Draft a structure for your documents at an early stage. Don’t start writing “intuitively” and let the documentation “evolve.” If you start writing without having a plan for the structure, the whole process will take longer and will be more expensive.
When working on a plan, revising a decision costs nothing: All you have to do is to change your mind. Later, however, when you’re working on the actual document, revising a decision will be costly. You will then have to change everything that you’ve produced so far. The more you’ve written, the more the changes cost in terms of time and money.
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All structural decisions have in common various General structuring principles. In addition to these general rules, setting up the structure involves the following specific decisions:
▪Media
Should you provide a printed user manual (PDF), or context-sensitive online help, or both? What information should go into the user manual, and what information should go into online help? Which help format should you use: plain HTML or some special help format? Can context-sensitive help calls be implemented? Should you provide interactive features and social features? See Which media?
▪Documents
Should you put all information into one document, or should you supply several user manuals for specific purposes and user groups? How should you name your documents? See Which documents?
▪Document sections
What are the major sections that your documents should consist of? Are there any standard sections that you shouldn’t forget? See Which document sections?
▪Topics
What types of information do your clients need? How should you build and name the individual topics within the document? See Which topics and headings?
▪Order of sections and topics
How should you organize the sections and topics within your documents? See Which order of topics?
▪Navigation
Which navigational devices should you provide in printed documents and in online help systems? Where should you provide links or cross-references and where not? See Which navigation tools? |
