John,
Thanks for your thoughts on this. Based on the variety of responses on the
support list last week and our own sense of what will work best, our
thinking right now is to deliver documentation in a number of ways to suit
different people's learning styles and preferences. I think this is doable,
at least over time, since it involves taking much the same content and
re-framing it, putting it into different formats.
Thanks also for the description of how you would use the word processing
version of a manual. I hadn't thought that user would do this - great idea!
And a plug to solicit anyone else's thoughts on this subject - it's never
too late to forward your ideas. The discussion so far has been very helpful.
Thanks,
Liz
-----Original Message-----
From: John Watkins [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 2:51 PM
To: TechRocks Support
Subject: [support] RE: Delivering documentation
Hi all,
This a bit late for which I apologize. I've read the administrator
and the user manuals and the FM Pro manual from cover to cover and
have made notes about those things that seemed relevant to me at the
time. I've also made an attempt to read and understand the Data
Dictionaries.
In every case, I printed out the material so it can be read when I
don't have access to the computer, when I'm waiting in the doctors'
office, when I'm at home, when I simply want a more conducive
environment for study, etc.
Whatever documentation you provide, I hope it can be printed out,
both in part and in its entirety.
Becoming fairly familiar with the general content and its
organization is an important first step and the existing fairly
detailed tables of content are helpful in this regard and as a way to
find information later. The most serious deficiency in the current
ebase manuals is the indexing. Having searchable text is a
work-around but a good index, whether in print or on line, provides
entries for synonyms that do not necessarily appear in the text.
I also find it useful to have manuals in "word processing" format
because they give me a head start in preparing procedures that can be
used by data entry clerk/volunteers. Partly, the current manuals have
"sidebars" that would merely confuse, so they get deleted. Mostly, I
need to alter the text to accommodate the modifications we've made to
ebase. I also need to integrate instruction on how to interface with
other programs such as Eudora, etc. which are integral parts of our
procedures. I need to describe information sources and I need to
describe what gets filed where.
One problem I have with on-line help systems such as those for the
Macintosh, Word, etc., is that they present information in such small
modules that it is almost impossible to print a coherent set of
instructions that can be studied off-line, especially when the need
is to study something in anticipation of need, rather than to solve
an immediate problem. If you do print out the pieces of information,
it uses up a "socially irresponsible" amount of paper.
As other say, just my 2¢.
--
For proof there are simple SOLUTIONS to major public problems
Subscribe FREE by Email to the Simple Solutions idealetter
at http://simsoc.org/simplesolutions/
John Watkins Executive Director The Simple Society 603-889-0111
303 Amherst St. Nashua, NH 03063 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://simsoc.org
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