Time to Renew & Build

Autumn is a great time for anyone who maintains a lawn. It's when we prepare our lawns for the coming spring by aerating, reseeding, and fertilizing. We rid our lawns of weeds and clear the root systems so that our new seed will take in the soil that we prepare for its nurture. It's a good metaphor for how we should approach our documentation projects, too.

Aerate your documentation

Do you use a style guide for your documents? If so, have you updated your style guide since Gutenberg?

Style guides don't have to be rigid. They don't have to specify the only fonts or font sizes used for any, or all, documents you and your company produce.

Style guides should reinforce your company's Branding.

Styles should be set to reflect and reinforce your company's branding; your brand is your most visible marketing tool. Have your Chief of Information or your documentation group review the styles used in each of your company's documents to ensure that they flow along with your branding and its style.

After all, your company does have style, doesn't it?

Reseed your documentation

Establish a company style guide
Modify your style guide, if you have one
Have your writers, CIO, and marketing group look at what other companies are doing with their documentation
Check the standards appropriate to your industry and market for clues to use in your company's writing products

Remember that your style guide should cover everything your company publishes: brochures, flyers, how-to guides, and content for your Web site.

Fertilize your documentation

Use this opportunity to gain a fresh look at your documentation. Consider that the information you publish is as valuable to your company as gold, and understand that each element of information is a nugget. Here are some things to consider:

Review your documentation needs
Review your documentation products
Consider implementing an information architecture such as XML-based single-sourcing
If such an infrastructure makes sense for your company's documentation, plan to implement it now to avoid disruptions, confusion, and excessive costs