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Technical Documentation Know-how
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Know-how, checklists, tools and links, which will help you to create user-friendly software documentation such as manuals, online help, software demos and other forms of software user assistance.
Do you want to write technical documentation by yourself?
Here you can find some basic know-how, checklists, tools and links, which will help you to write create clear and concise user-friendly manuals, online help files, software demos, tutorials and other forms of user assistance.
User Assistance means to bridge the gap between what the user already knows and what the user needs to know.
Many persons in charge believe that writing technical documentation is a trivial task, which does not require any special qualification and can be delegated to one of the developers or even to a trainee. From the technological point of view, this is true indeed. Appropriate authoring software will produce neat user manuals and online help files with a click of a button. Therefore, if you just need something that looks fine, this is the way to go.The didactical side, however, is way more challenging. Have you ever thought about why so many people dislike user manuals, fail to use a product and get frustrated? This happens when the documentation does not reflect how users work and think.
Good developers tend to be poor technical writers. Subconsciously they assume that users know as much as they know, and think the way they think. The result: Documentation written by developers for developers, but unsuitable for the user. Even if you are well aware of this problem, it will be impossible to avert this effect completely.
An experienced technical communicator can help you to bridge the gap between the developers' knowledge and way to think on the one hand, and the users' knowledge and way to think on the other hand (see Services section).
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The following checklists can help you with the first steps of your project:
| ▪ | Choosing a Help Authoring Tool
Provides hints on what to consider when looking for a suitable authoring tool to create technical documentation. This helps you to identify the solution that best fits your individual requirements and remains the right choice also in the future. |
| ▪ | Choosing a Screen Capture Tool
Shows what to pay attention to when looking for specialized software to take and edit screen captures ("screen dumps, screenshots"). |
| ▪ | Choosing a Screencasting Tool
Lists the key criteria that are important when selecting a tool to create interactive software demos ("screencasts"). |
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The following tools can help you to create user manuals, online help, software demos and other sorts of technical documentation and user assistance efficiently:
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When you write technical documentation or are involved in some other user assistance project, you might also find the following resources helpful:
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Keywords relating to this page: technical documentation - technical communication - software documentation - software user assistance - user assistance - user documentation - online help - online help files - user manuals - creation - creating - writing - development - developing - know-how - knowledge - skills - basics - information - info - tips - resources - software - tools - templates.
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Welcome to indoition engineering,
Technical Documentation Services and
User Assistance Solutions.
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Here you can find
Know-how,
Tools,
Services
for the creation of
User Manuals,
Online Help Files,
Demos and Tutorials,
Texts for User Interfaces,
Texts for Web Sites and Brochures.
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| A service of indoition engineering Marc Achtelig – documentation contractor, software documentation and online help specialist, single source publishing expert. |
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