Technical Instruction Style guidelines and/or Templates

D

datapanix

Hi,

I've been elected to create and maintain instructional documentation
for using various software development tools, like Visual Studio and
JBuilder. Most of the instructions are of the form "open C++ --> go to
File --> Click New.. --> type filename.txt" with most of the steps
requiring a checkbox-like bullet so the person following can check off
each step.

I'd like to set up a common template to provide a unified look
throughout the documentation. Is there a guideline, or templates,
available that can provide information about this. Things like should
the font change to, say, courier if the user must type something in?
Or like should the text break when the instruction calls to click a
button or select a menu?

I've been told (not a directive, but a suggestion) that "less is more"
and to not throw 16 different fonts and typesizes in the document. And
while I can agree with not overdoing it, I'm looking at a doc that I
have started that has *no* formatting, just plain text, and I find it
very hard to follow. There is no distinction between the text that
says "do this" and the text that says what the user is actually
supposed to do.

I'm using Word, but I'm enough of a geek to be willing to dive into
more beefy stuff like latex. Any insights would be most appreciated!
 
C

Charles Kenyon

For starters, look at the template you can download from:

How to Create a Template - Part 2 -
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm

Hope this helps,
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top