🚀 go-pugleaf

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).  First, let me start by saying 
that we in the User Education department do listen to our users and
are interested in hearing even more from you. We all agree that it is 
all to easy to isolate ourselves from our users and their needs.  
I and a couple other writers monitor this news group as well as others 
on UseNet.  In addition, we have a writer that monitors CompuServe 
activity.  

What Brian Diehm says about our MacWord documentation is true and we are
very aware of it.  Its organization suits the product but often not its
users.  It's very hard to find the little features.  If you don't know
the Word term, you can lose valuable time trying to find the information
you need. Our products use a language of their own and we are striving to 
get better at breaking down the barrier between Word's lingo and everyday 
terms.  We still have a long way to go but we are trying.

Recently, we have been researching new or different ways to present and
organize information.  Our goal is to make the documentation more usable
and the information more accessible.  We plan to implement our new ideas
on our next major releases of Word.

Brian brought up a very good point about indexes.  We're also looking into
ways to improve our indexes such as allowing the indexers time to learn
about competitive products so they index non-Word terms. 

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.  Answers may be a bit slow in coming if I get a mass 
quantity of mail but please rest assured that we will definitely read all 
that we recieve.  (Unconstructive flames will be forwarded to /dev/null.)

Again, my product areas include Microsoft Word (PC & Mac) and Microsoft
Mail.  I can't answer questions about other products but I can *try* to
forward them on.

Thanks,

Delanie Alcorn-Jones
OBU Writing Manager			uunet!microsoft!delaniej
Microsoft Corporation
16011 NE. 36th Way
Redmond WA 98073-9717


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>> Actually, it's very easy to get a list of all of Word 4.0's commands key and
>> menu assignments by using the Edit/Commands dialog. Simply press the List 
>> button. This creates a new document consisting of a table listing every Word 
>> command and its current assignments. If you want to know what a command does
>> press the Help... button in the dialog. For Paste Special Character the Help
>> button produces the text: "Inserts a special font character indicated by
>> decimal code you type". The fact that Word can tell you what a command does
>> at user request puts the lie to the claim the Paste Special Character command
>> is "COMPLETELY undocumented".
>>
>> Dave Luebbert
>> Microsoft Corporation

>From: briand@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM (Brian Diehm)
>
>OK, you win, it's not COMPLETELY undocumented. It's just that in order to find
>out about the feature, you have to already know about the feature. When we
>started our quest to find the feature (we knew it was in 3.xx), we looked for
>all the appropriate topics we could think of in indexes and tables of contents.
> 
>WHO WOULD GUESS THIS FEATURE WOULD BE FOUND UNDER PASTE? OR SPECIAL CHARACTER?
>We tried Code (suggested from the old feature), ASCII, literal, insert, and
>several others, but a group of people spent a half hour on it without getting
>it from the manual. Another member of the group found it first by experimen-
>tation.
>   .
>   .
>   .
>It is incumbent on the writers to index under EVERY LIKELY title that people
>may think of when they search for the feature, not just the name that the
>feature has been assigned for that package. That's a tall order, and Microsoft
>isn't alone in doing a less-than-perfect job. However, the lack of user-
>orientation as opposed to "official" orientation seems pretty strong in Word
>documentation.
> 
>If Microsoft differs with this opinion, they should listen to their customers
>instead of trying to shout them down. I am certainly not alone in my critical
>assessment, if my incoming mailbox is to be believed.

> -- 
>-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)