Re: Dead-end Online Help Path?

[Sue Fomby <fomby -at- DELPHI -dot- COM>]

Roy:

Several people here have already given you excellent advice. I'm distinctly
qualified, though, to speak to a couple of your comments:

> All [the example] does is communicate what the user
> needs to see to resolve questions and issues. We wrote online help for users....
>
> At my age (55), it's unlikely I'll acquire the skills to develop online help
> for modern software applications--to intelligently discuss GUIs with Dilbert
> and Wally types.

Forget your age. Hiring managers will too, after you've made them see that your
samples show writing that's clear, concise, and truly helpful to its audience: users
who need help. Decoration's nice, but it doesn't take the place of "to accomplish
this, do that."

Forget your age, part two. Instead, translate it into the amount of time in which
you've learned new skills and put them to good use--an exercise, incidentally, with
the added benefit of keeping your brain in working order. I *know* "old dogs can
learn new tricks" because I *am* one: English teacher for 25 years and many states;
computer magazine editor and writer for six years after that; financial software
documentation writer, online help builder and intranet web author now and for the
past five years. With the important exception of a command of the English language,
not one of the skills I've used in each of those lives has translated to the next.
I've learned by listening to the SMEs around me, reading all the professional
literature I can find, haunting the Internet for information, and--not
least!--lurking on this and a couple of other lists where the posters are bright,
knowledgeable, and (I'd bet big money on it!) much younger than I am.

Good luck, and please e-mail me off-list if I can answer any specific questions.

Sue Fomby

     office: Sue_Fomby -at- nad -dot- adp -dot- com
     home: fomby -at- delphi -dot- com


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