How To Write The Case Study in Five Days November 12, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : How do I ?, Writing, Style, Templates, Recommended, Microsoft Office News, Tips , add a comment
An in-depth tutorial is beyond the scope of this newsletter, but the main points are:
- Show the client examples of high-quality case studies. They don’t even have to be yours. But you need to paint a picture so they understand what you’ll need from them to make this work.
- Ask them what they like, dislike, things that stands out, and color schemes they enjoy. If they have company templates use them, otherwise build new templates in the same style of what you’ve shown them.
- Agree on the technology (or service) the client wants to demonstrate. This should be very clear. If you can’t agree on this, stop.
- Get a list of customers who’re willing to provide endorsements. Don’t expect them to write compelling 20 word quotes. That’s your job. Write these quotes and send it to them. Get the approval and re-write where necessary. Recycle the unused quotes for other publications – let nothing go to waste.
Tip – always keep you eyes peeled for examples of great writing. Copy any quotes you find on brochures, magazines, and websites into a resource file. Use this for inspiration when you need to keep things fresh.
- Get the Project Sponsor (i.e. the person who hired you) to gather screenshots, company logos, tech specs, datasheets etc. You’ll need these for the glossy PDF.
- Start interviewing people. Ask them: what was the problem, how was it solved, and what difference it has made. Ask specific questions and you’ll get specific answers. Have your list of questions ready before you call them. Don’t make it up on the fly.
- Compile the facts, statistics, and market research. This gives your case study more weight.
- Send it out for review. Good, bad or indifference. It doesn’t matter, but you have to get feedback! Refine the material and then publish it. Never send out a publication without getting another person to check it first.
- Send a PDF of the Case Study to every person who helped you with a thank you note (and business card) enclosed. Thank them for their efforts and encourage them to publish it on their website.
Tip: Remember this is an opportunity for you to generate more leads by demonstrating your professionalism. Contact everyone in person by phone – not email – and confirm that they got the PDF.
If you want, tell them how great it looks when printed and ask if you can send over a hard-copy. In this way, get your nice, shiny case study onto their desk!
Generate enthusiasm. Share whatever positive feedback you’ve received from journalists, partners, and customers. You want them to feel that their business must also have a case study. And who’s going to write it for them?
http://www.communication-newsletter.com/
How to Write a Report in 30 Minutes November 12, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : How do I ?, Writing, Style, Templates, Recommended, Microsoft Office News, Tips , add a comment
The ability to write a compelling report is highly-valued in the business world. For those involved in project management or decision-making process, understanding how to produce a report is essential if they want to advance.
However, for most people, the idea of simply having to write another report brings on indigestion. What is it that makes report writing so unpleasant?
Well, like most things in life, if you can’t see where all the pieces join together, you’re bound to feel a bit nervous. Thus, that unpleasant feeling you get as stare at a blank page and start biting your nails. “Now, where do I begin…?”
Krouwerconsulting.com suggests the following exercise, “Select a report that you have written and give it to three people. Ask them to read it (often a challenge in itself). Then, ask everyone to state the recommendations and conclusions of the report. Do these match what you intended?”
In this article, I’ll give you a framework that you can use for writing reports. Once you have the framework in mind, it easy to get started. So, let’s start at the top.
Creating reports involves organizing data. The trick is that you can’t write the report until you’ve gathered data. Likewise, you can’t gather data unless you know what you’re looking for.
Sounds like an earful, but it’s really quite simple when you see how all the parts fit together.
The first two steps are to work out:
-
What’s the purpose of this report? How will the readers use it?
-
Who is the target audience? What benefit do they get from reading it?
Clarify the purpose of the document in one sentence. Poorly-written reports are vague. They meander from topic to topic. Keep it focused. If a colleague asked you to explain your report, your answer would be: “this report discusses…”
After you’ve hammered this out, you can get into the nitty-gritty of writing the report. This involves carrying out the following five steps:
-
Identify the topic.
-
Gather the data.
-
Analyze the data to produce findings.
-
Analyze the findings to make recommendations.
-
Make recommendations and back them up with stats, facts and figures.
Keep these five points in mind and then start on the table of contents.
Get Started Now
The Table of Contents is the skeleton around which you write your report. List the main topics for your report. Let’s say there are five chapters.
To get things moving, pick the topic you’re most comfortable with and begin writing. You’ll finish this very quickly. Move onto the next topic, get it over with and start the next. Before you know it, half the report is finished. You don’t have to start with the introduction and plough through relentlessly. Once you understand the framework, writing the report is like Lego. You pick the pieces you want and assemble them in your own good time. Write your document around the reader’s needs. Ask yourself what the reader needs to know at each stage of the report.
-
Is the subject clear?
-
Have statistics and supporting data been supplied?
-
Are the relationships between different parts of the report clear?
-
Are the recommendations easy-to-understand? Are they persuasive?
Use Headings to Guide the Reader Through The Report
As the most effective reports are reader-centered, use a series of headlines to guide the reader through the report. Headlines are like sign-posts. They allow the reader to skip and jump through the document as they please. Readers are under no obligation to read every sentence in your report. Like a bored child at dinnertime, they pick and choose the best parts and ignore the rest.
Blend Sections Together
After you’ve written the chapters, put them aside. Try to get some distance. Move onto something else for a while.
Next up, refine the material. Try to make your arguments more compelling. Use facts, figures and statistics to persuade the reader that your recommendations are sound and based on real evidence. Write in plain English. Avoid clichés, hyperbole and flowery language. Use positive words and phrases to inject some enthusiasm into your report. Reinforce your arguments with quotes and references where most appropriate.
You’ve finished writing. Examine the document and see where you can blend the sections together. Ideally, words, sentences, and paragraphs should blend into each other quite smoothly.
Read the report aloud and you’ll hear where it jars. Your ear will pick up where the tone is insincere, sentences become disjointed, and the writing is strangled. Don’t be too hard on yourself, as it’s easy to get distracted while writing. Changes in tone, voice, and style appear from one section to another. Work on blending these together as otherwise the report will start to ramble or have an odd stilted feel to it.
Making the Last Cut
This time you have to start at the top and work your way through!
Print out the document. Don’t do this on the computer.
With a pen in hand, read the report once for voice and for voice only. Then go back and do the same for style, spelling, grammar, layout, cross-references, and so on. It takes as much time to edit as it does to write.
So, don’t try to do everyone at once. It can’t be done. The only person you’ll fool is yourself – but the reader will always know the difference.
One final tip: write in the afternoon and edit in the morning.
Scoping the Size Of A Project November 12, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : How do I ?, Writing, Style, Templates, Recommended, Troubleshooting, Microsoft Office News, Tips , add a comment
One of the classic mistakes novice writers make is to start writing without looking at the overall picture. Planning the scope of your project is key to its overall successful.
So, before you start writing, identify everything involved in the development of the project. By the way, this applies to any type of project, whether it’s writing, development, design, or cooking…. You must have a plan.
For a documentation project, Identify the;
- Software Templates and Style Guides
- Access to IT Systems
- People resources, such as graphic designers
that need to be in place so that you can write the documentation.Don’t assume these will be ready!
A lot of this may seem very obvious, but based on experience, client often underestimate the resources you will need to have in place. They tend to overlook system access, passwords, swipe cards, parking spaces, technical resources and other such requirements. Without these you can’t accomplish your tasks.
Encourage your client (gently but firmly) to ensure they‘re in place; otherwise your schedule will be knocked off balance. Don’t wait until you arrive at the building before asking if there is a test system you can use. Ask these questions in the warm-up meetings before you start on-site.
Here are some areas to consider before starting your project:
- Does the Writer have access to Test Systems?
- Is the Writer is provided Training on the system that they are to document?
- Will the Writer be working on site during the project?
- Will the Writer have access to SMEs?
- Will new Change Requests occur once the project has started?
Creating a Project Plan
Examine the following areas so you can define a project plan that reflects the amount of work that’s involved:
-
Training required for you to understand how the system works – eg 2 days
-
Gap Analysis between current documentation (if it exists) vs. proposed documentation - eg 2 days
-
Review current documentation (if it exists).
Can any material be reused or do you need to write everything from scratch. Re-writing existing material can be very time-consuming as you have to modify the tone, style, and phrasing to match your writing style. You also need to test the integrity of their documentation as you can’t assume the instructions are correct. eg 5 days -
Agree on the Document Format – this will affect the workload if the document needs to be delivered in multiple formats, such as MS Word, Adobe PDF, Online Help, or Web Help.
-
Determine the number of pages that will be written per day, for example:
5 pages per day
100 page output
= 20 days documentation -
Number of SMEs to review documents (allow 1 week turnaround) and provide feedback:
If you assume there will be 25% changes to the documentation (20 days) then the total project is increased to 24 days approx.
Note: SMEs are Subject Matter Experts, i.e. individuals with in-depth knowledge who can review the documentation accurately.
Getting Prepared
Speak to the client’s Project Manager and make sure you have access to the following:
-
Company image library for product screenshots, samples of training material etc.
-
Graphic designer to create illustrations, complex screenshots, splash screens, box shots.
-
Style Guide or, if none exists, agree on using an established guide such as the Microsoft Style Guide for Technical Publications.
-
MS Word Templates – make sure these are available before you start. If not, factor their design and development into the project plan.
This list is not exhaustive by any means.
The key thing is to think ahead and anticipate any areas which may undermine the project’s success.
Writing User Guides November 12, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : How do I ?, Writing, Templates, Recommended, Microsoft Office News, Tips , add a comment
Some points to consider when choosing software for writing user guides and technical documentation:
- Requirements – make a list of what you want the software to do. You won’t need all the features that come with FrameMaker, Interleaf or other specialist writing packages. So, instead of investing in these products upfront, define your publication requirements and then start looking at the products – not the other way around! For example, if you don’t know much about FrameMaker, try to determine if its features are relevant to your project – maybe they’re overkill for what you’re trying to achieve - and then make your decision. Create a Product Features spreadsheet and use this to evaluate the products before you buy anything.
- Single Sourcing – this is the holy grail of many Publications Departments. Single sourcing means that you create one ‘master’ version of the content, which you can then export to other file formats. Instead of reformatting text, layout and images, you can click a button and it’s available in whatever format you want. Do you really need single sourcing? Most companies don’t and can get by with MS Word documents, which can be converted into PDF or HTML. Two features that MS Word can easily handle. Granted, the HTML won’t be perfect, but you can refine it in a HTML editor if you need to.
- Qualified Trainers – before you select a new product, or a product that your company has no used before, check with the local training companies and see if they product such training. Otherwise, you may not be able to train your team with this product and will have to invest considerable energy in learning how it works. Not very practical if you’re running a busy Publications Dept.
- Qualified Writers – as in the previous point, check with the local recruitment agencies to see if they have writers with these skillsets on their books. We recently wanted to hire a RobeHelp / RoboHTML content developer. These folks were very hard to get, so we outsourced the work to a specialist company. Lots of time, effort, money…
- Support – this sounds boring, but if you can’t get support when the wheels start falling off, you’re in real trouble. Many times I’ve had to trawl web forums and BBSs for an answer because the Tech Support couldn’t answer my question or the answer they provided was inadequate. MS Word gets a lot of criticism but, in its defence, it goes to great length to provide workarounds to the many issues you’ll find in any piece of software.
- Testimonials – speak to other people who work in technical publications and other areas related to professional writing. Go to the most popular writing forums and ask for their opinion.Tip: try to be specific. If you ask a general question, you’ll get a general answer.
- Templates – if you’re choosing a new product, see if templates are included on the CD. You can use these to get up and running fast. Starting from scratch can be very expensive.
- Trial Versions – download the 30-day trial versions and start testing. Before you download anything, define the areas your want to test. List them in order of priority. Have sample documents ready for the testing. Make sure you have enough time to do the testing before the trial period expires!
- Price – what is the licensing costs associated with the product, especially if you need to get multi-licences copies. For example, Adobe FrameMaker costs close to 700 USD, so five copies will cost 3500 USD. Wonderful though the product may be, this may be outside your department’s budget.
- Making the Final Decision – after testing all applications, sit down and compare the products using a spreadsheet to calculate the results. Try to be as objective as possible and avoid being influenced by glossy brochures, free tools, and other extras that you probably will never use.
If you are buying on behalf of your company, ask yourself: if this was my own money, would I buy this product?
Creating a New Style November 12, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : How do I ?, Formatting, Writing, Style, Templates, Recommended, Troubleshooting, Microsoft Office News, Tips , add a comment
To create a new style, follow these steps:
-
From the Format menu, choose Style and Formatting, and then click New Style.
-
In the Name box, enter a name for the style, for example, Paragraph Text.
-
In the Style type box, choose Paragraph.
-
In the Style Based on box, select No Style. If you base it on another style, then, when that style is changed, you’re new style will also be changed. No Style makes sure it is a ‘standalone’ style that can’t be changed as it has no associations to other styles.
-
Click Format and select formatting options such as Font and Paragraph.
-
Click OK.
-
Click Add to template if you want these styles to be incorporated into the template this document is based on, which is usually Normal.dot.
The new style now appears in your “Styles” list.
Word Wishlist November 12, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : Misc, How do I ?, Writing, Microsoft Office News , add a comment
If you want to suggest changes to Word, contact them at mswish@microsoft.com.
What are the posting suggestions for the Word news groups? November 12, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : How do I ?, Writing, Troubleshooting, Microsoft Office News, Tips , add a comment
Avoid saying “Word Problem” or “Help!”
Be as specific as possible in your subject line. For example,
-
“Macro Problem,”
-
“Red X Appears instead of Images,”
-
“How to create master documents” is much better than “Help” or “Question”.
State the version of Word and operating system you’re using. Describe the problem as best you can, including how you’ve tried to resolve the problem.
Describe what you’re trying to achieve. Describe any error messages you’ve encountered.
Avoid using nicknames, such as Crazy Frog. Use your real name. When responding, quote the relevant parts only. You don’t have to include every post that’s went before this.
Yo Mama! Word n da Hood! November 7, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : Microsoft Office News , add a comment
MS to Sell Domain Names November 7, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : Microsoft Office News , add a comment
Microsoft is now an ICANN-accredited domain registrar, which means that is can sell domains directly to its customers.
One reason for this is its move into web hosting and the new Office Live small business hosting service, which is in beta and will offer free web domain name with each account.
http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html
The company will sell biz, .com, .info, .name, .net, .org, .pro domain names.
Office Live is at: http://officelive.microsoft.com/
2007 Office Released to Manufacturers November 7, 2006
Posted by iawalsh in : Microsoft Office News , add a commentMyASDL report the completion of the 2007 Microsoft Office system code and confirmed its release to manufacturing (RTM).
This gold code milestone concludes the largest Microsoft Office beta program to date, with more than 3.5 million people downloading Beta 2. MyASDL add that ”to underscore the significance of this new day for business, Microsoft executives will participate in events around the globe, including an event with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in New York.” http://www.mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=4804The product goes on global release in early 2007.