants to do with
> the system, before they know what the system can do?
These are distinct questions:
* What do [the users] want from the documentation?
* What can the software do?
You can learn a lot about the first question--"I hate background and
theory," "give me the big picture," "just tell me the exact steps," "I
never read the TOC," "I never use the index," "we want online help," and
so on--long before the users know the details of the software.
Once you know the *kind* of documentation they want, the questions it
should answer, and how that information should be accessible, you can
start documenting in detail what the software can do.
--David
==============================
David M. Brown -- Brown Inc.
dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com http://www.brown-inc.com
==============================
