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Designing, writing and producing computer documentation
Denton L. (ed), Kelly J., McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, NY, 1993. Type: Book (9780070164178)
Date Reviewed: Oct 1 1994

Ten chapters, plus two appendices (the second taken from an IBM manual) make up this book on documentation. Chapters include “Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose,” “Getting Organized,” and “Dividing the Information into Books.” The authors include examples of graphics, such as pie charts and bar charts. Figure 7.6 includes a photo of tab dividers for use in a three-ring binder. All this material is a clear indication of the real audience for this book--those who know so little about producing a grade-school term paper that they need help.

This book has little to recommend it. Better books exist and have been reviewed in CR. The book is poorly laid out--a bad example of the documentation it purports to teach. It includes no bibliography and no references--mysterious since for one example Looking good in print [1] would have helped the authors. If you want to produce better documentation, start by looking elsewhere. Horton [2], Brockman [3], and Price and Korman [4] are good guides.

Reviewer:  David Bellin Review #: CR117508
1) Parker, R. Looking good in print. Ventana Press, Chapel Hill, NC, 1988.
2) Horton, W. Illustrating computer documentation. Wiley, New York, 1991.
3) Brockman, J. R. Writing better computer user documentation: from paper to hypertext (version 2.0). Wiley, New York, 1990.
4) Price, J. and Korman, H. How to communicate technical information. Benjamin-Cummings, Menlo Park, CA, 1993.
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