Microsoft Word
As simple as Word (and PowerPoint) may seem, I’m constantly learning new ways to make the products in them better. And as good as I think I’m getting at it, there’s always someone doing something that I think “Wow! That looks so great! How did you do that?” Much of what I’ve done I can’t show in any detail for proprietary reasons, but you should get the idea from these samples.
Beam guide for retail stores
I developed user guide for managers on how to operate a Beam telepresence robot in a retail store. The Beam is a remote controlled device that docks to charge, but can move around the store. It has a monitor at the top of a long arm and can interact with people just like a stationary teleconference screen.
Policy and procedure guides for retail stores
My task on this project was to work with the Director to update all existing policy and procedure documentation for 116 retail and specialty stores in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Australia. I developed new templates to meet her objectives and worked with stakeholders to create current policy and procedure documentation.
Various Technical Documentation
I’ve developed many different types of technical documentation such as user and instructor guides, manuals, tip sheets, playbooks, and job aids.
Government reports & proposals
I’ve developed a wide range of formal government documentation to include proposals, quad charts, project management plans, minutes and monthly reports, transition plans, training requirement analyses, training plans, and final reports.
Storyboards
Word storyboards were extremely valuable a few years back when there was more division between IDs and programmers who packaged training in Authorware, HTML, Flash, etc. Now IDs do much more or all of this work in tools like Storyline. But when applicable, Word is a robust storyboarding tool that can convey a ton of information in the right formats. This allowed for a rapid and accurate production handoff between an ID and programmers and graphic artists. I’ve used this type of board from 1999 up to 2020 on a wide range of projects.
Manuals that were pasted up!
Back when I started off as a technical writer in 1994 we built manuals in Word. We could incorporate a photograph or two, but the graphics were typically of paper machinery such as a fourdrinier, presses, dryers, and so on. These were done by graphic artists in CorelDRAW, printed in color, and then we manually pasted them onto a page before sending binder-clipped manuals off to a printer for printing. Then we shipped them FedEx to the clients for review.