atw: Re: Microsoft vs Apple style guides
- From: "Erisa Linsky" <slinka@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 09:10:11 +1100
I feel it is unreasonable, generally, to combine two manuals for two
different operating systems into one. Good technical writing separates the
issues so the poor old user doesn't have to search and sift too much.
Though I understand there is a cost factor, this proposal strikes against
the very important principles that tech writers should be upholding.
Can you argue that? or is it already a dead duck?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gail Hodgson" <gail.hodgson@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 3:44 PM
Subject: atw: Microsoft vs Apple style guides
Hi all
Does anyone have experience writing documentation for a peripheral
device that runs on both Windows and Mac?
We're hoping to get away with creating a single set up guide that covers
both Windows and Mac (to make packaging cheaper and easier). I've just
looked at the Microsoft and Apple style guides though, and my brain is
hurting from the number of differences that exist between the two. Here
are just a few examples:
- Windows has dialog boxes, options that you click, boxes for text
entry, and programs that you start
- Mac has dialogs, options that you choose, and fields for text entry,
and programs that you open
To make things even more fun, our Windows and Mac developers are working
for different companies in different countries, and both keep editing
the set up guide to match the version of the software they are creating.
If anyone has been here and done this before, I'd appreciate any
help/advice you have for how to keep both camps happy. Did you follow
one style guide predominantly? Or did you come up with a compromise
solution where you chose a little bit of both?
Thanks!
Gail
Gail Hodgson
Written Communications Specialist
Opdicom Pty Ltd
gail.hodgson@xxxxxxxxxxx
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