The New Trainers Guide to Creating End User Documentation

The New Trainers Guide to Creating End User Documentation

What you’ll learn

Best practices for writing clear, understandable and concise instructions
How to use a style guide to keep all documentation standardized, consistent and professional
Grammer, syntax, sentence structure used for software documentation
Easy techniques for improving end user software documentation
Software Interface conventions and formatting

Requirements

Desire to improve your instructional writing
No prior technical writing or Instructional Design training is needed

Description

This course is for anyone who is responsible for training or supporting end user software. Whether you are a new trainer, manager, support desk or a seasoned associate, this course will teach you techniques and skills to write end user documentation that gets used. You don’t need any prior technical writing or instructional design experience so you can jump right in and start using these techniques right now.You will learn how to write clear, accurate steps that always ensure the user knows exactly what to do. You will explore techniques that keep documentation concise and simple so users aren’t overwhelmed and disregard training materials. We won’t spend time on lengthy explanations of theory but we will focus on real world, practical writing that you can use Today. This course is filled with real world examples of instructional writing that you can use to practice your new skills. Every exercise comes with a review session to help you understand how and why the revision and writing is needed.In addition, you will be provided with a wealth of downloadable resources. Included in this course is a style guide which will cover software conventions and terminology. Also included are style guides that outline documentation structure, instructional techniques, syntax and key grammar techniques. You will have additional resources for techniques to reduce information overload and writing in plain language. You will have all the information at your fingertips as you begin writing your documents.

Overview

Section 1: Technical Writing Concepts

Lecture 1 Introduction

Lecture 2 Your Users are Frustrated

Lecture 3 Documentation Fundamentals

Lecture 4 Know your Audience’s Level

Lecture 5 Recognize and Avoid Data Dumping

Lecture 6 Clearing Mental Clutter

Lecture 7 Mental Clutter Examples

Section 2: User Actions: Terminology and Style

Lecture 8 Standard Language and Style

Lecture 9 Referencing Commands

Lecture 10 Referencing Menus and Lists

Lecture 11 Referencing Options and Windows

Lecture 12 Referencing Keys and Phone Actions

Lecture 13 Exercise 01 Review

Section 3: User Actions: Formatting and Construction

Lecture 14 Formatting Do’s and Don’ts

Lecture 15 Constructing the User Action Statement

Lecture 16 Jargon and Acronyms

Lecture 17 Identifying Icons

Lecture 18 Exercise 02 Review

Section 4: Building Instructions: Procedures and Overview

Lecture 19 Use a Common Structure

Lecture 20 Start with a Clear Title

Lecture 21 Provide a Great Opening

Lecture 22 Break a Task into Procedures

Lecture 23 Procedure Title and Overview

Lecture 24 Exercise 03 Review

Section 5: Building Instructions: Steps

Lecture 25 Documenting Steps

Lecture 26 Identifying Steps

Lecture 27 SubSteps

Lecture 28 Exercise 04 Review

Lecture 29 Conditional Steps

Lecture 30 Alternative and Optional Steps

Lecture 31 Exercise 05 Review

Lecture 32 Handling User Input

Lecture 33 User Input – Creating Steps

Lecture 34 Exercise 06 Review

Lecture 35 Linking To Steps

Section 6: Building Instructions: Adding Information

Lecture 36 Distuinguishing Information from Instructions

Lecture 37 Information About a Step – Notes

Lecture 38 Information Before a Step

Lecture 39 Information From the System

Lecture 40 Infomation After a Step

Lecture 41 Information to Improve Efficiency

Lecture 42 Exercise 07 Review

Section 7: Summary

Lecture 43 Closing

Managers and Trainers responsible for training department staff,Support Staff, Help Desk and Business Analysts,Instructional Designers and Technical Writers

Course Information:

Udemy | English | 2h 53m | 2.55 GB
Created by: Michele Banks

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