I wonder if the BBC’s Technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, is regretting posting an article in August called “Read the manual? Never!” . In it, he said: It may be sad that we no longer seem to have that thirst for knowledge about how things work. But I’m afraid I’m just not going to start reading… Read more »
Tag: Technical Documentation
Open source survey reveals the value of community-based Help
Actuate’s August 2009 Open Source Survey reported users see community-based Help as one of the key benefits of adopting open source software. The benefits of adoption for the 1,500 respondents were: Community-based Help (33.2%) Access to source code (72.6%) Built on open platforms (63.9%) Scalability (57.2%) Flexibility (54.3%) Not locked into Microsoft (40.9%) Standards-based technology… Read more »
Embedding videos into printed instruction manuals
Pepsi is pioneering the use of new technology that embeds video adverts in printed magazines. According to the Financial Times, the video starts when the reader turns to the appropriate page. See CBS and Pepsi bring video ads to printed page and CBS to run video ad in magazine this fall If it could be… Read more »
Review of Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation
We were sent a review copy of Anne Gentle’s book , Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation (www.xmlpress.net). Anne has been a pioneer in developing technical documentation that includes Web 2.0 concepts, so I read it with great interest. It’s a book that provides practical advice on how to add user generated content… Read more »
What’s the point of user documentation, from a marketing perspective?
I was talking to a Documentation Manager earlier in the week, who was telling me she had a new boss – a VP of Marketing. She was having to work for someone who didn’t see the value in user documentation, and she was finding it difficult fighting her corner. The challenge she faces is understanding the… Read more »