The task this time is to write a brief instruction sheet on how to create, format, and save a document in Microsoft Word. The circumstances are that the instructions are for an employee who has never used Microsoft Word ® but must be able to create a basic document immediately without assistance.
The instructions must be brief, clear, concise, comprehensive, and strictly according to the Microsoft ® manual. They can’t include tricks or shortcuts. It’s not necessary to show the employee how to be fast or clever. The most important result is that the employee is up and running immediately.
Tech Writer’s Toolkit “Best Practice” Tip
For this type of task, it’s a good idea to make it clear:
- what the result of an action is supposed to be
- what to do if that result isn’t achieved
It’s a great help to someone learning a process to know, at each step, when things are and aren’t going right.
Task Specifications
1. Start from the desktop – No Microsoft Word shortcut icon on the desktop
2. Open a new Microsoft Word ® document
3. Save as My New Document_April 2008
4. Format with:
- 1″ margins all around
- 12 pt Verdana font
5. Write a single paragraph
- First sentence indented
- 1.5 line spacing
- Fully justified
6. Insert footer with:
- Writer’s name, justified right
- Date, justified left
- Centered page numbers
- 10 pt Verdana font, bold
When you’re done check the solution below.
Exercise Answer
The task was to write a brief instruction sheet on how to create, format, and save a Word ® document for an employee who has never used Microsoft Word ®. The employee must be able to create a basic document immediately without outside assistance.
Your directions should look a lot like this:
A. Opening a new document in Word ®
1. Click on Start in the lower, left corner of the screen
2. Place the cursor on All Programs
(Result: A list of all programs pops up)
3. Click on Microsoft Word
(Result: A blank document called Document 1 – Microsoft Word fills the screen.)
B. Naming and saving the document
4. Click on File in the tool bar at the top of the page
5. Click on Save As. . . on the drop-down menu
(Result: The Save As menu comes up within the document.)
6. Document 1 appears, highlighted, in the File name box.
7. Type My New Document_April 2008
(Result: The new name types over and replace Document 1.If anything else appears in the box, place the cursor on the first unwanted letter and press Del. until all unwanted letters are deleted.)
8. Click on Save at the lower right of the Save As screen
C. Formatting the document
9. Click on file in the tool bar
10. Click on Page Setup. . . on the drop-down menu
(Result: The Page Setup menu comes up within the document.)
11. Under Margins, the Top: and Bottom: boxes should each have 1.0 in it
(If 1.0 doesn’t show up in both boxes, place the cursor on the up or down arrow of each box, and click until 1.0 appears in the box)
13. Click on Format in the tool bar at the top of the page
14. Click on Font…. on the drop-down menu
(If Font…. is not on the menu, click on the down arrow at the bottom of the menu for more choices.)
15. The current font appears in the highlighted Font: box
16. Scroll through the available fonts until you find Verdana
(Result: the word Verdana appears in the Preview box at the bottom of the Font screen.)
17. Double click on Verdana in the Font: box
D. Writing the content
18. Press Tab on the upper left of the key board to indent
I know the task isn’t complete, but I’m going to stop here so you can look at another Tech Writer’s Toolkit “Best Practice” Tip
Working smart is better than working hard.
Unless you’re going to end up with a lot better wheel than the one we’ve already got, don’t reinvent it. A basic skill for a tech writer is being able to do research and use the results to produce a better product in less time.
The most efficient response when you’re presented with this type of task is to make use of existing material. The important thing is the result. If you can achieve the same result by finding existing material and adapting it to your needs, do it.
Of course, you can’t just cut and paste from a site, but you can use the content as a guide that will save you a lot of time and effort.
There are a number of good manuals online you could have used for this exercise. For example, a very user-friendly one is Creating a document with Word 2000, posted by Temple University at www.temple.edu/cs/microsoftofficetopics/word2000.html#III [http://www.temple.edu/cs/microsoftofficetopics/word2000.html#III]
Complete the exercise by referring to an existing online resource.
If you can write a simple sentence and organize your thoughts then technical writing may be a rewarding field. You can easily make it a second income stream in your spare time.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average salary for technical writers is $60,380. Freelance technical writers can make from $30 to $70 per hour.
The field of technical writing is like a golden city. It’s filled with wealth, rewards and opportunities. After learning technical writing you can branch out into business writing, marketing writing and communications writing. All of these can become additional income streams.
But to succeed you must learn how to market yourself to clients. You have to prove to them that you are an invaluable asset. That’s where ProTech – Your Fast Track to Becoming a Successful Technical Writer can help. It’s a technical writing course that does two equally important things:
1. It teaches you the skills to become a technical writer in the shortest time frame. You’ll learn to create manuals, procedures, tutorials, processes, proposals, spec sheets and other documents that businesses need.
2. It shows you how to market y