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Re:Writing an Add-In Application's User's Guide...
Subject:Re:Writing an Add-In Application's User's Guide... From:Gilda_Spitz -at- markham -dot- longview -dot- ca To:Dal_Gemmell -at- email -dot- syscom -dot- com -dot- tw, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Fri, 1 Oct 1999 08:57:26 -0400
Dal Gemmell wrote:
I am writing a user's guide for an add-in application. ... My original idea
... was focusing on the add-in
application's extensions and referring users to the other manual to perform
the majority of the functions. ... Has anyone written this type of
manual before?
Yes, our company created an add-in for Microsoft Excel. I did exactly what
you mentioned.
In the Introduction, we indicated that we assumed our users knew how to
perform most Excel tasks, and referred users to the Excel documentation.
Then we described the add-in's new functionality,
However, as an added twist, there were several relatively obscure Excel
tasks that were important to know in conjunction with our add-in,
and we weren't sure that an average user would be familiar with them. So
we added a brief description of each in an appendix entitled "Related
Excel features", with an explanation of why they were particularly useful,
and with instructions to look at the Excel documentation for further
details.
This was a bit awkward, but it worked.
Hope this helps.
Gilda Spitz
Manager, Documentation and Translation
Longview Solutions Inc.
