Movie Orders 2010
Below is a sample of the kind of information you might be given at the start of a technical writing project. Your task is to create a detailed table of contents that explains how to organize all this information for people using this software program. You don’t need to write the manual. You only need to outline the main headings and the subheadings for the manual. The table of contents you create should look something like this:
Chapter 1: Introduction
- Software Installation
- Setting up the database
Chapter 7: Printing
- Printing reports
- Printing tax forms
- Etc.
What I want you to figure out is what the major chapters should be (what the most important information is) and what the sub headings should be (what the secondary information is).
Below you will find the detailed software description for which you are to create a table of contents (a simple outline). Please note that I’ve made this software program deliberately complicated to give you a good organizing challenge. It’s unlikely that a real program would contain quite so many features (though Microsoft loves creating products more complicated than the average user can figure out).
Note: You might be interested to know that this task is based on an assignment I was given when I interviewed for my first technical writing job with a company called The Software Resource Publications, Inc. (TSR). This company wrote computer manuals for a wide range of businesses. Luckily, I completed the task and interviewed well enough to secure an entry-level position with TSR as a Documentation Specialist. The original task was to create a table of contents for the Mail Order Business Systems (M.O.B.S.) program. While the basic task remains the same, I have significantly altered, modified, and updated that original M.O.B.S. document to make this a (hopefully) better classroom exercise.
Guiding Questions
As you create your table of contents, try to answer the following questions:
- Who will be the users of this product and manual?
- What information from this memo will the users need?
- What information in the memo will users not need to know?
- What information, if any, will users need that is not mentioned in the memo?
- With so much information in the memo, what organizing principle can you use to sort the material for the users?
Movie Orders 2010 Project Memo
To: Technical Writing Department
From: Renee Freedman, Program Development Department
Date: Jan. 15th, 2006
Re: Movie Orders 2010 software program manual
We’ve compiled some programmer notes to help you get started writing the manual for Movie Orders. We expect to have version 1.0 ready by our June shipping date. Please contact someone in our department if you have questions.
Program Notes
Movies, as we call it, is a direct user interface designed to calculate reports, process inventory, track orders, bill customers, and handle other data management tasks associated with competitive video sales and distribution marketing. We’ve designed the program using Visual Basic to allow the latest in database management techniques. The system can handle up to 50,000 entries with search and retrieve capabilities up to 1.2 GHz. This means the average user will be able to get all the information they need. If a customer calls in to order a movie, you can just search the database and pull up appropriate file numbers and ordering information.
We have also designed the system to allow for customer database management. Demographic information on the customer can be entered. Updates can also be done. Things like frequency of rentals, types of movies rented, late fees, and other information. Plus address, name, etc.
You use the customer data screen to make changes while the data initiation screen is for initial entries.
Printing all the information is very easy. We have a section on fonts and printer compatibility and doing page layout for the magazine. There is also a section on calculating the inventory totals and printing those out. And printing out the online information. Any compatible printer with at least 1 MB RAM should be sufficient for printing out the reports and the other stuff.
Store inventory can be calculated using the movie records screen. Novelty items, movies, books, posters, and similar items can be tracked using the follow-up records screens.
We have a special section on doing tax calculations and printing out tax reports. You can also use the spreadsheet capabilities. Basically this is a self-contained Windows office package with internet, database, and other capabilities. Store owners can use it and so can the workers and other people.
The system runs on all PC compatible machines with 256 MB RAM memory and takes about 250 MB of hard disk storage space to load everything. It’s very easy to install when you use Windows XP. We give them a number of directions to help them backup their original disks and install stuff and run some system diagnostics to make sure everything is functioning correctly.
The store manager can use the password security screen to decide who has access to the system. At the end of the month a complete inventory can be printed out. You can also generate past due mailings to customers or a mailing list of customers. We’ve even included a sample newsletter with features to search for quotes and movie descriptions to promote sales. You can print this out and mail it to customers. Also, you could log into the national database to do searches on current movie releases. We have a section explaining about passwords, and copyright, and also regularly checking with the other stores in the MGM chain to see how you are doing. We’ll have some support numbers and also do some on-site training to get people up to speed.
I don’t know what else there is to say about the system. It comes on 3 CD ROMs and you will want to configure the printers at the beginning and set up some password features and make sure everything is running.
Also the rental counts is a useful feature to see what movies get rented and how often. That should help with doing the ordering. Tax features would only be done in June at the fiscal year and you would want to use them to do the calculations for the store annual report to headquarters. The manager can also do payroll calculations and there is a feature for scheduling work shifts and other stuff like that. The main menu screen lets you decide which option you want to use.
The regular workers will want to log onto the system at day’s start and record cash amounts for the day’s business. Then they should get the customer information and do the other daily work. Somebody will have to print out a daily or weekly inventory and the reports as the main headquarters needs those, but that is probably not the job for the daily workers. They would just print the reports and enter in the address info. and check if there are any late fees. And the electronic bar code scan will feed in the name of the movie and the price and all of that information into the database.
The hardest part will probably be for people to do the phone connections and dial into the national database. The manager will probably handle this to do the reporting and get update information and for monthly record keeping.
Timeline
We’d like to see you outline the table of contents for the manual by the end of the week so we can get it approved. Then we can meet to go over specifics on screen functions, how to enter in the data, updating records, and the other features. Just e-mail your manual outline to me as soon as you can so we can get approval on this thing and get under way in time to make the June launch date.
Thanks.