I have been instructed at work to document some of the various and arcane routinue tasks I do on the computer. When I first started documenting things I did I made some really shitty guides.

I remember making a guide for this program we use at the office called EasyMail. Now, the name is a little misleading for this program can be really complicated for novice users. It’s a badass program for what it does, but it’s about a 20 step process to get actual get any email to come out of it. So, it being famously obtuse and me being the only one who knows how to work it right, my task was to document the interworkings of the program in an easy to understand format.

I sat with someone as they tried to setup the program using my little “5 Steps to EasyMail” guide. It was pretty humbling to see how poor my instructions were, the poor person was stumbing around like a crazy person trying to export the list of names from our db and then import it into easymail and then write the message (well, I write them in Dreamweaver) and then send it, my instructions sucked. So I went back and rewrote them with a little more direction. The end result on that one was a pretty sweet EasyMail guide. I mean, I kinda gave up on explaining all the parts, but what I covered was pretty damn good. Lot’s of “action” photos and clip are to spice up the page. It ends up being really fun, that’s what I’m saying, thinking in that way, how would I teach someone this in the easist fashion possible

And, you know I actually really like those little animals that you can have as helpers in Microsoft Office. Like a little loyal doggie or kitty that sits on your desk and watches you type, I kinda dig that idea. I am forever bemused by those with a cruel dislike for Clippy, perhaps the most peaceful and benign animated form to grace the CRT.