Cherryleaf – for clear instructions your users will love

As an IT team, we had an array of support documentation for systems and services that we’d always struggled to have a consistent format, style and structure for. The course delivered by Ellis Pratt really clarified the best practices to use and answered many of the questions we had.

We were so satisfied with the service provided by Ellis that we contacted Cherryleaf to create an exemplary piece of documentation for one of our systems, with an aim to using the documentation as a template for our other services going forwards. Ginny Critcher was always punctual, polite and efficient in all her work. Where there were any doubts or suggestions, Ginny would provide insight into what the best approach would be in an eloquent and thoughtful manner.

I’m happy to share that I’ve obtained a new certification: Using Generative AI in Technical Writing from Cherryleaf!..everything is explained from a tech comm perspective so it’s a bit easier to see how AI might be used.

For Samaritans volunteers, having the information available on the intranet rather than in a manual in their branches, means they can find out what they need to know at any time; the search facility and page style ensures that information can be located and read quickly and easily. For prison staff, this is the first time they will be able to see all of the Samaritans guidelines for running the Listener scheme; this will help to further develop their understanding of the scheme and will support them in facilitating the operation of the scheme in their prison. Samaritans is delighted with the result of the project.

The Documenting APIs and Markdown modules weren’t something I did/used in my job at the time, but (they) led to me getting a new job. The UX course was interesting too as that was all new to me.

You delivered a great workshop, I really enjoyed the day…plenty of food for thought and at an ideal time.

I found particularly useful and interesting the more technical themes, such as the ones on standards (DITA, Markdown, Asciidoc) or on documenting APIs. I also liked the practical examples provided regarding specific tools (such as Confluence, for example).

I worked with Cherryleaf on a project for the European Community made up of a consortium of different companies and nationalities. Their communications skills were excellent and capacity to speak both fluent technical jargon and business English are truly superb

Thanks for the great course! It was very comprehensive.

Thank you very much for all your feed-back – I’ve been reading through this as it has come in this morning. This is really useful and very much appreciated.

As a freelance technical communicator I have often used Cherryleaf to help find interesting work, and the technical writing courses the company provides are second to none.

I thought it was an excellent course – very thought-provoking and useful. The exercises were enjoyable and really helped, far beyond simply reading from a book about the tasks involved in the job. And I greatly appreciate all your advice and support.

I first worked with Cherryleaf when I was with Zetex Semiconductors. We had a requirement for authoring/editorial support on some of our technical publications. Ellis initially made sure he fully understood our specific requirements and profile of the person we were looking for, then supplied us a selection of carefully vetted resumes. This saved us valuable time in selecting a shortlist of candidates. Ellis has also been an excellent source of help and advice on subsequent occasions. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending the valuable services Ellis and Cherryleaf provide.

I’m very pleased with the enhancements to the Help System. You created very clear topics for some areas that I find difficult to explain. You also identified a number of ‘bugs’ with the current version that have now been fixed. This just continues to improve the product.

It was really informative, and Ginny is a very engaging trainer.

It’s an excellent course. Very thought provoking.

We see an ongoing role for Cherryleaf as consultants who can help to get better documents out of the vast material we have added to the system. Very importantly, Cherryleaf were able to rapidly respond to our issues with the system and help us understand.

I thoroughly enjoyed the policies and procedures course and thought the content was excellent.

Thank you for the fabulous course on Friday. I can’t wait to start implementing some of the new techniques.

There is something new to learn for most technical authors who are in the early stages of their career. Overall, I would say that the course did benefit me, and I can see myself revisiting parts of it in the future.

The API documentation course helped me fully understand how APIs work and the different parts that need to be documented.

I’m very pleased that I signed up for this course. All of the topics were presented in a clear and well paced manner. I learned a great deal without feeling overwhelmed or inundated at any point. I recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn more about technical writing.

I found the course material very relevant to the day’s training. Very pleased I took part.

We recently changed our authoring tooling. Cherryleaf came and did a spot of consultation to help us choose something that fit our use cases. I’d absolutely recommend their service if you want some help picking tooling.

Delivered in such an engaging way to inspire the masses.

The trainer’s flexibility and delivery were fantastic, making this a really worthwhile day.

I attended a job interview which included a written exercise where I had to jot down how I would go about designing and presenting information for the users of the service unit I was applying to. I could not believe my luck, it was as if the interviewer had designed it with the contents of this course in mind, and, as a result, I got the job!

It was inclusive and interactive. Ginny was well prepared about our current practice, and had tailored the session to our needs.

Great course! Definitely recommend.

When we needed a complete re-write of two of the product manuals for our specialised and complex server software, Ellis walked us through the different approaches we could take to this project, found us an author who was ideally suited to the task and managed the project with the light-touch it required.

The professional approach of Cherryleaf was in marked contrast to our previous experiences with documentation projects and I have no hesitation in recommending Cherryleaf.

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.

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.

Thank you very much for an interesting and thought-provoking course. The content and themes are very relevant to Citrix Technical Publications as we regularly look at trends and how we can respond and innovate.

The way in which customers consume our content is changing, as are the different expectations customers have regarding user assistance and support. Your course provided further insight and ideas regarding how to review and adapt to ensure content is relevant and appealing to our customers.

I took the course to build on my experience as a technical writer, as I’d never had any formal training. I learned a lot! The course was enjoyable and well-organised, with easy-to-follow lessons and quick, helpful feedback that made the experience even better.

Overall, it’s sharpened my skills and improved my confidence. I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about technical writing or to experienced writers looking to brush up on their skills and ensure they’re following current best practices.

Good trainer, approachable. Good ideas to take forward.

We’re a small SaaS B2B shop in Singapore. We had a series of projects involving technical writing with Cherryleaf.
First, we needed to pick the vendor. The industry seems to be small. The options are: bigger (biggish?) vendors, freelance writers, and boutique companies like Cherryleaf.

Freelancers may offer the best value but are difficult to find and assess, and have shifting priorities. I emailed my enquiries to 4 companies. One (a major provider with most of its staff seemingly in Nigeria) never bothered to reply. Three others, including Cherryleaf, did. Two were British, one was US-based. Cherryleaf was the smallest of the three.

Cherryleaf, represented by Ellis Pratt, is an archetypal boutique. Ellis provided a useful assessment of the situation, and suggested strategy to handle another chunk of content which I did not know what to do. Essentially, it would increase the project somewhat, but it was perfectly reasonable.

The other British vendor is a bigger company with a few branches in Europe. The representative showed up semi-prepared. He knew what we wanted but had a very rough idea how to proceed. The rate probably made sense to prospects residing in the Buckingham palace, but was a bit too high for us and too opaque.

The American vendor replied with a wall of text, obviously generated by GenAI. Some of it was flat out wrong. The sales guy showed up unprepared and started by citing their big customers with the vibe “we don’t really care for small guys like you but might deign to take your project”. Their main selling points were the big names they worked for and that they use actual developers as technical writers. Can you assess how much I will have to spend? Nah, we’ll just charge you hourly and see how it goes. “But other vendors did produce a quotation.” Oh, they did? Then let me connect you with a technical writer and we’ll see. I obviously declined. When I told them that there are more projects, I was told something to the tune of “oh but we didn’t know, we thought you were a small client”. I was offered to look at their flagship projects for Silicon Valley big names and found errors on the first couple of pages. Do learn that arrogance doesn’t sell, at least when I’m the customer.

The choice was pretty clear. We picked Cherryleaf.

So far we’ve done two projects, and the experience is more or less according to my expectations. The first project was to write several small manuals for several web applications. The second one involved overhauling all our API documentation and merging it with assorted bits and pieces everywhere.

Cherryleaf writers know what they’re doing. Again, an archetypal artisan shop. They might not have experience with every piece of tech out there (so this is up to you to follow up on). They are, however, very responsive and also fluent with the tools of the trade. (I was recommended Redocly and I can’t believe how good the platform is. Thanks again, Ellis.)

There were a couple of issues but Ellis handled them efficiently, and graciously declined to charge for these portions.

The main strength of Cherryleaf is to know how to organise the content. It all looks self-evident when you look at the result, but it’s hard to come up with it on your own. Cherryleaf also knows about the new tools like GenAI, but I personally prefer human touch. (Don’t overuse GenAI, kids, it’s bad for business.)

Cherryleaf team accumulated decades of experience, take pride in what they do, and prioritise providing value over the approach of “take the money and run”. Business does not have to be impersonal, you know? It’s humans dealing with humans, after all.

I’m excited to share that l’ve completed Cherryleaf’s ISTC-accredited course on Using Generative Al in Technical Writing – and it was packed with insight.

Cherryleaf did great work for us at Truphone. They came, they listened, they worked hard, they delivered.

Cherryleaf is one of the best technical authoring houses in the business, and profoundly knowledgeable, professional and approachable. Highly recommended for anyone requiring top-notch documentation or training services.

Yesterday I completed all modules in the Intermediate/Advanced Technical Communication training course. I really enjoyed it and I think it’ll be super useful in my job.

I found it all very interesting, and even things that seemed to me to be common sense were good to hear expressed formally.

A really engaging and informative course. I will be able to use a lot of what went through today in current internal policy development.

The course is very well structured, and each part builds further on the previous part, making it easier to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. It helped me realize that there is no such thing as one single method or process to build API documentation. There are many variables to consider but the course really offers a guideline for writers to be able to take away and tailor it to their needs.

I especially liked the real life examples and learned that looking at as many API’s and developer platforms as possible is a good way to gain insights.

Since I took the course, I feel more confident to take on any future API documentation projects.

I will be keeping an eye on the Cherryleaf course offerings to see if any additional courses are available to help me build my writing skills.

Thank you for a really good training course! You were obviously so knowledgeable about the subject and presented everything clearly and in a logical order. The pace was just right with breaks and partner working. Asking people to share answers and thoughts kept it interactive and us all engaged. The feedback from the rest of the team is positive and although we all have slightly different roles, we each got something out of the training.

Definitely sending colleagues on this course!

I have just completed the Intermediate/Advanced Technical Communication training course. (I took all the courses). I’m really glad I took this course; I learnt more than I had expected.