Our goal with Expert Support’s online library is to share some knowledge and expertise with you that we have gleaned from almost three decades in the business of technical communication. We hope these articles spark conversations with you and encourage you to join our network.

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The Ideal Documentation Suite for Software Developers

This list of potential deliverables applies to any developer-to-developer documentation suite. This includes APIs, SDKs, platforms, frameworks, and other types of software development platforms. For simplicity, we’ll refer to this collection of technologies as APIs, because they all have similar documentation needs.

The Ideal API Reference

The quality of API documentation is a key differentiator for API providers, and directly impacts both API adoption and satisfaction. To be competitive, your API documentation has to be really good. But what does that really mean? This article explains.

Developmental Editing

 

What it is… As technical writers, we are often called upon to do a developmental edit on existing documentation. As a web search quickly reveals, this means different things to different people.

Did You Know You Can Rent a Doc Manager?

 

Do you need a documentation manager, but just for four weeks out of the year? You aren’t alone. Documentation is critical to the task of presenting products to customers, but small companies can’t afford to have a full-time documentation expert on staff.

Quick and Easy Document Specifications

Technical documents have a purpose. If you don’t understand the purpose of a document before you start writing it, you may deliver the wrong document. A document specification (doc spec) should define your document before you have a chance to get into trouble.

Schedule Chicken: Knowing when to Commit to the Impossible 

In Silicon Valley companies (actually in nearly all technology companies) people play Chicken with schedules. Huh, you say?

How to work with a tech writer for the best results

You have a new software tool project, and you know the finished product is going to need good documentation. What does that mean, and what’s it going to take? When should you get started working on the documentation, and how much of your team’s time will be taken up by it?