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   Customer Testimonials
You did a great job - especially with no time. Thanks!!! .Fabulous. Really appreciate your help.
Monica J. Pepicelli, Infosys Technologies Ltd.
With the level of service you offer and the OUTSTANDING customer focus you show, there is no limit to where you can go. All the very best!!
Konrad Fernandez, Hexaware Technologies
It is amazing to see the level of granularity in the edition and I couldn't agree more on all your comments. Thanks for all your efforts. I can already see a great edition coming out this time!
G Srinivas Raghavan, Sun Microsystems
I must congratulate you on a job well done. I know you had to face a lot of obstacles while working on this project. The perseverance and the can-do attitude that you have displayed is laudable. You understanding of the technical and other aspects of the project really saw us through the schedule. I commend the way this project was handled despite the bottlenecks. Amitabh Dubey, Sun Microsystems
Technical Communication FAQs

Are user manuals available as printed booklets or are they soft copies?
User manual specification depends on customer requirements. Generally, a hardware product has a printed booklet as a user manual while a software tool or application depends on a soft copy user manual.

Why are there different categories of user manuals?
User manuals have varied categories because:

  • They are written for a specific audience. Let us consider an example. While software administrators need an administrative guide to help them use the application, an end-user requires operational guides to understand what a product can do.
  • It may be difficult to fathom a complex product through a single user manual. As a result, core procedures are documented as separate manuals – installation guides, operational guides, troubleshooting guides, and so on.

Technical communicators use multiple tools. How is each tool different from the other?
Our technical communicators use numerous tools – totaling about a dozen – to meet different customer requirements. Here's a look at the most popular ones:

Tool Description
Microsoft Word - To create compact user manuals
- Provides basic support for graphics
- Provides 'styles' to enable consistent and easy formatting
- Allows conversion to PDF and XPS file formats with the addition of third-party tools
- Enables effective documentation review
FrameMaker - To create large documents
- Output formats – PDF, XML, HTML
- Provides rich media support
RoboHelp - To create online help systems
- Output formats – HTML, CHM, PDF, Word, XML, Java Help, Oracle Help, Flash Help, Web Help, Win Help
- Provides graphics and multimedia support
- Provides pop-ups, image maps, and hyperlinks
MS Visio - To create top-class diagrams (flow charts, workflows, network diagrams, database models, software diagrams)
- Connects diagrams to data
- Enables effective integration of Visio diagrams into other applications
Adobe Photoshop - To edit graphics/images
- Supports a wide range of file formats – BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PSD, PNG, etc.
- Provides enhanced painting and drawing functionalities
Arbortext Editor - To create/edit/publish WYSIWIG SGML/XML files

How many pages does a user manual have?
Most user manuals have between 50 and 300 pages. However, some user manuals could be more extensive.

What are the output formats for a user manual?
A user manual could be delivered in the following formats:

  • *.doc (MS Word)
  • *.pdf (Adobe PDF [Portable Document Format])
  • *.html (Hypertext Markup Language)
  • *.xml (Extensible Markup Language)

How do I integrate an online help file to a software application?
The procedure for integrating an online help file (HTML, CHM files) to an application varies according to the application development tool. Every programming language has a particular syntax for integration and a programmer can easily integrate the two.

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