Copy and paste

In IT industry, copy (CTRL+C) and paste (CTRL+V) action is the major action. Someone might have truly said that if "C" and "V" buttons are removed from the computer keyboard, then most of our work would come into standstill.
Once I faced an acute problem with the copy-paste action in MS Publisher, in fact there was nothing wrong with Publisher. I was not able to copy text from other application like, notepad. Within the Publisher, text and objects could be copied pasted. Then, I looked in the clipboard; there I found everything was copied into the clipboard, but not in the actual insertion point.
The easy solution I found as most of the computer user that I closed Publisher and again opened it. Ahh.. now my copy-paste action works fine. This is not the solution of what I faced, but it might be one of

Snagit window capture

Snagit 9.1.2 window profile captures the application window. However, Java application by-passes the native operating system and shows the child window through the “swing” technology. This makes job of Snagit difficult to capture the child window or a dialog box individually.
I posted this problem to the Snagit support team. Let see, if Snagit's next version comes up with a solution.

Simple work

The task you could do easily is said to be “simple work.” If you are asked to fill some color using a paint editor, you would do it quickly. Now, if you are asked to edit an image in the Photoshop editor, then you need some knowledge on it. First you would find many tools available, most of their usage you don’t know. You try to look for some help or training, otherwise lot of time is spend in searching and trying your hand in all of them to get your required result. At the end you would exhaust yourself; you would get fear with the work and try to avoid the task.

The scenario would change, if you would get some overview of the product and know the purpose of the tools. This is the case of every user irrespective of their domain knowledge. Basic knowledge is required to work with product. So, here comes the “Help” that could be a tutorial, user guide, demonstration, and so on.

I think of myself, when I first get into the product and run for help, asking my teammates for assistance. I go through the knowledge transfer session, and made a list of questions to ask the SMEs. I still find myself in a comfortable zone surrounded by peoples who could at least answer my queries. After all I am getting paid to know about my company product and give the best out of my effort.

The user who stats from the scratch, have no knowledge of the product, would get difficulty in doing their work. In the market, there are many vendors to provide the same product; however, the price is a different factor to convince the purchase. Therefore, in the trial version if the customer (user) is not handy with the product. They would never go ahead to purchase it.

Document Development Life Cycle

DDLC (Document Development Life Cycle) includes the various stages involved in structured document creation. DDLC helps in creation of efficient and quality document creation. The DDLC stages are:
1.Project Start-up
Project start-up generally involves the creation of project plan. It includes understanding the project objectives and constraints in terms of time, quality, and cost. The scope of the project is clearly defined along with standards to be followed throughout the project. This phase also involves identifying key personnel responsible for providing, reviewing, and approving document content.
2.Requirement Analysis
Requirement analysis for documentation includes Audience Analysis, Need Analysis and Task Analysis. You try to understand the product business logic and come up with strategies to achieve the your goal. You also decide the format and the delivery media for the document at this phase.
3.Design
Design phase basically deals with collecting and organizing data. It involves planning the instructional and media strategies and creating the course outline. Workflow of the document is planned in this phaze.
4.Development
Document development requires actual writing of the document, and integration of the various components (graphics, glossary, search items) of the document. This phase also involves document reviews and revisions and management of documentation issues. Now, the document is ready for testing.
5.Edit & Proofread
Peer-review is done to find errors and mark corrections, it involves parameters like correctness, completeness, adherence to standards, and usability.
6.Publishing
After updating and fixing the the errors the document is ready for publishing. The hard work of this phase relates to actual delivery of the document to its target audience.
7.Maintainance
Maintenance involves maintaining the deliverables. For example, it may involve content reuse analysis and elimination of redundant data from the document sets. It may also include template revision or inclusion of new product features.

Technology In Communication

Technical writers are communication specialist who add real value to the internal organization, products, and services. In this age of technology, the ability to organize, present, and transmit information with clarity, coherence, and precision is important. User-friendly communication tools helps us to prepare most voluminous technical documents with greater speed and efficiency.
Advantages of tools usage are:
• Speed and efficiency
• Professional appearance and presentable
• Vivid and greater appeal
• Facilitates revising, editing, and formatting
Limitations:
• Information overload or difficulty in effective information selection
• System Failures
• Require technical proficiency
• Fatigue and Frustration

Communication Etiquettes

1. Do not write "the same" in an email - it makes little sense to them.
Example - I will try to organize the project artifacts and inform you of the same when it is done. (This is somewhat an Indian construct.)
Correct: I will try to organize the project artifacts and inform you when that is done. Information on Email notification
2. Do not write or say, "I have some doubts on this issue". The term "doubt" is used in the sense of doubting someone - we use this term because in Indian languages, the word for a "doubt" and a "question" is the same.
Correct: I have a few questions on this issue.
3. The term "regard" is not used much in American English. They usually do not say "regarding this issue" or "with regard to this".
Correct: "about this issue".
4. Do not say "pardon" when you want someone to repeat what they said. The word "pardon" is unusual for them and is somewhat formal.
Correct: Apologize.
5. Americans do not understand most of the Indian accent immediately - They only understand 75% of what we speak and then interpret the rest. Therefore try not to use shortcut terms such as "Can't" or "Don't". Use the expanded "Cannot" or "Do not".
6. Do not use the term "screwed up" liberally. If a situation is not good, it is better to say, "The situation is messed up". Do not use words such as "shucks", or "pissed off".
7. As a general matter of form, Indians interrupt each other constantly in meetings - DO NOT interrupt a client when they are speaking. Over the phone, there could be delays - but wait for a short time before responding.
8. When explaining some complex issue, stop occasionally and ask "Does that make sense?" This is preferable than "Do you understand me?"
9. In email communications, use proper punctuation. To explain something, without breaking your flow, use semicolons, hyphens or parenthesis. Example: You have entered a new bug (the popup not showing up) in the defect tracking system; we could not reproduce it - although, a screenshot would help.
10. Reference to the actual bug is added in parenthesis so that the sentence flow is not broken. Break a long sentence using such punctuation.
11. In American English, a mail is a posted letter. An email is electronic mail. When you say "I mailed the information to you", it means you sent an actual letter or package through the postal system.
Correct: "I emailed the information to you."
12. To "prepone" an appointment is an Indian usage. There is no actual word called prepone. You can "advance" an appointment.
13. In the term "N-tier Architecture" or "3-tier Architecture", the word "tier" is not pronounced as "Tire". Many people pronounce it this way. The correct pronunciation is "tea-yar". The "ti" is pronounced as "tea".
14. The usages "September End", "Month End", "Day End" are not understood well by Americans. They use these as "End of September", "End of Month" or "End of Day".
15. Americans have weird conventions for time - when they say the time is "Quarter of One", they mean the time is 1:15. Better to ask them the exact time.
16. Indians commonly use the terms "Today Evening", "Today Night". These are not correct; "Today" means "This Day" where the Day stands for Daytime. Therefore "Today Night" is confusing.
Correct: "This Evening", "Tonight". That applies for "Yesterday Night" and "Yesterday Evening"; "Last Night" and "Last Evening".
17. There is no word called "Updation". You update somebody. You wait for updates to happen to the database. Avoid saying "Updation".
18. When you talk with someone for the first time, refer to them as they refer to you - in America, the first conversation usually starts by using the first name. Therefore you can use the first name of a client. Do not say "Sir". Do not call women "Madam".
19. It is usual convention in initial emails (particularly technical) to expand abbreviations, this way: We are planning to use the Java API for Registry (JAXR). After mentioning the expanded form once, subsequently you can use the abbreviation.
20. Make sure you always have a subject in your emails and that the subject is relevant. Do not use a subject line such as "HI".
21. Avoid using "Back" instead of "Back" Use "ago". Back is the worst word for American.
(for Days use "Ago", For hours use "before".)
22. Avoid using "but" instead of "But" use "However".
23. Avoid using "Yesterday" hereafter use "Last day".
24. Avoid using "Tomorrow" hereafter use "Next day".
Example: A few days back, I met with an accident.
Correct: A few days ago, I have an accident.
25. In conversation or informally we often use the following terms - revert back, return back, and refer back. Although Edited English may reject this use. Revert means “to go back,” “to return to,”

Problem in Voice Support

I came across with a problem in online bank transaction, and tried the phone banking to get assistance from through customer care. In the product menu selected the numeric option to get in the related service, even after following a long process I did not had the option to speak with the support personnel. Then I came across a scenario that after giving two consecutive wrong details of my ATM card, machine directed me to the voice support section. However, the customer executive could not able to answer to my question and put me on hold; astonishingly my call was directed to the main menu.
I again followed the same scenario to reach the customer care. This time the person gave vague steps to follow, and then told that the query doesn’t belong to their department. In this way I was moving from one department to other over phone. Even once during the conversation, phone connection was cut off.
Then I opened the online customer care section and started reading the FAQs and got the solution.
So, instead of spending time to sort-out the problem from the customer care, text-help could have been read earlier from the website.
Voice support is very handy to get the query answered. But it is found that all service providers segregate the voice support into different departments, callers are given whole lot of options to find the right one and ultimately it never becomes easy to get the right information.

English in IT

World is transforming into a global village, where English is becoming a de facto standard for every conceivable form of communication. India has more English speaking people than U.K, but students passed out from English medium school mostly lack proper English communication.
A recent incident in Hyderabad, where students demanded for English than telegu, significantly denotes the aspirations of many, especially from the rural areas. What is painful is that English has always been taught as a subject, but never used in actual conversation, thereby annihilating the very purpose of learning a language.
IT companies are concerned of the English usage, everyone from managers to employees has to have good presentation and presentation skills, and sometime corporate trainings are provided to them.
For example, you are giving presentation to the client and your laptop stops working. What you will do then? If you are good at your verbal skill then you can continue the presentation without a hitch, otherwise you have to give an excuse to the problem.
Thus, language is an important role to attract MNCs to outsource their business operations to Indian BPOs and IT companies. Though there are competitors like China which also have a large pool of skilled workers but they don't have enough graduates who have command over English language.

Can we teach others?

"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one" - Malcolm Forbes
We can’t teach anything to anybody, but one can only facilitate. A concept is an approach in methodology that would simplify things in a rotten learn-by-root system. It’s a fresh diversion from memorizing to understanding. Children (below 12 years) have good grasping power, which comes out of their own interest to know more the subject.
It’s common that after an age (around 30 years) our mind become rigid and declines to accept new concepts, with age our mind gets filled up with many things.
Increase of technology usage has led to the investment in learning process. Industry feel online training not just adds value to the workplace, it’s crucial for their success. Globalization has increased the competition and size of the market, e-learning has become a more practical and meaningful training option as it has a wider reach. Online training is not only convenient, flexible and time-saving; it’s more cost-effective in the long run. Now, companies feel online training not just adds value to the workplace, its crucial for their success

Hide 'n' Seek

In many cases problem arises when I am asked to design the document, and the product is not fully tested. Unknowingly, I write the bugs as functionality and give a note to it, and when it goes to SME for review they came to know about the fact; then issue is raised to fix the bug. This make me feel good that I am able to pin-point every scenarios of the product behavior. Sometime it becomes necessary to hide internal functionality which user never come across or don’t see. For instance, user get advice according to the test result, if sore is 60% or more user gets next level topics otherwise lower level topics are suggested. But user doesn’t know his/her score percentage, so suggestion feature is described without highlighting the 60% benchmark.

Library Management

Data growth continues to be a challenge for IT and storage administrators. Data is often subject to long-term retention and special storage requirements driven by regulatory compliance, litigation, corporate governance, and operational business needs. In library managing information, books, and documents in a logical sequence, group and order without a knowledge classified system?

The term ‘library’ has itself acquired a secondary meaning: “a collection of useful material for common use,” There is a huge contribution of young students assisting in the Library of Amherst College that revolutionized the library science and the profession of Librarianship by evolving a classification system for organizing information related to various fields and their retrieval in the conventional library.

Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system or number building theory was developed by Melvil Dewey, and first edition was published in 1876, which changed from vocation to the present knowledge management profession. Since then greatly modified and expanded in the course of the 22nd edition, the most recent in 2004, having four volumes. Web Dewey and its online services are under OCLC, an organization serving for spread of knowledge without commercial temptations. It is mainly used in libraries for organizing library materials (books, serials, audiovisual materials, computer files, maps, manuscripts, realia) according to their subject.

DDC is a hierarchical classification system that divides all knowledge into 10 main classes and numbers them 0 to 9 and a decimal at the end of 3rd digit. Hence the system can be neatly summarized in 10 main classes, 100 divisions and 1000 sections. Books are classified principally by subject, with extensions for subject relationships, place, time or type of material, producing classification numbers of not less than three digits but otherwise of indeterminate length with a decimal point before the fourth digit. Books are placed on the shelf in increasing numerical order. The following are main class numbers:

000: Computers, information, and general reference

100: Philosophy and Psychology

200: Religion

300: Social Science

400: Language

500: Science

600: Technology

700: Arts and Recreation

800: Literature

900: History and Geography

When two books have the same subject, they have the same classification number, i.e., 3^rd digit remain same, while 2^nd and 3^rd digit go on changing. It is a common misconception that all books in the DDC are non-fiction.

As a Tehnical Writer I will

“The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.” ~Samuel Johnson

As a technical writer, I am responsible for communicating technical and business information to the reader that helps to understand and use the application. It is a craft through which information is delivered to those who need it. The word “Technical Writer” sounds new, but this profession was present long time back, where there was a need of interaction between human and application. Help or knowledge is required to get full advantage of the application, even the manuscripts from the medieval period could be looked upon as early technical writing. Over the years it has matured, and is still growing at an admirable manner. We understand reference and task-based information well enough that when we produce help files. Talking about a product development process, technical writing has not only been a part of the end user documentation, it has also assisted the organizations in the design and development process.

My inclination towards technology and software tools led me to love this technical writing job. This profession allows me to keep going with my passion of creativity. I would like to call myself as “Technical Communicator,” my work is an action oriented, expressing tasks precisely and clearly. Style guides and check lists help me to write correctly and concisely. I feel challenging and excited to find new dimension in defining my work. I interact with the team members to gather information about the usage, policies, and concept of the project and product. No doubt, I prepare documentation, but it is different from content writing, journalism, copy writing and others. I feel that technical writers must understand the product, project, technology, and business issues.

In the early days of my profession, I mostly used to write ‘User Guide,’ task involves screen-shots of application, drawing flowcharts, and step-by-step task completion procedure. Analyzing and running the application repeatedly some time led me to find bugs, which helped me to understand the application better. Afterward I also put my hand in web development, flowchart design, and image processing. I realized that lot of things has to be taken care in documentation, my technical background and my zeal to learn more helped me to venture into programming, often I get involved in application (software) form design, that’s what technical writers are different from other writers, we wears many hats in IT profession, one has to be versatile and their interpersonal skill is important for a team work.
I love critics, even document need testing. In editing process, I ensure consistency across each of the help files and controlling versions of the help as edits are made.

A software or hardware company had documents both for internal and external purpose. We all know how to use a mobile phone; still a manual comes with it. Study shows that 80% lifetime cost of the software is due to support and maintenance, which could be reduced through good documents. Companies are realizing the importance of documentation, however there are few formal education to to know or learn about technical writing, few communities are coming up to discuss and popularize it. As per Rahul Prabhakar it is right to say “Technical writing - the new black gold of India.” Let’s hope in the upcoming era of help we will revolutionize user-machine interaction through our active participation.

King of Merchandise

Usability and accessibility plays an important role in popularity of an application. An application might be robust with many facility and features, but that should be conveyed to the user. Many high-tech gadgets are coming in the market and companies have same product, how the customer (user) know about it?
What attracts is the look & feel of the product, and how handy it is.
For instance, see for luxury and accessory items like car, bike, mobile, television, and so on. Many people keep high-tech items with them without knowing its full usage of it. So, engineers are working to make their product user-friendly.
Take the case of Google, where 80% of the search is done. Yes, its technology is high, above that its interface (home page) is simple.
Every company has their standards or benchmarks to follow in their production house and customer know their brand style. Then what happens when a company acquires other one, they implement there, but that takes time. In cell phone arena, all brands has their own identity, interface is unique.
Many time product overlook some customers, product is customized for special class of customer like luxury car and economy car. But people get feel discriminated for difficulty in the application usage. In California, a federal district court judge ruled that a retailer may be sued if its website is inaccessible to the blind.
No matter what the product is, which ranges from accessories, hardware or software, at last it goes to the user, they are the ultimate to choose and use.

Product Usability

Computer usage has increased, and users are added in thousand folds. Products are becoming more compatible and user-friendly. Whatever the logic or procedure the developers use is none of the user’s business; they want the work to be done easily. For example, a mobile phone is very convenient to any people, they can operate the handset easily, but most of the user either hesitate or get difficulty during their initial usage. Even though a person using his/her own handset for long time might not know some extra features available in it. That’s why GUI, content, and help-file facilitate the product more acceptable to the user.
Here comes the usability and help into picture; no matter how robust the product is! If it can’t come-up with user’s expectations then it fails. But, there are exceptions where functionality and robustness of an application has to compromise with GUI, for example, mainframe application.

Who is reading Help?

Do we ever think that user guide of 200-300 pages are ever read by the user?
This question might come into our mind.
Marketing team will sell the products to the customers, and there will be more in the selling list. So, where these document into picture?

There is an influx of high-tech users, those who want the ultimate performance of their product. One day or the other you have to use a new product and to get guidance or training from other is not feasible every time. For instance, we get a manual with every purchase of a mobile. We all know how to make use of it, still manual gives details of every feature. Here comes User Guide or Manual, giving you minute detail of the product, you might not be reading the book from top to bottom, nor the help suggest to read in that manner, it will act as a quick help or reference guide to a problem. You might be categorized among the master of mobile user, but you may face problem in downloading audio song into your mobile, which is available in your mobile. Then you can quickly go through the TOC or index of your manual to know the correct procedure.
Now it has become a norm to provide user guide with every product, to familiarize and make it handy. Advantages of help with the product are as follows:

• Decrease training cost
• Naive user can work easily with the product
• Productivity increases
• Easy assistance available
• Popularity increases

ISMS Standards

The Quest for International Recognition
This is not the first time BS7799 has been proposed as an ISO standard. The original version, BS7799:1995 was submitted in the summer of 1996 but was narrowly defeated. Those countries who voted in its favor were not dismayed, however. Australia and New Zealand for example recast it (by changing the UK legislative references to corresponding Australian and New Zealand references) and re-published it as AS/NZS 4444. The Netherlands embraced it wholesale and established a certification scheme, which went live early 1997. This international interest encouraged the British to develop the standard further. BS7799, How it works? Please note that ISO/IEC 17799:2005 just been published (15 June 2005). It replaces ISO/IEC 17799:2000. This means that Annex A of the current ISMS standard (BS7799-2:2002) is now out of date, as it refers to ISO/IEC 17799:2000. There will be an ISO/IEC version of BS7799-2:2002. It is anticipated that this will be published early next year and will be called ISO/IEC 27001. The Management Standard BS7799-2:2002 instructs you how to apply ISO/IEC 17799 and how to build, operate, maintain and improve an ISMS. The 1999 edition only instructed you to apply ISO/IEC 17799 and build an ISMS. The major components of an ISMS are summarized in Figure 1. The activities continually cycle around the PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT cycle.

Figure1
The Code of Practice
ISO/IEC 17799:2005 defines 132 security controls structured under 11 major headings as follows:

• Security Policy
• Organizing Security
• Asset Management
• Human Resource Management
• Physical and Environmental Security
• Communication and Operation Management
• Access Control
• Information System Acquisition, development and maintenance
• Information Security Incident Management
• Business Continuity Management
• Compliance

These enable readers to identify the particular safeguards that are appropriate to their particular business or specific area of responsibility.

ISMS Standards Overview

The scope of any ISMS includes

1. People

2. Processes

3. IT systems

4. Policies

Concerns

• Confidentiality
• Integrity
• Availability

BS7799-2:2002 is a management standard, and explains how to build, maintain and improve an Information Security Management System (ISMS). It is predicated on risk assessment and the Plan-Do-Check-Act model, which are two vital ingredients of corporate governance. Thus, BS7799-2:2002 provides an excellent basis on which to build the management controls necessary to achieve an organization’s mission, to manage risk, to assure effective control and to seek improvements where appropriate. ISMS forms a part of an organization’s internal control system. The 7799 standards are particularly pertinent to corporate governance in an "e-biz" context, where risk management not only has to contend with the usual risks of doing business but also with rapidly changing IT/Internet risks and multiple legal jurisdictions. Thus the standards explain how to address the all-to-common and often devastating business impacts caused by viruses, web-site outages, improper disclosure of customer account details and incorrect pricing information. A growing number of politicians and leaders of industry are now recognizing the importance of these standards. Businesses, notably throughout Europe and Asia, who have a desire to flourish in the Information Age, are already taking advantage of ISO/IEC 17799.

Document and Data Control Procedure

• Information Security Manual
• Asset List/Risk Management Plan
• Statement of Applicability
• Guidelines
• Templates and Formats.

Goals of ISMS

Define and implement process and policies that protect our business assets and ensures efficient business operations and business continuity. Track and keep space with changing requirement of business and threat scenarios. Meet statutory requirements and implement security solution that are cost effective and that afford ease of use for meeting our information goal.

Security Policy

• Protect confidentiality, Integrity and availability of our business
• Meet contractual obligations on information security
• Meet regulatory and legislation requirements
• Ensure business continuity
• Undertake proactive actions and implement relevant information security policies to prevent security breaches
  

FAQ
1.What is ISMS ?

Information Security Management System, it mainly deals with protecting business assets.

What are business Assets ?

• Information. Database, System Documents, training materia, so on.
• Software. Developed and bought.
• Documents. Hard copy & softcopy, viz. Contracts, manuals, so on.
• People. Employees.
• Services – UPS, Power, so on
• Company Image and Reputation

What are the three concern properties of ISMS?

• Confidentiality. Ensuring that information is accessible to authorized access.
• Integrity. Safe guard the accuracy and completeness of information.
• Availability. Ensuring that authorized users have access to information.
  

Do you have internal audit?

Yes we have it once in every quarter

How is the audit conducted?

It is conducted by the Information Security officer. They investigate and recommend corrective ness/Preventive actions according to ISMS norms and close the same when they are resolved.

How do you protect sensitive data?

Any information that is considered sensitive will be password protected.

What is password policy?

• Every employee has to secure his password strictly, do not reveal it even to family member while working at home.
• Should not reveal it even to the CEO of the company.
• Password changes after every 45 days.
• Min length of password is of 8 Characters, with a combination of upper case, lower case and punctuation characters as well as letters.
• Should not have names like family members, pets, friends, coworkers, fantasy characters, computer terms, birth day.
  

What policies should not be violated?

• Copy Rights
• Trade secret
• Patents or Intellectual Properties
• Inappropriate licenses
  

Can we provide information to others outside company?

No, we should not provide information to other parties outside company.

What will you do when you find some sensitive documents in the office premises or some body violating the rules?

Inform it to the BCP (Business Continuity Plan) representatives of that month.

Are you permitted to bring outside material in the office premises?

No, you are not permitted to bring inside the office, we leave it at the security guard.

What will you do when fire breaks or there is an earth quack?

Don't panic; take proper steps to avoid calamities. Prepare yourself through mock-up drill.

What will you do when virus attacks your system?

We will first remove the network cable or shutdown the system and inform to the network administrator.

What is your asset Manager?

We maintain all the information in the VSS (Virtual Storage System) and access to VSS is given according to the need of the user.

What is HIPAA?

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Information should be protected as it deals with Health based information.

Were you given an induction, when you joined the company?

Yes.

Technical Writing

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug.” – Mark Twain

The purpose of communication is to narrow the distance between people and places. There are many paths to reach the goal, but the right one is in demand.
In personal communication every one wants to convey their thoughts and feelings. When we speak we convey our message not only by words, but our body language plays a major factor in expression, even you have found few people giving some gesture while talking on a phone. We can rectify our self immediately if spoke anything wrong or got diverted from our topic. There is few linguistics required while we speak, a good speaker must attract the attention of the audience, how well the document preparation is doesn't matter, but he has to deliver the speech well.

Writer has to be perfect in his wordings, words wills acts as wizard to visualize to fact, simple words are enough to express, once reader get diverted from the main topic it is difficult to make a “U” turn to the main topic. We writers have to be consistent in our writings and take precautionary measures to minimize errors in document, readers will love the writing if they find it interesting. In technical document writers are not allowed to express their own feeling and exaggerate their own subject, writing has to be precise and to the point. Technical document in itself means technology related document referring to usability or popularize the product, which can be tangible or intangible.
White Paper, Patent Paper, style guide, so on are document related to the product. The term "TECHNICAL DOCUMENT" can be categorized as follows:

• Operation Manuals
• User Manuals
• Administrative Manuals
• Service Manuals
• Maintenance Manuals
• Installation Manuals
• On-line Help
• Policies & Procedures
• Technical Bulletins
• Data Sheets/Specification Sheets
• Quick Reference Guides/Cards
• Usability Testing & Validation,
• API document
• Functional Document, and may more.

Users of technical document may be internal or external people of its own company. Document was in the past, but why much of demand is there now days? Reasons for crunch of software technical writing are as follows:

• Computers and their users are rapidly increasing and they all need to familiar with upcoming computer products
• Globalization makes it inevitable to popularize the product
• Need to decrease training cost
• Maintain standardization
• Swift flow of information

Increase in awareness among the software personnel to give importance and recognize software documentation is also one of the reasons for demand of technical writers.The job of technical writer is to express technical knowledge in layman terms, technical documents format and style differs according to different user.

FAQ
1.What tools can be used to develop web-based online help?
(A) By international treaty, only RoboHelp can be used
(B) Any Windows help application, provided it can compile the help in uncompressed HTML files.
(C) Microsoft Word or a similar word processor
Ans-B
2. What is a major difference between online help and a tutorial?
(A) People use the index in help more than they would in a tutorial
(B) Tutorials always use multimedia, while that is not available in help
(C) People only use help when needed, but that is not true with tutorials
Ans-A
3. Why was the Java applet selected in compiling the WebHelp instead of DHTML?
(A) Java code cannot be compromised by hackers
(B) Concern over browser compatibility
(C) DHTML means "Don't use HTML"
Ans-C
4. How is the creative process stimulated?
(A) By taking stimulants or depressants
(B) In a very linear and logical order
(C) Randomly, by association of images and words
Ans-C
5. Do graphical outlining software superior to pencil and paper?
(A) It depends on your working style
(B) Provided it is not too expensive
(C) Pencil and paper are obsolete
Ans-A
6. Why do you need to learn to use difficult programs like FrameMaker?
(A) To get into the desktop publishing business
(B) It is only necessary for poor writers
(C) It is often a requirement for the job8Bottom of Form
7. Why should you be knowledgeable about the subject matter?
(A) In case the subject matter expert gets sick
(B) To show you are better than the engineers
(C) It is difficult to write about what you don't understand
Ans-C
8. What can you learn from attending Society for Technical Communications meetings?
(A)Techniques other writers use
(B)There is no reason to do so
(C)The latest gossip about other writers
Ans-A
9.. Why isn't "good enough" good enough?
(A) There isn't the satisfaction of doing your best
(B) If it satisfies the requirements, it is good enough
(C)You may end up with extra time on your handsBottom of Form
Ans-A
10. How can writing online help be valuable to your supervisor?
(A)Online help has no use or value
(B)She can use it on her computer
(C)He can deliver a needed product to his manager
Ans-C
11. What is a way to make yourself more valuable?
(A)Demand higher wages
(B)Delay on finishing a critical document
(C)Volunteer for important tasks
Ans-C