Cherryleaf Technical Authors' Blog

What Web 3.0 is really about for technical authors

2008-07-02T17:04:00.011+01:00

On Monday I had a good chat with John Fintan Galvin, who is a true expert in Web technologies and SEO, about Web 3.0.

According to Fintan:

"Web 3.0 is all about the automation of connections between resources in a context-sensitive way. These connections can be made between anything defined as a resource, e.g. people, content, systems etc.

For example

Now - You go to Google, you type in a search phrase, you find a few companies and based on your internal model you establish a relationship and you do business.

Web 3.0 - You type in your search query and the system does the rest based on what you have told it previously and what it can learn externally.

If I search for an item that is:

* below £5 in value
* something I have purchased before
* available from the company I made the purchase from last time
* whom I was happy with them
* and they're in the first 3 results
* and I have an account

then place the order.

In simple terms, everything will have much clearer definitions on what they are and what they provide. This allows for the creation of automatic relationships between resources for specific tasks or functions within given contexts. Underlying all of this will be a system of trust that allows for the programmatic decision making…

The primary issue is to get people to understand that it's not just a sound bite, but an actual structural change in the way business will be done and that they have to prepare for it."

How does this relate to technical communication?

Today, online Help (user assistance) is developed in a way where information is provided through manually created links (tables of content and indexes), rather than purely by automated (Google-type search) links. If semantic intelligence can be built into linking and search results, then technical authors should take advantage of this.

In a technical writing context, the example could change.
If I search for an item that:

* is written in British English
* has been optimised to be viewed on a mobile phone
* is available from a site I trust
* is for advanced users

then show me that page.

The concepts are similar to “information types”, a concept Microsoft considered and dropped in the 1990s as part of HTML Help. Information types promised the ability to present different views of the information based on the type of user, content etc. Where it differs, almost ten years on, is the whole concept can be extended much, much further. Web 3.0 promises are more flexible, more automated system with the capability of information being aggregated from a range of disparate, trusted sources.

It would require well-defined rules of engagement with other businesses or data sources. If information is being drawn in from outside your domain, then it needs to be from a trusted source and in a trustworthy form. In such an environment, technical authors would need to do much more statistical analysis of what users want and how they behave – both modelling scenarios and analysing behaviours.

Geek Corner

It could be that the Open-ID standard is extended to include information on how a users prefers to receive user assistance – their level of expertise, preferred learning style etc.

Fintan stated:

”The technologies that count are RDF, OWL, HTTP and SPARQL. I would also add SVG but then again I am obsessed with it. Ensure that you have first class knowledge of relevant ontology / taxonomies related to your industry and general movements towards standards in inter-industry areas.”

Disclosure

Fintan’s company, IO1, and Cherryleaf are both shareholders in a joint venture, ECS Ltd.

DITA - Slaying sacred cows or burying problems?

2008-07-02T16:50:00.003+01:00

There have been a number of posts recently on whether some commonly accepted best practises in technical writing are actually needed these days. This has come about as people question how they can develop the DITA standard to handle things like lead-in sentences and stem sentences.

These don't fit into the standard, and a number of people are now saying we don't really need them. This is very convenient for the DITA standard - it makes the problem go away.

My concern about this is that there has been research that shows "Lexical repetition, cohesive devices and other textual features will need to be incorporated into specifications right from the start, i.e. during the document planning stage." Indeed, we wrote a blog post on this research back in December.

I trust the needs of the reader will be balanced with the needs of the writer when coming up with an efficient writing standard that works for the reader.

New updated DITA ecourse released (finally)

2008-06-23T17:49:00.003+01:00

Tomorrow (or possibly tonight) we'll be releasing the updated version of our popular ecourse "An Introduction to DITA".

Updated to reflect the changes in the DITA standard

Updated to reflect the changes in the DITA Open Toolkit from version 1.3 to 1.4.2.1

Updated to reflect the changes in the downloading processes for installing the various tools associated with DITA.

New audio to improve the quality of the voiceovers

DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is certainly the most talked-about development in the field of user documentation. If you are involved in writing documents such as user manuals, procedures or online Help, DITA promises you a framework for designing and delivering well-structured content efficiently and consistently in a single-sourcing environment.

See An Introduction to DITA.

Brent Hoberman on the three biggest trends

2008-06-20T08:38:00.002+01:00

I was Codrin's leaving party last night (he's emigrating to Switzerland), so I missed Brent Hoberman's presentation at Ecademy's event in London. Brent is well known in the UK as an Internet pioneer, as a founder of Lastminute.com.

Andrew Wilcox, a mind mapping expert, did attend, and his notes from the event show that Brent talked about the three biggest trends businesses should watch out for.

Brent said those trends are likely to be:

1. Location based mobile information
2. New screen technology, promising paper-equivalent resolutions
3. Video IPTV

All these trends could be incorporated into user assistance, such as online Help. So will we see technical authors using these capabilities at some stage in the future?

Six ways to add Web 2.0 functionality to your manuals

2008-06-19T17:33:00.009+01:00

This is an end of a long day post, so forgive me if I miss anything obvious. Here are some suggested actions and ideas for creating Web 2.0 technical documentation:

1. Put your documents on the Web, as Web pages.
2. Create a link to the Web version on folksonomy/tagging sites such as Digg, Technorati and del.icio.us. Describe your content on these sites (using tags).
3. Consider aggregating/incorporating content from other sources into the online version. This could be content from other departments, such as support, or external content. You can use RSS feeds to acquire this content.
4. Create a RSS feed for your content. This can help users be aware when content has changed, and help them re-use the content elsewhere. You could use Feedburner to do this.
5. Create a Twitter account and link your RSS feed to this account. This means users who are also Twitter users can receive your updates through Twitter. You can use Twitterfeed to do this.
6. Consider enabling users to add comments to your content. Some Help authoring tools allow you to add this functionality. Others allow you to embed this functionality from elsewhere. Another potential way to do this could be by using the Adobe Air viewer.

What about wikis? Wikis can be a good idea, particularly if you want to use content from development staff. However, you need to consider how you control and approve content and how you create printable manuals.

What is Web 2.0?

We 2.0 is name for a collection of Web technologies that can be summarised enabling conversation, aggregation and collaboration.

Why add Web 2.0 functionality?

That's a whole conversation in itself, but the benefits include establishing a better relationship with your clients and prospects and getting others to write some of the content.

Have I missed anything out?
Should you take this advice?

Ten Challenges for Technical Authors in the Network Age

2008-06-16T14:54:00.003+01:00

The Supernova 2008 conference is currently running in San Francisco - on the theme of "the Network Age". Professor Kevin Werbach has outlined ten challenges:

"In the Information Age, computers and communications networks produced a global village and astounding gains in economic productivity. The Network Age incorporates those advances into an environment where anything connects to anything, anyone to anyone, anywhere, anytime. We’re not all the way there yet, but we’re far enough along to start seeing the effects... The Network Age poses ten basic challenges for all of us interested in the future of technology, media, and communications:

Scarcity and Abundance
(Both are sources of value, yet they cannot coexist.)

Choice and Coordination
(Users are in control, but don’t they need guides to avoid being overwhelmed?)

Aggregation and Fragmentation
(Network effects mean that the big players get bigger, but at the same time, markets increasingly specialize and personalize.)

Stability and Disruption
(True innovation requires disruption, but disruption can be painful and costly, especially where investment and trust are significant.)

Behavior and Rationality
(People don’t always act according to models of rationality, especially when connected to one another, but our economic frameworks assume they do.)

Complexity and Simplicity
(Complex adaptive systems produce emergent behavior and growth, but simplicity is a virtue… in both life and information technology.)

Openness
(Everyone agrees it’s good, even essential in a networked environment, but no one can say what exactly it means, or how much openness is beneficial.)

Governance
(How much do networks and their users need to be managed or protected, and where do those controls come from?)

Scale
(The local is different from the global, whether the subject is enterprise collaboration or usage patterns or cloud computing infrastructure.)

Sustainability
(How to build organizations and systems that endure, especially in a world whose delicate ecology is itself a form of scarcity.)"

Are these the challenges we will face in the future?

Is this video on advertising-customer break up also true for technical communication?

2008-06-13T09:40:00.003+01:00

Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley, has posted a blog on the need for organisations to listen directly to the needs of the customer.

Solis states:

"You can’t manage a relationship, you need to be a part of it, fully engaged...

...If a conversation takes place online and you’re not there to hear or see it, did it actually happen?

The customer comes first, and if we fuse sociology, social media, customer service, relationship marketing, experiential marketing, and traditional marketing, we’re creating a new formula for outbound influence and fueling a new generation of brand ambassadors and loyalists."

Is this also true for technical communication?

Failure in technical communication

2008-06-10T09:01:00.002+01:00

JK Rowling made a great commencement speech recently at Harvard University - on the topic of failure.

Failure is something that stalks the world of technical authors.

Failure affects our clients. Users often have to feel they have failed before they call up online Help. It is said that Microsoft nearly renamed "Help" in Vista, as a way of encouraging users to call it up more. However, they couldn't find a better word than "Help".

Failure is viewed differently in other cultures. I remember Patrick Hofmann talking in 2006 about how people from Japan read and re-read instructions carefully before they start a task, so that they won't make any mistakes. "Bodge", a typically British word, has no direct translation into the German language.

Should technical authors be comfortable living in a world of failure?

Jo Rowling's presentation illustrates that failure is part of life. Failure can have benefits as well as drawbacks. Maybe we should "re-frame" our world to something more positive. Where people fail, technical authors, through what they create, are there to help and assist.

Trends in Technical Communication - Peering into the crystal ball

2008-06-06T10:01:00.005+01:00

I'm starting to think about a conference presentation I have been asked to make later this year. Sometimes, our talks are about "big picture" issues, such as "what makes a good technical author?" or "what's the value of documentation?", and I'm currently considering whether I should talk about the future trends in technical communication.

The two current trends in technical communication

There seems to be two trends in technical communication, at the moment.

The first is the move away from a craft-based approach to creating documentation, and a move towards a more "engineering" based, methodological approach. It explains the interest in and move towards single-sourcing, XML, DITA and such like. It promises more efficient writing processes, faster "time to market", but little change in what the end user actually receives.

The second trend is the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies to provide user assistance. I've heard it also called "free documentation", "right to remix", the "democratisation of documentation" and "tech writing 2.0". I don't think any name has stuck yet, apart from the generic "Web 2.0". It's a trend that promises a major difference in what users actually receive as user assistance.

We describe Web 2.0 as having three main themes: the aggregation of knowledge; collaboration on content creation; content as conversations (and linked to that, the wisdom of the crowd).

When I presented on Tech writing 2.0 at the end of 2006, the major developments mostly related to the aggregation of content across the Web. Today, the biggest developments seem to be with conversational content.

It's content that is, today, being created away from the Technical Publications department.

What does this mean to technical communicators?

I think the questions technical communicators should be keeping in the back of their mind are:

1. Should I be adopting and embracing these trends?

For some organisations, particularly those with a small user base or a small authoring team, the answer is NO. It's hard to see where the participation and the benefits will come from. However, will that mean their documentation will look inferior to more mainstream software?

2. Can these two trends be unified?

Will these trends converge? Will Web 2.0 content rip apart all those carefully laid plans for a single repository for all your content?

3. Who will take on the role of editor?

Who will keep all this information in order? Maybe you will need to take on the role of an editor.

The correct answers, I believe, have yet to emerge.

What else should I be reading apart from the Cherryleaf blog?

Take a look at these articles:
Why Do People Write Free Documentation? Results of a Survey by Andy Oram
The State of Free documentation, by Adam Hyde
The state of free documentation by Anne Gentle

What do you think?

Open source economics

2008-06-04T07:12:00.000+01:00

In this video, Yochai Benkler explains how collaborative projects like Wikipedia and Linux represent the next stage of human organization.

Is he right? Could the same economic rules be applied to the technical writing projects, where there is a large user base?

Follow the thoughts of technical communication experts

2008-05-21T09:26:00.005+01:00

We've created a Web page that aggregates the messages from some of the leaders/pioneers in the technical communication sector.

You can view the Web page here

How do Brain Rules affect technical authors?

2008-05-20T08:31:00.005+01:00

Yet again, a post by Garr Reynolds has made me wonder about how his advice about presenting crosses over into the world of technical authoring.

Garr's latest post is about Dr. John Medina's book "Brain Rules", which has 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home and school. He's also created a slideshow about the book:

| View | Upload your own

Here are my initial thoughts on how some of the rules affect technical authors:

ATTENTION | Rule #4: We don't pay attention to boring things

Medina states multi-tasking is myth. We need to dedicate our attention to one thing at a time. In this situation, a paper manual scores, as we can read it in a peaceful and distraction free envionment. That's a lot harder to do with on-screen information, with email notifications and other "noise" vying for our attention.

SHORT-TERM MEMORY | Rule #5: Repeat to remember.

Do we expect users of user manuals, and Help files in particular, to remember what is contained within them? Are they there simply to be followed and then forgotten?

VISION | Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses.

Technical manuals probably don't contain enough images. This may be because they are hard to maintain, authors are wordsmiths rather than graphics designers, and they take time to do. Writers of Help files avoid using screenshots to avoid users confusing the Help file with the application itself. However, given the effectiveness of visuals, perhaps they should include more?

What do you think?

Business guide to Twitter

2008-05-13T11:08:00.003+01:00

We've put together a guide that explains the business uses for Twitter. If you're a Twitter user, please let others know.

Receive technical author job notifications, free of charge, on your mobile phone

2008-05-12T11:10:00.004+01:00

Technical authors looking for a new job or contract opportunity can now recieve notifications from Cherryleaf by SMS text message. It's free of charge.

Contact us for details on how to do this.

The eee pc and the right to remix documentation dilemma

2008-05-12T09:58:00.006+01:00

Last week we purchased and received an Asus eee pc 900. Its popularity illustrates the dilemma manufacturers will face in the future, with regard to their user documentation/user assistance.

Background

The eee pc is a ultra portable laptop, which costs roughly a fifth of the price of an Apple Airbook or a Sony Vaio.

It runs on Linux and it was originally designed for children, which explains why it is so cheap. It has a simple interface that provides links to the key software but restricts you from doing much else.

The consequence

Its low cost, low weight and size means the eee pc is popular outside its target audience. The consequence of which is Asus now has a group of users who want to do more with the laptop than was originally intended. They want to add more software and access the Linux desktop hiding underneath.

The manual supplied provides basic, but usable, information on how to use the laptop as originally designed. It doesn't provide any more detail than that. So, as a consequence, a number of Web sites have developed, such as eeeuser.com, which tell users how to access the advanced features.

The problem for Asus is they now have a group of users making modifications to their laptop, based on completely unofficial information. Users have to trust this information is correct - hoping it won't trash their machine.

The dilemma

Here's the dilemma:

Should Asus distance itself from this information? They might miss out on sales to business users if they do.
Should Asus let its documentation be "remixed" - supplemented with additional, more geeky information from users? The information might be incorrect.
Should Asus moderate this user information in someway? They might end up with more support calls if they do.

So what should they do?

How will the Semantic Web affect user documentation?

2008-05-07T09:05:00.002+01:00

Tim Berners-Lee said, in 1999:

I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.

Today, the Semantic Web means that data may be re-used in ways unexpected by the original publisher.

What does this mean to technical communicators?
Is the Semantic Web "a good thing" for technical communicators?

Twitter revisited

2008-04-25T13:58:00.003+01:00

Here is graph comparing the use of words in Twitter that are commonly associated with the field of technical communication.

Our DITA XML training course - Update

2008-04-25T09:49:00.004+01:00

Carol is in the studio today, recording the audio track for the new, updated, version of our self-teach online course on DITA XML. She has to record 140(!) audio segments, which will take some time to complete. The development team will then match (within Abobe Captivate) these segments with the visuals and slides, ready, I think, for the final fettling and publishing stage.

Is Twitter a useful tool for technical authors?

2008-04-24T09:12:00.006+01:00

A lot of people I know, it seems, are talking about Twitter. Quite a lot of these discussions seem to revolve around the question: is it actually useful?

At the moment, I'm not sure myself. I'm asking myself whether it's a useful tool for technical authors.

So what is Twitter?

Twitter describes itself as a Web site service for people "to communicate and stay connected" through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

In practice, it's also used to communicate with SMS-like messages and as a "RSS-lite" feed.

Why are people twittering about Twitter?

The Internet began with "One to Many" - Web sites that acted as online brochures. Web 2.0 offers "Many to Many" - social networks, YouTube etc. Twitter is seen as part of a new phase: "Many to one".

It's an idea of being able to follow a person's actions and thoughts; to create or be part of a following. That may sound cultish, but the purpose of doing this is to help us recognise patterns. By using Twitter, you may spot trends - people doing the same thing; people sharing the same goal or intention.

According to one commentator, "You can even read exactly what your contacts are reading and recommend you read too. Content in context."

Is Twitter actually useful for technical authors?

1. Twitter may be useful in understanding your users. You could follow your customers' thoughts and action through Twitter. However, this benefit may be more useful for the technical support, usability and marketing departments.

2. Twitter may be a useful way to track the people who set trends that you may follow In the future. These can be experts in their field, imaginative thinkers etc. People like Seth Godin or Dave Winer.

3. Twitter may generate more heat than light. I know of one person who receives one thousand Twitter updates on his mobile phone every hour! That's not content in context, in my book - it's information overload.

In summary, I'm not convinced. Twitter could be useful in a business context as a way of understanding users. It is certainly something to investigate.

PS

I've now created a Twitter account : www.twitter.com/ellispratt

Tracking - One function of twitter that could be useful is the ability to track topics. If anyone in the "twitterverse" posts an update about topic, you can get a notification. This could be a handy way to keep track of certain keywords that apply to you.

Announcing a Facebook club for technical authors

2008-04-23T17:27:00.004+01:00

This week we received this email from a technical author:

"I've been using Facebook for a few months and find it a great way to communicate with old friends and people with similar interests. I would love to set up a Tech Author group so that Tech Authors can share ideas issues etc however I don't know any other tech authors so I'm not really in a position to set this up! I wondered if Cherryleaf could do something like this to get us authors in contact with one another."

This has lead us to create this technical authors club on Facebook.

A while back, we trialled an online club using Drupal, but we made the mistake of aiming too high. A forum is essentially what most people want, and this could be a good time to try again.

Confessions of a technical author - What can technical communicators learn from David Ogilvy?

2008-04-14T16:33:00.007+01:00

David Ogilvy was an advertising genius who distilled his successful concepts and techniques into a bestselling book I’ve just finished reading, called "Confessions of an Advertising Man". I wanted to read his book, because I often find it useful to look at other professions and ask whether their ideas could be applied to the world of technical authoring.

So, can a technical authoring company learn any lessons from someone who ran a successful advertising agency? I think so.

The importance of testing, measuring and research

The biggest thing that struck me was Ogilvy’s belief in testing and research.

"The most important word in the vocabulary of advertising is TEST. Test your promise. Test your media. Test your headlines and your illustrations. Test the size of your advertisements. Test your frequency. Test your level of expenditure. Test your commercials. Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving."

"People who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals."

In his early years, Ogilvy had worked for George Gallup Audience Research Institute, which he called “the luckiest break of my life.” To Ogilvy, what mattered were the results for clients, and he saw testing and research as critical to gaining those rewards.

Both technical communication and advertising find it very hard to measure the results of their work. However, advertisers and technical communicators draw different conclusions from this problem:

Advertisers believe that this means they should spend a great deal of time on testing and measuring.

Technical communicators believe this means they should spend little time on testing and measuring - it's too hard.

I think technical authors can learn from advertisers by spending more time on testing. For Web-based content, it’s possible to test and measure some aspects at least, such as the number of times a page is viewed. For this reason, perhaps documentation should be published in most cases on Web servers.

Creating an atmosphere in which partnerships with clients can flourish

Ogilvy "resigned his agency" from numerous accounts where he couldn't see he would be able to get results for his clients. Sometimes this was due to a lack of money available to spend on advertising, a duff product, or a lack of clarity from the client. Ogilvy aimed to take on just one new client per year. His goal was to work for giants such as Lever Brothers, Shell and Bristol-Myers.

The importance of using images

"Dr. Gallup reports that if you say something which you don't also illustrate, the viewer immediately forgets it."

Images are often left out of online Help files, in order to avoid confusing users with the application screens themselves. Maybe it’s time to reconsider this. Perhaps images could be used in a way that distinguishes them from the application.

Promoting the documents

"You can’t save souls in an empty church.”
Documents need to be seen and used, in order for them to work.

There were other statements that, with a few word changes, could easily have been said by a technical author:

1. On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.
2. Golden rewards await he who has the brains to create a coherent image, and the stability to stick with it over a long period.
3. The most important decision is how to position your product.
4. A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.
5. We prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance. We pursue knowledge the way a pig pursues truffles.
6. It has taken more than a hundred scientists two years to find out how to make the product in question; I have been given thirty days... If I do my job well, I shall contribute as much as the hundred scientists to the success of this product.

It was an enjoyable book to read, which caused me to think about the way we work.

Issuu - A Web-based pdf viewer for technical authors?

2008-04-10T15:56:00.004+01:00

Issuu is a Web site that allows you to upload magazines or newsletters and then view them as interactive, magazine-style online publications in your Web browser. It's a free service and has been described as a YouTube for magazines. There are a few manuals on it already.

The Issuu document is presented in a way that looks similar to a magazine. You can easily flip through it, using the arrow buttons, page numbers, the 'dock' below it, or the index.

Readers can comment on the documents, bookmark them, add authors to favourites or subscribe to them in a RSS newsreader.

Although it is geared towards glossy magazines, it could have uses for technical communicators. My initial thoughts are where you want readers to look and comment on a document, but you don't want them to download it, or where you want your document to look striking visually. The navigation isn't perfect, however.

Zen and the art of Help files

2008-04-09T15:41:00.004+01:00

I've finally received my copy of Garr Reynolds' excellent book, "Presentation Zen". This book is about creating better, clearer presentations in a Zen-like frame of mind. If you have seen any of my presentations, then you'll know I prefer his photo-image style to the bullet point style that is more commonly used.

I would argue that "Presentation Zen" contains ideas that are also relevant to technical communication.

So how can the approach espoused by Garr Reynolds be applied to the online Help and the user manuals that technical authors create?

He proposes presenters connect with the audience to inform in a meaningful, unique moment in time. His philosophy includes these beliefs:

- Prepare with three words in mind: simplicity, clarity and brevity.
- Simplicity leads to clarity and can be obtained by reducing to the nonessential.
- Target both the readers' creative and logical sides of their brain.
- Start with the beginner's mind.
- Ask the right questions.
- See the big picture.
- Design and layout are important.
- People remember visuals better than lists.

I believe most online Help (that has been developed by a professional technical author) has most of those boxes ticked. However, I think there are some areas of Garr's ethos that are often missing from user documentation:

1. The "art of being completely present" when delivering the content. The last thing on a user's mind when they call up Help or read a user manual is a Zen-like state of mind! The way in which Help is normally delivered to the user is frankly weak - requiring them to press F1 and admit failure.

2. Targeting the reader's creative side of their brain. The technical author's content is nearly always logical. It's rare, too rare perhaps, to have content that encourages play or experimentation. Manuals rarely reveal any passion in the writer.

3. Seeing "the big picture". I think technical authors do see the big picture, but sometimes miss out on explaining the big picture. Perhaps there's a pressure to dive into the nitty gritty of describing tasks? There's clearly a need from users to understand the big picture. I know someonewho makes a tidy living "explaining anything in less than ten minutes". He does this on paper, within the confines of an A3 poster.

I recommend technical authors take a look at this book and consider whether they could apply these ideas to their work.

Quote of the month

2008-04-03T14:35:00.003+01:00

We've just received this nice testimonial from a client:

"I had some basic instructions for my new online application, Opportunity Matrix™, but absolutely no idea how to turn them into a proper help system. Carol at Cherryleaf was able to take my rough notes and turn them into a professional Help file.

She worked through the application, suggesting appropriate changes where I was making assumptions that would have left users confused. Once we were both happy with the file, Carol liaised very effectively with the programmer to make sure that the Help system worked perfectly right from the start.

The information and guidance from Cherryleaf was always top notch, so I always knew exactly where the project was, and what the (quite reasonable) budget needed to be. I shall have no hesitation in using Cherryleaf again, and in recommending them."

Andrew Horder, CEO, Opportunity Matrix™.

Why does this project manager have so many lines on his face?

2008-04-02T11:18:00.007+01:00

Notice the man's wrinkles. What have past software development projects done to him?

Maybe this time it will be different.

Maybe this time he can sleep knowing the users will get the documentation they expect. Because maybe this time he'll use a technical author.

Cherryleaf works with developers of software helping them ensure they have the technical authoring resource available to give their users the user assistance they really need. Whether you need either a managed or unmanaged resource, then the people to call are Cherryleaf.

Call us on 01784 258672.

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(Testing a new advert)