Job: Technical Writer/Tester (Software) - Karachi

Dear All,

We at Hauka Pvt. Ltd. require a Technical Writer/Tester(Software),
Who
is familiar with programing languages VB/VB.net. S/he will be
producing
technical specs and test plans/documents for the software components.

Kindly forward your resume to rizwan.rizvi@hauka.com

Regards,

Abeer Qureshi
Software Developer,
Software Research and Development.
Hauka Pvt. Ltd.

Job: Content Manager (Permanent - Lahore, Pakistan)

We need a Content manager/ Data Entry Operator. The ideal Candidate should
have basic knowledge of

- Acrobat Reader
- Acrobat Writer
- Basic Adobe Photoshop

The person should be lahore resident.

Salary range is PKR. 6000 to 6000/month

SKILLS REQUIRED:
Adobe Photoshop

TO APPLY FOR THIS POSITION:Go to http://rozee.com.pk/job-details.php?cid=499&jid=1615#apply

COMPANY INFORMATION:
Sheraz Khan
Next Age Tech
530 Nizam Block. Allama Iqbal Town Lahore.
Lahore, Pakistan
http://www.nextagetech.com

Job: Content Writer (Permanent - Lahore, Pakistan)

Our in-house creative team is looking for a fresh-thinking copywriter who’s great at generating brilliant concepts as well as writing all types of marketing copy, as defined by the creative team, for online advertising, web content. We need an enthusiastic self-starter and a true collaborator that thrives on converting business
strategies into effective marketing communications.

The candidate should be proficient at striking a fine balance between retail and strategic writing, articulate different voices with conciseness to capture different audiences, willing to take ownership of projects and drive them to fruition, able to work closely with the art director in coming up with a visually and verbally
compelling copy, and familiar with basic graphic issues.

Qualifications:

• Should have at least 1 year of copywriting and creative experience in an ad agency, marketing department, or freelance capacity
• Bachelor’s Degree in Computers,English, Advertising, Journalism, Marketing, or
other related areas of focus
• Superior writing ability and creative skills
• High-level problem-solving and analytical skills
• Ability to produce quality work within tight timelines
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

MA English , MA Literature will be preffered

If you are a team player, have a great attitude, an artistic eye and meet the
requirements above, please send a resume, cover letter, URLs of work that you have done to
aamir @ sofizar.com .Please include some writing samples (as doc files) and link to online portfolio. Those who will email only resumes without coverletters, writing samples and minimum salary expectations will not be considered .

SKILLS REQUIRED:
MS-Word

TO APPLY FOR THIS POSITION:Go to http://rozee.com.pk/job-details.php?cid=551&jid=1491#apply

COMPANY INFORMATION:
Zafar Khan
Sofizar
Q-Block Defence Housing Authority
Lahore, Pakistan
http://www.sofizar.com

Job: Creative Writer (Permanent - Lahore, Pakistan)

Write corporate profiles, marketing material, slogans, web copy/text, articles and other text requirements. Coordinate with marketing staff and other company executives.

Salary range is PKR. 7,000 to 13,000/month

SKILLS REQUIRED:
MS-Word

TO APPLY FOR THIS POSITION: Go to http://rozee.com.pk/job-details.php?cid=360&jid=1269#apply

COMPANY INFORMATION:
Muhammad Bilal
Genex Business Solutions
108-M, Marghazar Colony, Multan Road
Lahore, Pakistan
http://www.genexbs.com

Terms Every Techncial Writer Must Know

Authentication

The use of a password, certificate, personal identification number (PIN), or other information to validate an identity over a computer network.

Bookmark

A stored web page address (URL) that you can go to easily by clicking a bookmark icon in the Bookmarks Toolbar or choosing the bookmark's name from the Bookmarks menu.

Bookmarks Toolbar

The customizable toolbar that appears just below the Location Bar by default in Firefox. It contains buttons for your favorite bookmarks (or folders containing groups of bookmarks) that you can add or remove.

Cache

A collection of web page copies stored on your computer's hard disk or in its random-access memory (RAM). Firefox accumulates these copies as you browse the Web. When you click a link or type a URL to fetch a particular web page for which the cache already contains a copy, Firefox compares the cached copy to the original. If there have been no changes, Firefox uses the cached copy rather than refetching the original, saving processing and download time.

Certificate

The digital equivalent of an ID card. A certificate specifies the name of an individual, company, or other entity and certifies that a public key, which is included in the certificate, belongs to that entity. When you digitally sign a message or other data, the digital signature for that message is created with the aid of the private key that corresponds to the public key in your certificate.

Client

Software (such as an Internet browser) that sends requests to and receives information from a server, which is usually running on a different computer. A computer on which client software runs is also described as a client.

Cookie

A small bit of information stored on your computer by some web sites. When you visit such a site, the site asks Firefox to place one or more cookies on your hard disk. Later, when you return to the site, Firefox sends the site the cookies that belong to it. Cookies help web sites keep track of information about you, such as the contents of your shopping cart. You can set your cookies options to control how cookies are used and how much information you are willing to let web sites store on them.

Cookie Manager

The part of Firefox that you can use to control cookies.

Cryptography

The art and practice of scrambling (encrypting) and unscrambling (decrypting) information. For example, cryptographic techniques are used to scramble and unscramble information flowing between commercial web sites and Firefox.

Decryption

The process of unscrambling data that has been encrypted. See also encryption.

Digital ID

See certificate.

Encryption

The process of scrambling information in a way that disguises its meaning. For example, encrypted connections between computers make it very difficult for third-parties to unscramble, or decrypt, information flowing over the connection. Encrypted information can be decrypted only by someone who possesses the appropriate key.

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

An open standard for describing data. Unlike HTML, XML allows the developer of a web page to define special tags. For more information, see the online W3C document Extensible Markup Language (XML).

Feed

An XML web page that contains a list of links to other web pages. Special programs can read feeds to create a list of headlines from the links, automatically updating the list as it changes. News web sites use feeds to quickly publish the latest headlines, and personal online journals often use feeds to quickly notify visitors about new entries. See also live bookmark.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

A standard that allows users to transfer files from one computer to another over a network. You can use Firefox to fetch files using FTP.

FIPS PUBS 140-1

Federal Information Processing Standards Publications (FIPS PUBS) 140-1 is a US government standard for implementations of cryptographic modules — hardware or software that encrypts and decrypts data or performs other cryptographic operations (such as creating or verifying digital signatures). Many products sold to the US government must comply with one or more of the FIPS standards.

Helper Application

Any application that is used to open or view a file downloaded by Firefox. A plug-in is a special kind of helper application that installs itself into the Plugins directory of the main Firefox installation directory and can typically be opened within Firefox itself. Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, and other external applications are considered helper applications but not plug-ins, because they don't install themselves into the browser directory but can be opened from the download dialog box.

Home Page

The page Firefox is set to display every time you launch it or when you click the Home button. Also used to refer to the main page for a web site from which you can explore the rest of the site.

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

The document format used for web pages. The HTML standard defines tags, or codes, used to define the text layout, fonts, style, images, and other elements that make up a web page.

Internet

A worldwide network of millions of computers that communicate with each other using standard protocols such as TCP/IP. Originally developed for the US military in 1969, the Internet grew to include educational and research institutions and, in the late 1990s, millions of businesses, organizations, and individuals. Today the Internet is used for email, browsing the World Wide Web, instant messaging, mailing lists and usegroups, and many other purposes.

Internet Protocol Address (IP address)

The address of a computer on a TCP/IP network. Every computer on the Internet has an IP address. Clients have either a permanent IP address or one that is dynamically assigned to them each time they connect with the network.

Java

A programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. A single Java program can run on many different kinds of computers, thus avoiding the need for programmers to create a separate version of each program for each kind of computer. After Java is installed, Firefox can automatically download and run Java programs (also called applets).

JavaScript

A scripting language commonly used to construct web pages. Programmers use JavaScript to make web pages more interactive; JavaScript is often used to dynamically validate forms and select buttons. JavaScript can be used with Java, but it is technically a separate language. Java is not required for JavaScript to work correctly.

Live Bookmark

A special type of bookmark that acts as a folder to contain the links in a feed. You can create a live bookmark by visiting a site with a feed, clicking on the live bookmark icon in the Status Bar, and selecting the feed format you wish to use.

Location Bar

The field (and associated buttons) near the top of a Firefox window where you can type a URL or search terms.

Master Password

A password used to protect saved passwords and other private data. Firefox will prompt you for your master password when you wish to access this data. If you have multiple security devices, each security device will require a separate master password.

Navigation Toolbar

The toolbar near the top of the Firefox window that includes the Back and Forward buttons.

Password Manager

The part of Firefox that can help you remember some or all of your names and passwords by storing them on your computer's hard disk and entering them for you automatically when you visit such sites.

PKCS #11

The public-key cryptography standard that governs security devices such as smart cards.

Plug-in

A type of helper application that adds new capabilities to Firefox, such as the ability to play audio or video clips. Unlike other kinds of helper applications, a plug-in application installs itself into the Plugins directory within the main Firefox installation directory and typically can be opened within Firefox itself (internally). For example, an audio plug-in lets you listen to audio files on a web page or in an e-mail message. Macromedia Flash Player and Java are both examples of plug-in applications.

Private Key

One of a pair of keys used in public-key cryptography. The private key is kept secret and is used to decrypt data that has been encrypted with the corresponding public key.

Proxy

An intermediary or "go-between" program that acts as both a server and a client for the purpose of making requests on behalf of other clients.

Search Engine

A web-based program that allows users to search for and retrieve specific information from the World Wide Web. The search engine may search the full text of web documents or a list of keywords; it may also use librarians who review web documents and index them manually for retrieval. Typically, the user types a word or phrase into a search box, and the search engine displays links to relevant web pages.

Secure Site

A site that uses encryption in connections with Firefox to prevent other malicious Internet users from viewing transmitted data. When you visit secure sites, Firefox displays a lock icon in the Status Bar and the Location Bar. Firefox also displays the site's domain name in the Status Bar (to prevent malicious sites from stealing your data) and turns the background of the Location Bar to yellow.

Some sites may consist of both secure and insecure data; the insecure data usually is non-private, although it isn't guaranteed to be so. For such sites Firefox will display a lock icon with a slash through it in the Status Bar and Location Bar and will not display the site's domain name in the Status Bar so that you know that the current web page isn't completely secure.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

A protocol that allows mutual authentication between a client and a serverfor the purpose of establishing an authenticated and encrypted connection. SSL runs above TCP/IP and below HTTP, LDAP, IMAP, NNTP, and other high-level network protocols. The new Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard called Transport Layer Security (TLS) is based on SSL. See also authentication, encryption.

Server

Software (such as software that serves up web pages) that receives requests from and sends information to a client, which is usually running on a different computer. A computer on which server software runs is also described as a server.

Status Bar

The toolbar that appears at the bottom of any Firefox window. It shows status icons on the right.

TLS

See Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

A Unix protocol used to connect computers running a variety of operating systems. TCP/IP is an essential Internet protocol and has become a global standard.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

The standardized address that tells Firefox how to locate a file or other resource on the Web (for example, http://www.mozilla.org). Type URLs into Firefox's Location Bar to access web pages. URLs are also used in the links on web pages go to other web pages. Also known as an Internet or Web address.

Web Page

A single document on the World Wide Web that is specified by a unique address or URL. A web page may contain text, hyperlinks, and graphics.

Web Site

A group of related web pages linked by hyperlinks and managed by a single company, organization, or individual. A web site may include text, graphics, audio and video files, and links to other web sites.

World Wide Web

Also known as the Web. A portion of the Internet that is made up of web pages stored by web servers and displayed by clients called web browsers (such as Firefox).

Source: Mozilla Firefox Help

The Future of Robo Help

During the opening segment of the WritersUA Conference for Software User Assistance, Joe Welinske, President of Writers stated that Macromedia has put RoboHelp on "sunset" and that RoboHelp will likely no longer be "in common use" within 2 years. To set the record straight, here is a detailed presentation of his information and conclusions about the current and future status of RoboHelp.

What did I say at the WritersUA Conference?

On March 21st, in Las Vegas, as part of the opening session of the WritersUA conference, a panel of pundits presented fifteen predictions about short and long term changes in the IT industry, the user assistance arena, and specific tools and technologies. One of my predictions was that "Two years from now, RoboHelp will no longer be in common use." By "common use," I meant that it would not be a Help authoring tool actively employed on a regular basis by most documentation departments in the software industry.

My prediction about RoboHelp was not simply a shot-in-the-dark statement done for entertainment purposes. Rather, it was based on numerous conversations that I had with current and former employees of Macromedia over the past six months. These employees were key players in the areas of marketing, administration, and software development. I gathered information from several prominent independent consultants. Observations about recent marketing moves are also part of the picture. Just recently, I had a telephone interview with Miriam Geller, Director of Product Management at Macromedia. My questions and her responses are included toward the end of this article.

Why do I think RoboHelp has been 'sunset'?

The crux of my prediction about RoboHelp is that the product has been informally sunset by Macromedia. The term "sunset" is used in the software industry to denote a gradual phasing out of development and support for a product. My various sources have confirmed that all development team members had either been discharged or resigned as of the first week of March of this year. By "development team," I am referring to the technical personnel who had been involved in creating new versions of the software and actively maintaining the existing code base.

Development cutbacks to the eHelp product line began right after the acquisition by Macromedia with the discontinuation of RoboPresenter, RoboLinker, and RoboPDF. This was followed by discontinuation of the RoboHelp for FrameMaker product and the termination of its product manager. Additional RoboHelp administrative and development staff were let go over the ensuing months, including CFO Anthony Olivier. At least two ex-RoboHelp developers have applied for jobs at other Help tool companies and have described the dismantling of the development staff. Through another source, I learned that there was a plan to export the maintenance of the RoboHelp code to India. This was confirmed by an ex-RoboHelp employee. More recently, the Macromedia internal deadline for moving the code maintenance to India had passed and a subsequent decision was made to discontinue that scenario entirely. 0

Many ex-Macromedia (eHelp) staff members were at the March WritersUA Conference as members of a new company called MadCap Software. Conversations with several of them confirmed, to varying extents, what had transpired with the RoboHelp product over the past months. The most recognizable face at MadCap Software (for much of the current RoboHelp user-base) is V.P. of Product Management Michael Hamilton. Mike was the last member of the RoboHelp development team to leave Macromedia. He resigned on March 7 from his post as RoboHelp Product Manager—a post he held for the past six years. Mike Hamilton discussed this situation in detail on a recent post to the TECHWR-L list.

In an interview with Chuck Martin at the WritersUA Conference, Mike noted that recent changes at Macromedia, such as the decision to no longer sell RoboHelp maintenance contracts, crystallized his feelings about resigning. The RoboHelp maintenance contracts that Mike referred to were a combination of support and new releases. The new releases aspect of the maintenance contracts has been killed and only the support component is now provided. Additionally, the Gold Support program has been eliminated for RoboHelp. Gold is the top tier of Macromedia Support. The key element that separates Gold from the less expensive support programs is access to Senior Level Product Support Engineers. On the global Macromedia Support page, RoboHelp is the only Macromedia product that does not offer Gold access to engineers as a support option. The RoboHelp Support page was revised on April 14 to note that the "Product Updates & Upgrades" component of support is no longer available.

On the marketing front, Macromedia cancelled their Exhibition appearance at the WritersUA Conference just three weeks before the event. My exhibition contact at Macromedia indicated that not a single person was available to staff the show. I was also told that there was nobody available to make any kind of statement to the attendees about the Macromedia absence. Our organization received a box of CDs and brochures to distribute at the conference in lieu of a personal presence by Macromedia representatives.

Macromedia is apparently also going to be absent from the upcoming annual conference of the Society for Technical Communication. They are not listed on the latest Exhibitor roster and a source has confirmed that they have cancelled their appearance. This gathering has been one of the main shows for the RoboHelp product team over the past ten years. The conference brings together over fifteen hundred technical writers, many of whom are either using the product or have an interest in it. Also, RoboHelp ended its long-standing Platinum sponsorship of the TECHWR-L web site in February.

What could make RoboHelp obsolete?

The actions described above lead to the conclusion that the future viability of RoboHelp is very much in doubt. Macromedia will likely keep the distribution center going, as well as some basic level of email support. The software will probably continue to be sold until revenues dip below a profitable threshold. However, a software product that is not evolving is shortening its lifespan. Eventually, IT industry developments will make a static RoboHelp obsolete. The most immediate threats are the upcoming releases of IE 7 and AOL/Netscape 8. Who will be available to fix the code if these browsers break the WebHelp component of RoboHelp? It is certainly possible that a new development team could be reconstituted in the future. However, the efficiency and effectiveness of new programmers digging into a decade of legacy code is very questionable. And if a new development team is the future solution, why would Macromedia eliminate all of the current experts in the first place?

Further down the road is the developer release of Windows "Longhorn" Help from Microsoft. This new Help system represents a significant leap forward in Help capabilities. Support for the Microsoft Help standard has long been a core source of revenue for RoboHelp. Any attempt to support Longhorn Help will require a considerable development effort, needing numerous programmers intimately familiar with the RoboHelp code. Another technology that will make the current version of RoboHelp obsolete is the continued growth of XML as the lingua franca of file formats. Making RoboHelp fully XML-compatible had been mentioned by RoboHelp developers as a key future feature.

I mentioned two years as a possible limit to RoboHelp's usefulness to most customers if active development has already ended. Depending on your particular needs, that could very well be extended by another year or two. According to Neil Perlin, an independent RoboHelp consultant and trainer, "external technical changes in the absence of a Robohelp upgrade will eventually make the product obsolete. Any changes in IE 7 that hurt WebHelp would clearly have an immediate impact; that's the biggest unknown." However, Perlin is more cautious about how soon other technologies would create a problem for RoboHelp. He predicts that "Longhorn will have an impact but, between the delay in its release and the required hardware and software upgrades, I don't see it having much impact before 2007. And as powerful as XML is, most people's XML and single sourcing needs today are met by X5's XML and single sourcing feature sets."

Didn't Macromedia buy eHelp for RoboHelp?

One of the aspects of this situation that makes it hard for people to believe is that RoboHelp has been and is today a very profitable product. As mentioned earlier, it has an enormous market share. It is also recognized as an extremely good product and it has won numerous awards. In the wake of the bursting of the Internet bubble, products with a positive cash flow are generally in short supply and tend to be valued highly. The assumption by many was that Macromedia recognized this, and that was the reason the company paid in the neighborhood of $65 million dollars for eHelp. Even for a company with projected 2006 revenues of $500 million, that's a lot of money. However, the wildcard is another product that came along in the eHelp sale—RoboDemo. Now renamed Captivate, this is an authoring tool that simplifies the development of Flash-based eLearning modules. An ex-eHelp officer told me that the top hierarchy of Macromedia had always been much more interested in RoboDemo than RoboHelp. RoboDemo/Captivate apparently fit very well into Macromedia's plans for its future product line, while RoboHelp did not.

What about people using RoboHelp today?

In my conference predictions, I was careful to remind the attendees that RoboHelp will remain the product that it is and people can continue to use it as is. If you have a version of X5, or an earlier version for that matter, it should continue to support your efforts well into the future. The capabilities of the currently shipping product are in no way diminished by the ending of active development. However, the impending mismatch with evolving technologies should and will be a concern for many documentation departments.

It would be prudent for all user assistance professionals to assess their needs and options. David Knopf, a specialist in online technologies notes, "For some time now, we've been recommending that our clients avoid starting new projects with RoboHelp and that existing RoboHelp shops plan for a future in which their workflow does not rely on RoboHelp. Macromedia's actions since acquiring eHelp strongly suggest that RoboHelp is now a dead end." William Meisheid of Sageline Publishing adds, "There are many ways to sunset products, some of which are user-friendly, many are not. This is not and with as large and loyal a user base as RoboHelp possessed, a bumbled shutdown will not endear Macromedia and their other product offerings to the RoboHelp user community and opinion makers."

It is likely that competing products will try and grab a share of the RoboHelp market. At the WritersUA Conference, ComponentOne Doc-to-Help announced the addition of a RoboHelp conversion feature. Other vendors have expressed an interest in doing something similar. It will not be a simple process to migrate a complete and robust RoboHelp project to another product and conversion tools will be necessary. Another issue is that currently no product clearly offers the same working paradigm and feature set as RoboHelp. Major competing tools present a markedly different approach to Help authoring. Either the competing tools will adjust, or retraining will be required.

A number of RoboHelp users with maintenance contracts have already expressed concern about what this all means for them. A few have mentioned that their support plans guaranteed at least one new release per year. I am not personally familiar with the details of what is and is not promised.

The story isn't finished

Subsequent to my comments at the WritersUA Conference, Miriam Geller, Director of Product Management at Macromedia, posted a note on the RoboHelp General Discussion Forum. It would be best for you to read it yourself and make your own assessments about what it means. It does not appear to invalidate any of the statements or assumptions in this article.

On April 13, I conducted a telephone interview with Miriam Geller. I began the discussion by asking her if she could confirm that an active RoboHelp development staff was no longer in place. Her reply was, "Macromedia takes an overall look at a team and makes adjustments. I can't comment on specifics." I asked how many developers are currently working on RoboHelp upgrades and maintenance as their primary responsibility. Geller replied. "There are people in the company who are knowledgeable about RoboHelp." I asked Geller who, if anyone, was acting as RoboHelp Product Manager in place of Mike Hamilton. She said she was personally fielding questions from outside Macromedia and sending them to the appropriate people. Regarding the moving of code maintenance to India, Geller had no comment other than to confirm that Macromedia has a facility there.

I asked about general development priorities and also about the impact of IE 7 and Longhorn Help. Her replies were "We don't talk about future releases."; "Macromedia has longer product release cycles than eHelp had."; "Macromedia has a big suite of products. What we're working on one day may not be a priority the next."

I mentioned that the canceling of conference appearances and sponsorships was fostering some unease about the level of commitment to the user assistance community. Geller said, "This is a repercussion of a product in the hands of another company. We're very targeted about the shows we attend. Decisions that eHelp made about which marketing efforts to support are not necessarily going to be shared by Macromedia. We make decisions to spend marketing dollars with best reach."

I asked how the termination of RoboHelp maintenance contracts was going to affect those who hold them and believe they are due a product update. Her reply was, "If they have a question, they should call customer support. Different maintenance plans have different longevity. If they don?t feel like they are getting an answer, they should escalate to me." Geller added that, "Macromedia is evaluating support for its products across the board." It is important to note that Captivate, with a small fraction of RoboHelp sales, currently offers Gold support (engineer access) and RoboHelp does not.

I asked why RoboHelp for FrameMaker had been discontinued. Geller said, "There is a long list of acquired companies where the products went away. The FrameMaker edition was a brand new product, unlike the original RoboHelp." She also noted that RoboHelp and Captivate were the key products in the acquisition, but would not provide more details about the acquisition strategies.

The acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe is now another element in this story. Possibly the Adobe executives might see a value in RoboHelp that the Macromedia folks did not. However, it appears that the RoboHelp advocates in Macromedia are all gone. Also, a small division like RoboHelp that was ignored by a $500 million dollar revenue company is going to seem even more insignificant in a company with income of $1.7 billion. In the short term, it is not likely that this will result in any positive movement toward a RoboHelp upgrade.

Final thoughts

This article and my prediction about the future of RoboHelp are not meant to be an attack in any way. RoboHelp is an important tool to thousands of developers throughout the world and they deserve to have as much information about the future of the product as possible. Our WritersUA constituency consists of about 10,000 user assistance professionals of whom an estimated two-thirds use RoboHelp. My own history with RoboHelp goes back at least thirteen years. I still have my version 1.0 of the product on a 5-1/4" floppy. From around 1992 to 1998, I actively used RoboHelp in contracting projects for a variety of software development clients. I was also one of the first people to conduct RoboHelp training classes. I designed my own RoboHelp training materials and traveled around the country doing RoboHelp seminars until around 1998. RoboHelp techniques continue to be a popular topic at conferences.

Making the prediction about the possible demise of RoboHelp at the WritersUA Conference was very difficult for me. To a large extent, RoboHelp was responsible for helping technical writers become accepted as members of the software development community. It was a tool that empowered us to create our own piece of the software puzzle without help from programmers. In the years before HTML, this was not a trivial issue. While the eHelp face of RoboHelp was often decried because of its overly aggressive marketing tactics, from a technical standpoint, the product was always at least very good, very often it was great. RoboHelp was frequently evolving, often pushing the envelope, and always attempting to predict what customers would like in the future. If it fades way, RoboHelp will be missed.

This will be an ongoing story. If you would like to make any contributions/corrections to this article, please send me an email or give me a call at 206-285-2605. However, I may not be able to respond to queries requesting additional details or opinions.

http://www.winwriters.com/articles/rh/index.html

Here is Macromedia's response to this prediction.

Writing a Datasheet

Overview

The datasheet should be the perfect summary piece for your product. It should provide enough information to intrigue the reader enough to have them either want to evaluate your product or obtain more detailed information.

The datasheet is designed to be a listing of facts and figures. It should be presented with a factual tone and contain hard data. You do not want the datasheet to be a display of creative writing.

Datasheets are now so standardized for the computer industry that people have come to expect a given layout and the specific information listed below in the datasheet. Deviation from this standard format means that the reader may have a hard time finding the information they need. If they are looking at your datasheet next to your competitors then they might eliminate your product before even looking at it.

Target Audience

Understanding your target audience is imperative before writing a datasheet. If your audience is highly technical, they will not want to be bothered with a lot of words about the benefits of the product. They understand the technology and are looking for specific features. If your audience is less technical you will need to help them make the connection between a feature and what it will do for them.

Outline

The following is an example datasheet outline:
- Description – Many people spend so much time entrenched in their product that they forget
that other people don’t automatically know their product. It is important to start the brochure or
datasheet with a very concise description in order to put the features and benefits
in context. If you have multiple products in your product line, make sure that each datasheet
quickly differentiates each product from rest.

- Visual Element -- A picture, screen shot, or a diagram that shows either the components of
the product or how the product fits in its environment should be on the front page.

- Key benefits – A statement of the key benefits of the product. Three bullet points are ideal. If
this is a technical audience list the three key features and their benefits.

- Features and benefits and/or specifications – On the back should be a listing of features and
benefits if it is a software package. If the product is hardware then specifications should be
included. When writing up features and benefits keep your competitors in mind. Since your
audience will probably be looking at your product alongside the competition, you will want to
highlight the features that set your product apart from its top tier of competitors.

- Requirements – List the software and hardware that is required to support your product.

- Contact information – Have all your contact information at the bottom of the datasheet. Include
all copyright and trademark information. I have noticed that Microsoft now puts some legalese at
the end of their datasheets that says, “This datasheet is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Companies, names
and/or data used in screens and sample output are fictitious, unless otherwise noted.” Though
this may be a little drastic, you may want to check with your legal department to see if there are
any disclaimers needed.

Layout

Datasheets are one page with information on both the front and the back. The front contains the description, key benefits, and a picture. The back has more detailed features and benefits, specifications, requirements, and contact information.

If you have multiple products in your product line, make sure that the layout of each datasheet is similar to give the appearance of a family. You will probably want turn your datasheet over to an artist for final layout and design work.


Process

Here is a basic process for writing datasheets:
- Identify the target audience of the datasheet.
- Gather features and benefits from your own use of the product, beta customer use,
engineering, and other internal resources.
- Boil down the benefits to the most important three for your product.
- Decide on the picture.
- Assemble and write datasheet.
- Review with internal resources.
- Provide raw materials to an artist for layout.
- Review every draft that comes back, especially blue lines. Have a second person review the
blue line. It is easy to miss the same error several times. A fresh set of eyes is always helpful.


The Basics

Because it is now so easy to write a datasheet and print it on a laser printer, many people are writing and handing out datasheets without going through a formal printing process. The downside of this is that the datasheet is often not reviewed by a professional writer and the layout is not designed by a professional designer. Under these circumstances, I feel obligated to add a section on the very basics of grammar and design. The following are some key points to remember:

- Use bullets whenever possible to list features or benefits
- Create bullets with consistent structure -- if your first bullet starts with a verb, then all bullets
should start with a verb
- Keep text to a minimum -- remember that this is a summary. Create technical white papers
for backup if necessary
- Use a serif font (a font with those little lines at the top and bottom) for the body of the
datasheet. It is easier for the eye to read blocks of text with a serif font

If you don't have any training in design and you need to do a layout yourself, it is worthwhile to read Robin Williams wonderful book Non-Designer's Design Book .

http://infrasystems.com/writing-a-datasheet.html