Technical Writing – Help, My Document’s Too Long!

It’s a question I often get asked, or a variation on the theme. “I work for XYZ software company and we’ve got a great product in ABC niche. Over time we’ve added hundreds of features and functions, and we’ve kept adding them to our product manual. What was once a simple 50 page document is now over 500 pages and counting! What can we do make things easier for our users?”
Don’t Shred What You’ve Got
I agree this kind of documentation is not much good for your users but it may well be the best way to organise all your data for your helpdesk staff. Having an all inclusive gold standard manual is a good thing for those who will support your software.
Don’t Let Your Guide Stand Alone
In the short-term if this is really your only piece of user documentation it’s time to write some “quick start guides”. Break down the functionality inside your system and work to the processes and tasks common user groups are likely to need. Then try and bring this into single documents based on those profiles. It’s exceedingly rare to find a highly complex system where all users need all functions and features.
Get Your Manual Online and Make It Searchable
That doesn’t mean dump a giant size PDF file on your website; it means actually upload the data into a content management system that allows users to search by functionality. This isn’t a quick fix task and it’s why you should start with simpler function oriented guides first, but it is a worthy one. Once the data is fully searchable, with a few nice indexes generated by function it won’t feel like 550 pages anymore.
That’s important because users won’t be put off by browsing through for what they need because they can’t perceive the work that your search facility is doing, and better still they don’t have to do it themselves.
Talk To Your Users
It’s always amazing how many people ask other professionals for advice, rather than asking the people who matter. End users who are familiar with your manual will have multiple suggestions on how to make it better. If you have a smallish user base, call them and find out what they want. If you have a huge user base then why not generate a questionnaire and see if you can put some feedback forums together too.
Overly long documentation can seriously impede the user experience, but that doesn’t mean the data you have is no longer valuable. Don’t be in a hurry for a quick fix, spend some time working out how you can add to your documentation range to deliver real value without wasting the work you’ve already done.