Basic Diagnosis Guidelines for Your PC

Written by Priyanka Agarwal


Simone is exasperated. She has to work on her university assignment but her PC is not working properly. For example: She would like to open a single Internet Explorer window but a whole series of windows are opening up. Simone is not alone when it comes to this sort of problem. As a matter of fact, most of us will come across these kinds of problems in our life. When you fall sick you go to a doctor and he/she asks you a couple of questions as well as taking a look at your case history before giving any medication to you. In a similar way you have to find out what’s wrong with your PC before treating it, if it’s working in an aberrant manner. This article will help you in finding out what’s troubling your PC.

The first symptom that shows us your PC has got some problem is an error message. For example you get a pop-up box on your screen, a Window message, asking you to send an error report and saysrepparttar application will be subsequently closed. Error messages just tell you that something is wrong so that you can then work at getting torepparttar 107161 cause ofrepparttar 107162 problem. When you get an error message try to analyzerepparttar 107163 situation in respect to what you were doing when you received it. Write downrepparttar 107164 error code. At times error messages can be very bewildering. For example: you want to open some file but it’s saying some other application is using that specific file. If you do get error messages like this then it is time to question some of your recent activities such as: * Did you install any software or hardware recently? * Did you install anything fromrepparttar 107165 Internet?

If you have installed some software and after this your PC has become unstable, by using System Restore you can remove any system changes that were made afterrepparttar 107166 last time your PC was working properly. It automatically creates restore points (or system checkpoints) when you make a change torepparttar 107167 system. If your PC has become unstable after you made some changes, open system restore, choose a restore point, and return your computer to its previous stable state. To userepparttar 107168 System Restore utility:

1. Click Start 2. Point your cursor to Programs. 3. Point to Accessories 4. Point to System Tools 5. Click System Restore and followrepparttar 107169 instruction onrepparttar 107170 wizard.

Successful Documentation Projects – Part 1 of 3 – ‘Understanding’

Written by Glenn Murray


The creation of user documentation is a big component of any software project. Unfortunately, it’s often undervalued and left torepparttar last minute. But that doesn’t mean it should be without a good management plan.

This isrepparttar 107160 first in a series of three articles outliningrepparttar 107161 key elements of a good user documentation process. It’s kind of an “ideal” process; very few projects will be able to implement every step, and some will require additional steps. Nonetheless, it should provide you with a good foundation (especially if you’re new to user documentation management).

Here’s an overview ofrepparttar 107162 three articles.

Article 1 (this article) – Understand

•Identify your scope •Familiarise yourself withrepparttar 107163 work environment •Familiarise yourself withrepparttar 107164 product •Identifyrepparttar 107165 audience forrepparttar 107166 documentation •Specify perceived audience requirements •Roughly estimate doco project duration and resources •Research audience requirements

Article 2 – Specify (See http://www.divinewrite.com/docoprocess2.htm)

•State your goals •Write your concept specifications •Design some possible implementations •Conduct usability testing on your prototypes •Write your requirements specifications •Estimate project duration & resources •Conduct usability testing on your writing sample •Write your work pracs & design specs

Article 3 – Write (see http://www.divinewrite.com/docoprocess3.htm)

•Writerepparttar 107167 doco •Manage production

So here goes…

Understand Your Project

Identify Your Scope

The first step in any project is to identify exactly what you’re expected to do. Generally this will happen before you take onrepparttar 107168 job, but it should still berepparttar 107169 first thing that you document. Identifying your scope involves figuring out where you fit inrepparttar 107170 overall development process and where you fit withinrepparttar 107171 company. No documentation project is ever just documentation, so it’s important to know exactly what else is involved. Some ofrepparttar 107172 other areas that documentation people are/should be commonly be involved in include:

•Spec review •GUI review •Product user requirements research •Documentation audience requirements research •Usability testing

All of these things are integral torepparttar 107173 development process, and should be scheduled properly.

Familiarise Yourself withrepparttar 107174 Work Environment

Get to know everyone involved inrepparttar 107175 product. For a software project, this will meanrepparttar 107176 project manager,repparttar 107177 designers, andrepparttar 107178 guys that will be doingrepparttar 107179 low-level coding. Try to have a really good relationship with them. They have to respect you, otherwise they’re not going to listen to much of what you have to say.

Familiarise Yourself withrepparttar 107180 Product

Find out what’s going to be involved inrepparttar 107181 product. You must know:

•what arerepparttar 107182 goals ofrepparttar 107183 development •what user requirements they are trying to meet •howrepparttar 107184 product will be used •who will be using it •whatrepparttar 107185 features ofrepparttar 107186 product are •howrepparttar 107187 product will look and feel •will it require a specific doco design? For instance, it may only run onrepparttar 107188 latest version of Windows, it may have a particular look and feel, a particular environment (thatrepparttar 107189 help may have to be integrated into), etc.

These are all things that you may have input into, either through simple critique, or through input into user research requirements. Try to read as much documentation as you can find, and interview as many people stakeholders as possible. As you go, note down any issues you identify, any questions you have, or anything you think needs to be different.

Some (non-human) sources that you can utilise to achieve this include:

•Feature and product specifications •Project plans •Funding application documentation if applicable

Identifyrepparttar 107190 Audience forrepparttar 107191 Documentation

Discuss withrepparttar 107192 project manager (and other stakeholders esp. marketing)repparttar 107193 perceived user/audience.

Specify Perceived Audience Requirements

Make some educated guesses about audience requirements so you’ll be able to provide a rough estimate of product duration and resource requirements.

Discuss withrepparttar 107194 project manager (and other stakeholders esp. marketing)repparttar 107195 perceived user requirements thatrepparttar 107196 help must satisfy. See if someone has researched user goals, tasks, andrepparttar 107197 mental models users employ when usingrepparttar 107198 product (or similar products). If they haven’t, interview inhouse experts to identify perceived goals, tasks, mental models, etc.

Secondly, you should identify whatrepparttar 107199 theory says about user documentation (i.e. documentation approach, visual considerations, indexing considerations, etc.). I recommend Minimalism Beyondrepparttar 107200 Nurnberg Funnel, (1998) edited by John M. Carroll.

Roughly estimate doco project duration and resources

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