tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039616693561391290.post3391155679448441845..comments2020-07-14T22:21:22.649-05:00Comments on 4J's Group - THE CONTENT POOL: Should Tech Writers be Writers?Alan J. Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03095628136383536314noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039616693561391290.post-54034418185674395912008-06-12T16:11:00.000-05:002008-06-12T16:11:00.000-05:00Hi Tom - Thanks for the feedback. I've been talkin...Hi Tom - Thanks for the feedback. I've been talking to Scott Abel about hopefully doing a presentation on this very subject at DocTrain East in October. If I get a confirmed slot I'd love to talk to you some more and get your input.Alan J. Porterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03095628136383536314noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039616693561391290.post-83852502860864443662008-06-11T23:29:00.000-05:002008-06-11T23:29:00.000-05:00Alan, I think I should have left a comment on this...Alan, I think I should have left a comment on this post a long time ago but didn't. I was just reviewing the importance of screenshots, and I reread your post. I couldn't agree with you more. We underestimate the importance of the visual in our documentation because we often think of ourselves as "writers" more than "communicators." <BR/><BR/>Good images and graphics take time. It's more than simply adding a screenshot here and there to accompany documentation. Thanks again for the post.Tom Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02783625657814739019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8039616693561391290.post-88471523052084372832007-08-13T08:18:00.000-05:002007-08-13T08:18:00.000-05:00You make a good point. Although my title is "write...You make a good point. Although my title is "writer," my job is to ease the user's experience and to uncomplicate complicated processes. If pictures do a better job than words, then pictures it must be! I should have known that, but somehow felt that relying on images was "cheating<BR/><BR/>My previous job involved writing for developers, and the Help2 files I created could seriously slow down the opening of Visual Studio.NET. I guess I got too invested in the screenshot stinginess that we had to adopt in order to avoid a negative user impact.<BR/><BR/>Now I write for end users, and I knew it would be a different experience. I was worried about voice and language and number of steps in a procedure, so the graphics issue took me completely by surprise. I was disappointed that I didn't get the feedback on my first project here in time to change my tactics, but I'll catch that one in the next maintenance pass, and be more generous with graphics in my second project here.<BR/><BR/>So in answer to the question in your title, well, we should have the <I>abilities</I> of writers, but consider ourselves <B>communicators</B>. Thanks for the reality check!kim nathanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16931632360207976540noreply@blogger.com