A Guide to Publishing User Manuals

A Guide to Publishing User Manuals
Author: Ken Whitaker
Publisher: Wiley
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1995-12-12
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9780471118466

Technical Communication A Total A-to-Z guide to creating professional-quality user manuals on time, on budget—on your PC You don't need to pay an outside specialist a small fortune to produce your user manuals for you. Let leading technical communications expert Ken Whitaker show you how you can create your own professional-quality user manuals at a fraction of the cost—on your PC. Writing for readers with little or no desktop publishing experience, Ken guides you through the entire process, from organizing the material and writing the documentation to designing and printing the manual. Chapter-by-chapter, step-by-step, he creates a sample user manual, using the leading Windows-based desktop publishing applications—FrameMaker and Corel Ventura. Along the way, he supplies you with loads of insider tips and tricks for producing the most readable, attractive manuals possible, on time and on budget. You'll learn how to: Research the product, organize the material, and plan the manual in a layered, object-oriented approach Write very readable, user-friendly copy Use fonts, templates, graphic formats, and page layout techniques Take professional screenshots to complement your text Produce professional drawings and images even if you're not an artist Use sophisticated techniques like sideheads and table numbering And much more Let A Guide to Publishing User Manuals show you how to write, design, and produce professional-quality user manuals without the professional fees.

The Complete Guide to Article Writing

The Complete Guide to Article Writing
Author: Naveed Saleh
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2013-12-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1599637529

Master the art of article writing! The world of journalism is changing rapidly, and the modern journalist needs more than a basic knowledge of article writing to navigate it. The Complete Guide to Article Writing provides a compass for freelancers and students of journalism looking to write successfully on a wide variety of topics and for many different markets--both in print and online. From researching and interviewing to writing features, reviews, news articles, opinion pieces, and even blog posts, this one-stop guide will illuminate the intricacies of article writing so you can produce entertaining, informative, and salable articles. • Learn how to write coherently, cohesively, and concisely. • Choose the proper structure for the article you want to write. • Weave narrative and fact seamlessly into your pieces. • Develop your freelance platform with the latest in social media outlets. • Pitch your ideas like a pro. • Develop a professional relationship with editors. • And much more! Modern journalism can be a treacherous terrain, but with The Complete Guide to Article Writing as your companion, you'll not only survive the journey--you'll be able to write pieces that inform, entertain, inspire, delight--and sell!

The News

The News
Author: Alain de Botton
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2014-02-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0241967384

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER From one of our greatest voices in modern philosophy, author of The Course of Love, The Consolations of Philosophy, Religion for Atheists and The School of Life - an accessible and eye-opening exploration of our relationship with 'the news' 'His gift is to prompt us to think about how we live and how we might change things' The Times 'De Botton analyses modern society with great charm, learning and humour. His remedies come as a welcome relief' Daily Mail 'Like all classic de Botton, there are plenty of insightful observations here, peppered with some psychology, a dash of philosophy, a big dollop of commonsense' Scotsman 'The news' occupies a range of manic and peculiar positions in our lives. We invest it with an authority and importance which used to be the preserve of religion - but what does it do for us? Mixing current affairs with philosophical reflections, de Botton offers a brilliant illustrated guide to the precautions we should take before venturing anywhere near the news and the 'noise' it generates. Witty and global in reach, The News will ensure you'll never look at reports of a celebrity story or political scandal in quite the same way again.

Code Complete

Code Complete
Author: Steve McConnell
Publisher: Pearson Education
Total Pages: 952
Release: 2004-06-09
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0735636974

Widely considered one of the best practical guides to programming, Steve McConnell’s original CODE COMPLETE has been helping developers write better software for more than a decade. Now this classic book has been fully updated and revised with leading-edge practices—and hundreds of new code samples—illustrating the art and science of software construction. Capturing the body of knowledge available from research, academia, and everyday commercial practice, McConnell synthesizes the most effective techniques and must-know principles into clear, pragmatic guidance. No matter what your experience level, development environment, or project size, this book will inform and stimulate your thinking—and help you build the highest quality code. Discover the timeless techniques and strategies that help you: Design for minimum complexity and maximum creativity Reap the benefits of collaborative development Apply defensive programming techniques to reduce and flush out errors Exploit opportunities to refactor—or evolve—code, and do it safely Use construction practices that are right-weight for your project Debug problems quickly and effectively Resolve critical construction issues early and correctly Build quality into the beginning, middle, and end of your project

Storycraft, Second Edition

Storycraft, Second Edition
Author: Jack Hart
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2021-04-08
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 022673708X

Jack Hart, master writing coach and former managing editor of the Oregonian, has guided several Pulitzer Prize–winning narratives to publication. Since its publication in 2011, his book Storycraft has become the definitive guide to crafting narrative nonfiction. This is the book to read to learn the art of storytelling as embodied in the work of writers such as David Grann, Mary Roach, Tracy Kidder, and John McPhee. In this new edition, Hart has expanded the book’s range to delve into podcasting and has incorporated new insights from recent research into storytelling and the brain. He has also added dozens of new examples that illustrate effective narrative nonfiction. This edition of Storycraft is also paired with Wordcraft, a new incarnation of Hart’s earlier book A Writer’s Coach, now also available from Chicago.

The Book on Writing

The Book on Writing
Author: Paula LaRocque
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2003-09
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780989236713

You’re going to love the way Paula LaRocque teaches in The Book on Writing. A celebrated writing coach with a sense of humor and a gentle touch, she’s also a master writer herself with a long and distinguished career in both teaching and practicing the art of writing. The Book on Writing contains 25 chapters in three sections: • A dozen essential but easy-to-apply guidelines to good writing, from the importance of clarity to the value of a conversational tone. Paula LaRocque believes learning is easier and more successful when we are not only told but also shown. So her Book on Writing is chockfull of actual writing examples that supplement and illustrate principles that apply as naturally to fiction as they do to nonfiction. • How to tell a story—from building suspense, to effective description, to the uses of metaphor and literary devices. Paula LaRocque also deals with the narrative “engine” and the value of the archetype in plotting and characterization—as well as with pace and speed and leveling what she terms writing’s “speedbumps.” • A clear and concise handbook that deals with common problems in grammar, usage, punctuation, and style—the kind of problems that often trouble even wordsmiths. The handbook also debunks pesky language “rules” that are actually myths. The Book on Writing is one-stop shopping for writers. Read it once, and you’ll be a better writer. Read it often, and you’ll be among the best.

Writing and Designing Manuals

Writing and Designing Manuals
Author:
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2010-12-12
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9781420032918

A survival guide for writers in the real-world, Writing and Designing Manuals, Third Edition has become a standard reference for technical writers and editors. Readable and practical, it addresses all aspects of manual development from choosing a format to writing effective warnings. Not limited to text elements, the manual also provides guidance for designing illustrations to complement the text and underscore the safety warnings. The completely revised and updated Third Edition includes: Þ Current materials on desktop publishing Þ Alternative media such as videos, CD-ROMs, and on-line help Þ The impact of new technology such as CD-ROMs and digital cameras on manual design and production Þ New regulations for products sold overseas Þ Impact of the Internet on manual design Gone are the days when a manual might be a few pages of typewritten text. Thanks to the advances in computer technology, even tiny companies can produce slick, professional publications. Writing and Designing Manuals, Third Edition guides you through the messy, complex, frustrating, and fascinating business of producing manuals.

Microsoft Manual of Style

Microsoft Manual of Style
Author: Microsoft Corporation
Publisher: Pearson Education
Total Pages: 823
Release: 2012-01-15
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0735669791

Maximize the impact and precision of your message! Now in its fourth edition, the Microsoft Manual of Style provides essential guidance to content creators, journalists, technical writers, editors, and everyone else who writes about computer technology. Direct from the Editorial Style Board at Microsoft—you get a comprehensive glossary of both general technology terms and those specific to Microsoft; clear, concise usage and style guidelines with helpful examples and alternatives; guidance on grammar, tone, and voice; and best practices for writing content for the web, optimizing for accessibility, and communicating to a worldwide audience. Fully updated and optimized for ease of use, the Microsoft Manual of Style is designed to help you communicate clearly, consistently, and accurately about technical topics—across a range of audiences and media.

Think Like a UX Researcher

Think Like a UX Researcher
Author: David Travis
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2023-07-26
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1000910350

Think Like a UX Researcher will challenge your preconceptions about user experience (UX) research and encourage you to think beyond the obvious. You’ll discover how to plan and conduct UX research, analyze data, persuade teams to take action on the results and build a career in UX. The book will help you take a more strategic view of product design so you can focus on optimizing the user’s experience. UX Researchers, Designers, Project Managers, Scrum Masters, Business Analysts and Marketing Managers will find tools, inspiration and ideas to rejuvenate their thinking, inspire their team and improve their craft. In this newly revised Second Edition, the authors have added six new essays that look at how UX research methods have changed in the last few years, why remote methods should not be the only tools you use, what to do about difficult test participants, how to improve your survey questions, how to identify user goals when you can’t directly observe users and how understanding your own epistemological bias will help you become a more persuasive UX researcher. Key Features Provides a dive-in-anywhere book that offers practical advice and topical examples. Includes thought triggers, exercises and scenarios to test your knowledge of UX research. Features workshop ideas to build a development team’s UX maturity. Discusses war stories from seasoned researchers to show you how UX research methods can be tailored to your own organization.