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 Software background
For many years, I was in Technical Sales and Training on software
systems for different companies, and one of my duties was to create the
online Help Guides. In the late 1990s I used ForeHelp, and later
migrated to Adobe RoboHelp. These Help Guides were created to be
inherently user-friendly, with a good index and full search facilities.
Before I set up my technical authoring business in 2000, I was promoted
to Software Product and QA Manager for some years. I was
particularly keen on good Usability, the idea being that the end user
should find the user interface to be instinctive to use, without
reference to the Help Guide. My Key Adage for the programmers was
"DON'T MAKE ME GUESS!"
If the user needs further Help, then a proper Help Guide needs to be
instantly accessible, easy to use, well-indexed and to have a really
good keyword search, backed up with a full text search facility. Good
design meant that I achieved these goals.
These efforts reduced the level of support calls - which saved the
company a lot of resources that they could then focus on more creative
areas. They are also a good sales aid.
Competence
With this background, I'm happy to create Manuals or online Help for
your software. If you wish, I can also suggest improvements to software
operation and the user interface.
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