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Well-reviewed Documentation & Other Writing

 

Recommendation for our Blog Coaching services, from Idea Champions, 2008
 


Recommendation,
2006

We received this letter of appreciation for a recent project, B4M's Fork Production Tutorial and Reference, documentation created for a television station automation system.

It was written and produced for Building4Media, a software company and Apple business partner in the Netherlands, for their new installation at CNN in Washington, D.C.

"Since we have the manual for Building4Media's FORK Production, written by Bill Ross, the amount of questions coming into our Support desk has decreased significantly. Users find the documentation clear and easy to use. Also, the way it is written is often mentioned: nice, easy to read, and sometimes funny, which it's makes easy to absorb.

“Bill's manual helps users to easily find their way through the software. And in training and technical support, too, we rely heavily on the documentation to make our work simpler.

“Kind Regards,
Koen Hak”

Mr. Hak is the lead trainer and technical support authority for Primestream (formerly Building4Media)

 

 

Our technical writing and editing has been complimented, even praised, in five reviews by respected industry publications of four different product manuals, as well as by clients.

Highlights of documentation reviews:

    "The manual is very well-written…"

    "thorough... intelligently arranged"

    "Generous illustrations, strong reference features, and clear instructions"

    "Documentation one of the three major 'Pro's' of the software."

    (David Pogue) "…perhaps I've been unduly influenced by the program's breezy and fun manual."

    (David Pogue, on a 2nd product)
    "Then they sent the fine new manual, and suddenly light dawned."

( Full quotes, attributions below )
 

Recommendation

"For SofTech (then 'Workgroup'), Bill handled many writing assignments, including customer case studies, product brochures, data sheets, and more. The resulting customer stories, in particular, were inspired and very effective, with an engagingly authentic ring that brought those customers to life in the articles.

"He immerses himself in the projects at hand with enthusiasm for understanding the background and details. As a bonus, Bill is a pleasure to work with."

Crissy Bardani, Director of Marketing,
Softech/Workgroup

 

Bill and his blog were quoted and linked to in the Boston Globe's "Business Filter" column (now gone,) by Maura Welch, numerous times in '06-07.

Podcast mentioned there, June 16, of Bill being interviewed during the May '06 Web Innovators Group event.

 

Published Reviews:

  • Macworld’s April ’95, review of Read-It 5.0 lists our “good documentation” as one of the three major “Pro’s” of the program.
  • Macworld’s Sept. ’95 reviewer was impressed by our documentation for MultiClip 3 – “If this all sounds sort of breezy and fun, perhaps I’ve been unduly influenced by the program’s breezy and fun manual.”
  • MacWeek (January 24, ’94), said about our MultiClip book: “The manual is very well-written, providing both reference and tutorial sections appropriate to any user level.”
  • In Macworld (July ’92), our manual for Olduvai’s MasterFinder changed a reviewer’s attitude from night to day about the software it described. Columnist David Pogue (now of the New York Times) was reviewing:

    “After spending hours with the (old) manual, I thought this program was the planet’s biggest dog. It seemed confusing and buggy.  Then Olduvai sent me a draft of the fine new manual, and suddenly light dawned. MasterFinder turns out to be a rather good idea...”

    (From “biggest dog” to “good idea”– not bad work for a manual.)

  • InfoWorld’s review of Read-It 2.0 said our “manual is simple, thorough... intelligently arranged,” and praised its “Generous illustrations, strong reference features, and clear instructions”. They even credited the manual’s tutorial with raising the product’s overall score for ease of learning.

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