Re: Style/Layout for Manuals

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Re: Style/Layout for Manuals

Subject: Re: Style/Layout for Manuals
From: MAGGIE SECARA <SECARAM -at- MAINSAVER -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 10:43:46 -0800

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Hi John!

Well yeah, sounds like info mapping is more or less a snappy name for
what you already do, with or without divider lines. So yeah, in that
case, big deal ;)

Speaking of the lines, though-- With a caption for every chunk, the
lines do make it easier for the eye to connect the caption with the
text. The samples on the Info mapping web site are a different style
than I use. I don't know if they've changed their "map" since I was
shown the method, or what. I did a sales letter for one of our managers
recently and used a style more like that one than I do in a manual.

Maybe it's made such a splash in my office because the previous format
was so dense, not to mention plain badly-written. The contrast is
startling.

Cheers!

Maggie

Maggie Secara
The Tech Writer
MAINSAVER CMMS
~Hi! I'm Maggie, your tech writer!

http://ren.dm.net

John answered:
> Hi, Maggie...
>
> I'll admit that I was feeling rather smug when I posted that email.
> OTOH, I'm
> particularly adept at recognizing patterns and spatial relationships,
> so it was
> easy for me to skim down the "before" example and find the words
> required by
> seeing the pattern.
>
> However, in all seriousness, I don't know what is taught under the
> guise of the
> copyrighted process and to be honest, after looking at the before and
> after
> example in the "test", I couldn't believe that anyone would even
> attempt to
> sends out the "before" example to begin with. It looked like a legal
> contract.
>
> All of my writing life, I (and I'm sure anyone that has written "for
> the user")
> have been very liberal with bullets, tables, captions, headers, etc.,
> it just
> seemed the normal way to do it. I rarely have more than a third of a
> page of
> content without a header, table, break of some type, though I disagree
> with
> placing line dividers. Maybe because I'm sensitive to patterns that it
> just
> came naturally.
>
> Like I said, what's the big deal?
>
>
>

------ =_NextPart_001_01BE4461.C7894090
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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Hi John!
 
 Well yeah, sounds like info mapping is more or less =
a snappy name for what you already do, with or without divider lines. =
So yeah, in that case, big deal ;)
 
Speaking of the lines, though-- With a caption for =
every chunk, the lines do make it easier for the eye to connect the =
caption with the text. The samples on the Info mapping web site are a =
different style than I use. I don't know if they've changed their =
"map" since I was shown the method, or what.  I did a =
sales letter for one of our managers recently and used a style more =
like that one than I do in a manual.
 
Maybe it's made such a splash in my office because =
the previous format was so dense, not to mention plain badly-written. =
The contrast is startling.
 
Cheers!
 
 Maggie
 
 
 
 Maggie Secara
 The Tech Writer
 MAINSAVER CMMS
 ~Hi!  I'm Maggie, your tech =
writer!
 
 <A =
HREF=3D"http://ren.dm.net"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://ren.dm.net</A>
 
<UL>John answered:
 Hi, =
Maggie...
 
 I'll admit that I =
was feeling rather smug when I posted that email. OTOH, I'm
 particularly adept =
at recognizing patterns and spatial relationships, so it was
 easy for me to skim =
down the "before" example and find the words required =
by
 seeing the =
pattern.
 
 However, in all =
seriousness, I don't know what is taught under the guise of the
 copyrighted process =
and to be honest, after looking at the before and after
 example in the =
"test", I couldn't believe that anyone would even attempt =
to
 sends out the =
"before" example to begin with. It looked like a legal =
contract.
 
 All of my writing =
life, I (and I'm sure anyone that has written "for the =
user")
 have been very =
liberal with bullets, tables, captions, headers, etc., it just
 seemed the normal =
way to do it. I rarely have more than a third of a page of
 content without a =
header, table, break of some type, though I disagree with
 placing line =
dividers. Maybe because I'm sensitive to patterns that it just
 came =
naturally.
 
 Like I said, what's =
the big deal?
 
 
 

</UL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
------ =_NextPart_001_01BE4461.C7894090--

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