Writing Helpful Help – A Minimalism Checklist

Written by Glenn Murray


Continued from page 1

7. Fix mistakes - "Re-enterrepparttar path"

8. Provide error info at end of tasks where necessary (rule of thumb, one error info note per three tasks is a good average)

9. Don't break up instructions with notes, cautions, warnings, and exceptional cases - Put these things atrepparttar 133508 end ofrepparttar 133509 instruction, wherever possible

10. Be brief, don't spell everything out, especially things that can be taken for granted

11. Omit conceptual and note information where possible, or link to it. Perhaps provide expansion information atrepparttar 133510 end ofrepparttar 133511 topic, plus maybe a note that there are other ways to performrepparttar 133512 task/goal, but this isrepparttar 133513 easiest

12. Sections should look short and read short

13. Provide closure for sections (e.g., back to original screen/goal)

14. Provide an immediate opportunity to act and encourage exploration and innovation (use active invitations to act, such as, "See for yourself..." or "Try this..." rather than passive invitations such as, "You can...")

15. Get users started quickly

16. Allow for reading in any order - make each section modular, especially goals, but perhaps tasks (definitely if they can be performed in different order)

17. Highlight things that are not typical

18. Use active voice rather than passive voice

19. Try to account forrepparttar 133514 user's environment in your writing

20. Before writing anything, ask yourself “Will this help my reader?”

By building these practices into your documentation process, you’ll find that your online help becomes easier to write, shorter, and far more usable for your reader. What’s more, your boss will love you!



* Glenn Murray is an advertising copywriter and heads copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com for further details or more FREE articles.




Customise your Mobile Phone for Free

Written by Carl Harper


Continued from page 1

BlueTooth - Via a Bluetooth connection from your PC to your phone.

InfraRed - Via an infra-red connection from your PC to your phone.

The latter options arerepparttar most common as most phones now come with either infra-red or Bluetooth connectivity as standard. If your PC does not already have built-in infrared/Bluetooth, you can buy one for it quite cheaply.

You then userepparttar 133507 software provided with your infra-red/Bluetooth adapter or download software from your Phone manufacturers website to transfer any compatible image, ringtone or freeware game that you have on your PC to your phone.

If you like to customise your Phone regularly then this will save you a lot of money....

.....that you can put towardsrepparttar 133508 next new fancy Mobile Phone that comes along.

TIP - If you do not haverepparttar 133509 ability or inclination to userepparttar 133510 free methods available then it is worth noting that you should only purchase Mobile Phone content using SMS or a Landline as using a Mobile Phone to ring generally incurs an operator surcharge.

Carl Harper is the author and freelance writer of a number of articles and tips on Mobile Phones. He is also the webmaster of the Mobile Phone Portal c4rlh.com


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