Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekig5!tekig4!briand
From: briand@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM (Brian Diehm)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Microsoft Word Documentation (was MS Word 4.0 questions)
Keywords: Word, ASCII, documentation
Message-ID: <4269@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM>
Date: 3 Aug 89 17:51:14 GMT
References: <927@key.COM> <8400136@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <4046@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> <7209@microsoft.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.
Lines: 73

> Hi!  My name is Delanie Alcorn-Jones and I'm the writing manager for 
> the Applications Office Business Unit of Microsoft.  We are responsible 
> for the documentation of the Microsoft Word and Microsoft Mail products.
> 
> This is in response to some mail between Brian Diehm (Tektronix) and
> David Luebert (Development/Microsoft).
> 
> I'm very interested in hearing from those of you that have suggestions
> for our documentation or if you've found mistakes that we need to correct
> on future reprints.
> 
> Again, my product areas include Microsoft Word (PC & Mac) and Microsoft
> Mail.
> 
> Delanie Alcorn-Jones
> OBU Writing Manager			uunet!microsoft!delaniej
> Microsoft Corporation
> 16011 NE. 36th Way
> Redmond WA 98073-9717

Delanie -

     I think this is absolutely wonderful, and I hope that you get deluged with
proper, polite, helpful suggestions. I appreciate your response on this issue.

Netters -

     We owe this lady all the input we can give, and some respect for making
the offer. I also believe that David Luebert would be happy to receive HELPFUL
comments about bugs and "missing" features.

     These people have made the effort to respond, and sometimes to less-than-
kind comments on the net (some from me, even! ;-)  ). Since they have responded,
we owe them courtesy and help. It is a rare opportunity for us to directly
contact the people responsible for tools we all use.

Everyone -

     My first suggestion for Delanie is that if Word is to have a dictionary-
style reference book, it must have entries for each and every command that is
listed in the "Commands..." dialog.

     The second suggestion for documentation is that the tutorial materials,
though fairly good, fail to develop a true "mental model" of what is going on.
This takes a fair amount of research into devising the desired mental model of
the product, and then a fair amount of research into devising a proper sequenced
method of building that model, and then a fairly simple process of writing to
that sequence.

     The third suggestion for documentation is one where I will not suggest a
fix, but merely point out a problem. There are many many degrees of freedom
in Word, some Mac-like and many that are carryovers from (retch, my opinion)
PCs. In all this feature-richness, you the user may be completely unaware of
just the feature you are looking for. For example, I just found out about the
Fast Save Enable command, which lets me DEFEAT fast saves. I think it's more
than wonderful that I can defeat them (I never trusted them) BUT I was unaware
of the feature until it became general user "lore." I need to be able to know
about the feature before I can use it.

     My suggestion to David Luebert is one I have made before, and one which
MORE than annoys many users: make the program remember font assignment by name,
not number. Apple guidelines are explicit on this point (to be fair, Apple has
waffled until spring of 88). In the meantime, Word is the one and only program
that is stopping our department from a changeover to the new Adobe/Apple font
numbering scheme with NFNTs. Microsoft's policy on this issue is inexcusable.

     So, how about the rest of you guys?

-- 
-Brian Diehm
Tektronix, Inc.                (503) 627-3437         briand@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM
P.O. Box 500, M/S 39-383
Beaverton, OR   97077                        (SDA - Standard Disclaimers Apply)