Documentation Design & Development
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Templates
Training Manuals
On-Line Documentation
NOTE: Your monitor's color and resolution settings will affect how you see the graphics in the samples that follow. For best results, you should have a minimum setting of 800x600 resolution with 16-bit high color.
The examples shown here were accomplished with Microsoft Office (i.e., these are mostly Word-based templates/documents). What you can't see from mere pictures, however, is the ease of use that comes from having standard styles to ensure consistent headings, fonts, paragraphs, bullets, and headers and footers.
Word & PowerPoint Templates
The following illustrates a format for an Annual Report. The cover and table of contents page is shown below; click on the graphic to see an internal sample page layout.
Here are a couple of other examples of how document layouts using simple graphics and colour can result in more "user-friendly" training manuals:
Ask about custom-designed PowerPoint templates, too — definitely a necessity if your audience has "seen 'em all" with regards to the standard ones provided by Microsoft. An example of a custom slide template that was used for new highway traffic legislation training is shown below; click on the graphic to see detail.
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Training Manuals
The layout shown below was used for an in-house training manual for a new accounting system. Click on the graphic to see a sample page.
If you're interested in the "whole solution" — design and content development — download this training manual for review: showcase.pdf (Acrobat Reader format, 570KB).
Other samples of training materials and user manuals are available upon request to clients interested in eSheep Enterprises' technical documentation and course development services.
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On-Line Documentation
The above samples illustrate standard documentation normally circulated in hard-copy (paper) format. If you need to reproduce something for on-line access (including custom help systems), take a look at what you can achieve with the eBook format.
Help Systems
Help systems can be accomplished in several different ways. In all cases, however, the technology behind the system is not as important as the clarity and organization of the content. An example of a Windows-based help system that was originally developed using RoboHelp can be downloaded for review (sampleh.zip, 263KB).
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