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What should you bear in mind when comparing the quotations of different documentation service providers for the creation of technical documentation, especially software documentation such as user manuals, online help files, screencasts, demos or tutorials?
A low price doesn’t always mean that you get a good value for your money. don’t ignore the following aspects when comparing different quotations for the creation of technical documentation:
▪Does the quotation include the development of a documentation plan? Although it might initially seem faster to just start writing “intuitively”, a clear concept will save you a lot of time and money in the long run. ▪Will translatability and future documentation maintenance (updates) be addressed? ▪Will the document structure be modular, so that you have the option to reuse certain parts of the documents within other documents or media in the future? |
▪Does the quotation include the creation of templates? Even if you already have some templates, these templates may need to be completed or adapted. Has this been accounted for? ▪Does the quotation include the creation of graphics and screenshots, or do you have to supply them? ▪Does the quotation cover at least one review cycle, and does the quotation include the time that it takes to revise the documents after the review? ▪Does the quotation include the creation of an index? ▪If printed user manuals are to be created: Does the quotation include fine tuning of the print layout (pagination, hyphenation)? |
▪Agree upon who will edit your documents, and what qualification and experience this person has. Make sure that the same person will be available for future updates as well. Every change of staff involves additional costs and bears the risk of unstable quality. ▪If the person assigned to your project is a trainee, ask for a considerable discount. |
▪Will you only get the final documents (for example a PDF file) or will you also get all source documents (for example a Microsoft Word file) and templates, including the required rights to use them freely? This is a key factor if you need to change your documentation service provider, or if you want to produce your documentation in-house. ▪Which authoring tools will be used? Are these tools freely available on the market or does a custom tool force you to commit yourself to a specific contractor. If you plan to create printed user manuals (PDF) and online help files from the same text base (single source publishing), make sure that you get the rights to use all customized converters as well. |
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