Do you need "somebody" to write one or more good
internal/external manuals, user guides (or whatever it is called) – from
scratch or based on
a translation?
...or do you have a feeling, that your manuals could be better?
Then contact PRC – one of the World-leaders
in user-friendly manuals!
Peter Ring was for example asked by
TEKOM
(the German association of technical communicators) to write the
chapter about Denmark for their book published 2004 "Technical Communication
– international, today and in the future".
For further information about this book see
http://www.tekom.de/artikel/artikel_1322.html
.
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Even not a member, Peter Ring was also judge in
STC Europe
's "
Trans European Technical Communication Competition 2003".
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PRC offers the following services
within technical communication:
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Peter Ring, PRC, don't mind travelling.
Why use PRC?
I cannot use free-lancers because our products are too special !
Text and graphics: Total projects – Subprojects
– Translation
PRC can handle the whole process
from writing to print and/or on-line help – or any part of
it.
By means of the systematic
PQM 3.0 programme
(Planned Quality of Manuals) developed by PRC, the project and the manual
will from the start of get a good structure, and we ensure, that the manual
is well adapted to the actual target group(s).
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The clients
of PRC are typically small, medium-sized or large companies within
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Electronics and IT
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Software
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Mechanical engineering
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Heating and plumbing
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The reason for looking for external assistance is typically:
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They don't need
a full time employee for writing and/or translating manuals. On
the other hand they know that manuals are to be written/translated by an
expert in
manuals
!
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They need a model for their manuals
which their own people can use:
PRC makes the first manual, and their
own employees make the updates and/or future manuals.
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They have a temporary need for
extra capacity
in the documentation department on floor- or management level.
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Languages, handled by Peter Ring, PRC:
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Writes Danish and English.
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Translates...
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from
Danish, English, German,
Swedish and Norwegian.
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to
Danish and English.
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Other languages
are handled through external partners.
Localization
When a manual is translated, it often needs
to be adapted to local rules for e.g. electric power connections. PRC knows
where the critical points typically are and makes the localization as a natural
part of the translation.
"Improved translation"
If needed and agreed upon, PRC can offer you to improve the
manual during the translation so that it follows the generally accepted "best
practice"
rules for how to write a user-friendly manual.
Click here to read about
PRC's special qualifications.
Short-form manuals
Very often a short-form manual with hard-to remember facts is needed, too. PRC
has made many of them.
Back to the list of contents!
Video/screencam and interactive multimedia manuals
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Multimedia manuals and tutorials are used when
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You want fast learning of for example basic skills or very complex processes.
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The users have reading problems (15-20% of the adult population can't even read
a tabloid newspaper).
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Click here
for more information about multimedia manuals, and what PRC can do for you
within this area.
Winhelp, HTMLhelp and AcosHelp
PRC can create Winhelp, HTMLhelp and AcosHelp files
(inkl.dynamic HTMLhelp) based on Microsoft Word files. Examples can be found
in
software from PRC
.
AcosHelp
is developed by PRC.
It creates context sensitive help with PDF-files.
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Total management of the manuals of your
organization
For example: PRC keeps a copy of your originals
and manages printing on demand.
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Consultancy
about how your manuals can be more user-friendly.
PRC's clients are here typically large or medium sized companies with own
documentation department or employee, who want to improve the quality of
their manuals.
The experiences from this consultancy are extremely good.
The normal procedure is:
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The client sends a typical manual
to PRC.
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PRC reads the manual and runs a
PQM analysis
(Planned Quality of Manuals) on it. Based on that PRC creates a report
over the problems found.
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Peter Ring, PRC, visits the client
and teaches the writer how to write their manuals with focus on the problems
found. The course material is delivered on paper and/or on CD-ROM upon agreement
with the client.
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Approximately half a year later we
make a short follow-up, most often per mail and telephone in order to correct
the last problems. Here I have often been very happy to hear about the very
positive reactions from the customers of the client on the improved manuals.
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Quality control
of manuals
for use with tenders or ISO 9000. Here we use the
PQM 3.0 Planned Quality of Manuals
programme
developed by PRC plus our large experience.
Courses – internal or external
The internal
courses are tailor-made to your company from the external courses. A special
version has been made for internal procedure authors.
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Why use PRC?
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The basic idea of PRC is that manuals are to
be written with the users in mind! This
means that a manual for a product to engineers or programmers is to be written
in a style VERY different from a manual for a product to normal consumers.
PRC has developed a set of tools
(PQM 3.0 Planned Quality of Manuals)
to determine how to write for different
kinds of users, including how cartoon-like
the manual needs to be. In some cases different sections of a manual can
be written in different styles for different kinds of users (multi-level
manuals).
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PRC has written manuals for:
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general consumers
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unskilled workers
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skilled craftsmen
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the office sector
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...
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technical specialists,
for example programmers, medical doctors and dentists.
for external or internal use.
The subjects has so far primarily been consumer- and professional electronics,
IT, software, aerospace, off-shore oil-drilling, machines, electrical power,
heating and plumbing, hospital equipment and administrative procedures.
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PRC's
work
is
"state-of-the-art" within "user-friendly manuals". PRC follows
tightly the international trends, and has contributed significantly to this
development.
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PRC uses the most modern principles and technology when writing a manual.
PRC uses for instance often a digital video-camera to record interviews
and process instructions, and we can use screencam (video from PC-monitor)
to record software procedures. Single frames from the recorded videos can
often be used for illustrations in the manual. For an example of the modern
methods, please download the demo AlarmClock (3.7 MB zip-file) from
http://www.prc.dk/software/alarmclock/home.html
and install it.
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PRC is running one of the leading Internet portals within technical
communication:
"The User-Friendly Manuals' Website"
which is highly acknowledged by technical writers/authors/communications
and their managers all over the World. The main contents are:
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"Tips for technical writers".
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Literature lists from two of
the leading scientists in the World within technical communication (both
USA).
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World-wide list of national
and international organizations for technical communicators, etc.
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List of mailing lists for technical communicators, etc.
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Useful www-links for technical communicators, etc.
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News.
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Information about Peter Ring's
book about how to write user-friendly manuals.
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Information about the pc-programme
PQM 3.0
(Planned Quality of Manuals), which is a very useful tool for improving the
quality of manuals.
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Peter Ring, PRC, participates actively on the internationally leading Internet
mailing lists within the area of "technical writing".
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Peter Ring, PRC has developed
a quality improvement and control system for manuals which works. This system
is today nested in a Windows programme,
PQM 3.0
Planned Quality of Manuals, which makes it a lot easier to write user-friendly
manuals.
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Peter Ring, PRC, has written a
book
about how to write user-friendly manuals: "The PQM system – How to write
better instruction manuals, and control their quality yourself." The price
of the book is Danish kroner (DKK) 200 + moms (VAT) and postage, (in Denmark
total DKK 269),
and it can be ordered from PRC.
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Peter Ring, PRC, has been course manager
and main teacher on
DiEU
's and later on Dansk Markedsføringsforbund's (The Danish Marketing Association)
courses "Brugervenlige brugsanvisninger" ("User-friendly manuals"), and
has taught technical writing on "Handelshøjskolen i København" (Copenhagen
Business School).
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Peter Ring, PRC, has participated in a working group for
Dansk Standard
(Danish Standard) about manuals for chemicals.
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Peter Ring, PRC, participates in a
SIG
(Special Interest Group) about user-friendly EDP-documentation, in particular
on-line documentation.
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Peter Ring, PRC, has an engineering as well as a marketing degree, and he has
been
programming
since 1961 (DASK!).
He can consequently also – if needed – enter a qualified
and fruitful debate about any problems with the product's user interface.
His writing style is short, clear and precise! He can also write text-free
and almost text-free manuals. And he has more than 15 years of experience
with writing user-friendly manuals.
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If the product cannot be put on the desk at the office of PRC, Peter Ring
can work on your premises and/or record the explanations and/or processes
with a video camera or "screencam" and then write the manual based on the
video or .avi file. Peter Ring doesn't mind working in the other end of Denmark
or outside Denmark (so far he has worked on long projects in Paris and Hamburg).
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I cannot use free-lancers because our products are too special !
All experiences without exceptions show, that in practice it is no problem. On
the contrary!
When an external author writes about the use of a product, then (s)he has
just been through the process of understanding the product. That makes it
a lot easier to put yourself in the situation of the user.
The information transfer is made orally, by means of R&D reports, software
source code lists, etc. and by "playing with" the product, and we use video
and screencam when reasonable. This learning process equals the "play and read"
process used by approx. 85% of the typical users. You start trying to
solve the problem yourself, and you use the manual when stuck!
Alternatively, PRC creates the structure and the "less technical", your
engineers/programmers
fill in marked text fields with technical details, and PRC makes the editing.
BUT if you ask the technical specialist to write the manual, it will most
often (but of course not always) become a "specialist-to-specialist"-manual,
which most users don't understand. Don't you hate those manuals yourself,
when you get them? Have you also met instructions like "Enter your TTX..."
where you don't know what "your TTX" is? – or how about programming your video
recorder at home?
The relevant expertise is how to write understandable manuals – and PRC
has got that!
Contact PRC
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