The PQM 2.3 PC-programme
for quality control of instruction manuals

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The PQM programme makes it possible to control the user friendliness of an instruction manual.

The idea behind the PQM programme and system is to make it possible to ...

By means of the PQM programme, you can:

The programme has task related on-line help on all screens, either directly or by pressing F1. The PQM system and how to use the programme is described in the book Peter Ring: "The PQM-system. How to write better instruction manuals and control the quality yourself" .

The programme is very probably going to be an almost indispensable tool for a future international standard for certification of manuals. You can follow the development of the standard on PRC's news-page.

The programme is a DOS programme for PCs. The minimum demands are: 80386 processor, 640k RAM, 350k free RAM below 640k, 400k free harddisk, and DOS 3.1. For use with 8086-80286 processors, please specify processor and math co-processor when ordering (special version with a larger pqm.exe file using more RAM below 640k). To run it on a Mac or UNIX machine, you need an emulator, e.g., available from Insignia Solutions Inc. PRC accepts no liabilities due to problems related to emulators.

New version 2.3 released

A new version, PQM 2.3, was released 29 October 1996. The main features of the new version relative to PQM 2.2 are:

  1. Can run under Windows 95 and MS DOS 7.0.
  2. Can work with long filenames under Windows 95 or MS DOS 7.0 (or e.g. OS/2 or Windows NT with MS DOS 7.0).
  3. All known bugs are corrected.
  4. The RAM demands below 640k has been reduced from approx. 450-500k to approx. 350k.
  5. In menu 1 (RIX/LIX + difficult word count), you can now add a comment to problematic paragraphs, and have them printed out afterwards together with the paragraph.
  6. In practice, an unlimited number of sections may be handled in menu 3 (now determined by free harddisk - previously it was free RAM below 640k).
  7. Possibility to count product complexity, only, in main menu 3. The number of complexity steps per block are printed together with the rest of the data during full data printout.
  8. Two minor additions to the checkpoint list.
  9. The acceptable limits for user impatiency (in main menu 4) is made dependent on the number of pages in the manual.
  10. The input of the general data in menu 5 has been reorganised to a more natural order. If an acceptable value of a parameter is violated, the acceptable limit for the parameter is displayed and may be printed out.

Updating service: If you have a PQM 2.2 bought directly or as a part of a consultancy or seminar package in 1995-96, it will be updated free of charge. Other clients can update to PQM 2.3 for DKK 160.- ex. Danish VAT, all included (within Denmark: DKK 100,- + moms).

When installing, you can select to work with an English or a Danish user interface. Both versions can handle the same document languages.

Price and delivery

The price of the programme is DKK 1700.- (approx. US$ 242) + sending costs (depends on country). The price includes the book worth DKK 200.-. If you have the book already, the price of the programme is DKK 1500.-. If inside the European Union add Danish VAT (moms) of 25%, or include your company's VAT number with the order.

The programme with documentation will be send to you by letter, which means that you in most countries will avoid customs problems.

The licence entitles you to 1 year of free upgrades and hotline (or one free upgrade if later than one year). Further upgrades will be available at a special, low upgrade price.

To order, contact PRC on prc@prc.dk.

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