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You (Danny, and others seeking this information) may want to search the
Archives. This question was brought up a week or so ago, and many
suggestions were offered.
Chuck wrote:
>
> Danny Ramsey wrote:
> >
> > Please recommend to a programmer a useful book on technical writing of
> > software user manuals. Thank you.
> It almost looks like you're asking for an all-in-one "Technical Writing
> for Dummies" type of book. None exists that I know of, in large part
> because good technical communication comes from the mastery of several
> disciplines, with writing but one. One way to see this easily is if you
> have the viewpoint that a large part of software documentation is the
> software interface and design itself, which contains very little
> writing.
>
> Just a smattering of essential books that are part of my own "technical
> writing" library:
> "Technical Writing, A Reader-centered Approach," Paul V. Anderson, ISBN
> 0-15-589682-2
> "Technical Editing," Carolyn D. Rude, ISBN 0-534-15000-4
> "Handbook of Technical Writing," Brusllaw, Alred, & Oliu, ISBN
> 0-312-35810-5
> "About Face, The Essentials of User Interface Design," Alan Cooper, ISBN
> 1-56884-322-4
> "The Design of Everyday Things," Donald A. Norman, ISBN 0-385-2677406
> "How to Write a Computer Manual, A Handbook of Software Documentation,"
> Jonathan Price, ISBN 0-8053-6870-1 (note: this book was published in
> 1984 and I don't know if it's ever been updated)
> "Bugs in Writing," Lyn Dupre, ISBN 0-201-60019-6
> "The Chicago Manual of Style"
> "The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications"
> the list goes on and on......
>
> --
> "[Programmers] cannot successfully be asked to design for users
> because...inevitably, they will make judgments based on the
> difficult of coding and not on the user's real needs."
> - Alan Cooper
> "About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design"
>
> Chuck Martin
> writer"at"best.com www.writeforyou.com
>
> From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==
