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Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, Third Edition (3rd Edition)
 
 
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Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, Third Edition (3rd Edition) [Paperback]

Sun Technical Publications (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Book Description

0137058268 978-0137058266 December 27, 2009 3
The definitive reference for technical writers, editors, and documentation managers, Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, Third Edition,has been revised and updated to cover everything from creating screencasts and referencing web sites to writing for wikis.

This award-winning guide to creating clear, consistent, and easy-to-understand documentation covers everything from grammar and writing style to typographic and legal guidelines. The authors, who are senior editors and writers at Sun Microsystems, share their extensive experience and provide practical tips and recommendations, including guidance on hiring writers, working with illustrators, managing schedules and workflow, and more.

The third edition of Read Me First features new chapters on:
  • Writing for wikis and encouraging wiki collaboration
  • Creating screencasts, using screencast terminology, and guidelines for writing narration
  • Creating alternative text for nontext elements such as screen captures, multimedia content, illustrations, and diagrams
It also includes new tables for symbol name conventions, for common anthropomorphisms, and for common idioms and colloquialisms. An updated and expanded recommended reading list suggests additional resources.


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Customers buy this book with The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition $35.69

Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, Third Edition (3rd Edition) + The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition
  • This item: Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, Third Edition (3rd Edition)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“The third edition of Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry has all the excellent content of the previous editions and more. If you need to understand the best practices for developing useful and usable text, start with this volume. It brings together a wealth of knowledge that all technical communication professionals must have to succeed.”
-—Dr. JoAnn T. Hackos, President, Comtech Services, Inc.

“Clear content and consistent style are essential for the usability of any system. Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry tells you how to achieve these elusive goals, and does so following its own advice: It’s clear, consistent, and presents advanced topics in an actionable and approachable manner.”
-—Jakob Nielsen, Principal, Nielsen Norman Group; Author, Eyetracking Web Usability

About the Author

The Members of Sun Technical Publications are award-winning senior editors and writers for Sun Microsystems, Inc. 

Product Details

  • Paperback: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Prentice Hall; 3 edition (December 27, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0137058268
  • ISBN-13: 978-0137058266
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

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Average Customer Review
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Some things to know about the 3rd edition, June 23, 2011
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, Third Edition (3rd Edition) (Paperback)
The book (the 3rd edition) that I received from Amazon has poor quality printing: It's fuzzy, as if printed from a poor resolution printer or photocopied several times. The inside cover indicates "This product is printed digitally on demand." Not what I expected when I order a new copy of a book.

Also, the posted reviews, which lament the CD, are clearly for older editions of this book. The latest edition does not include any CD at all. Instead, the book has a code that gives you 45-day access to view the book online. You have to pay extra if you want to download electronic versions of individual chapters.

The content of the book remains useful.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Print quality detracts from an otherwise good and useful book, January 30, 2012
This review is from: Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, Third Edition (3rd Edition) (Paperback)
This was published by Sun Technical Publications, which was part of Sun Microsystems. The style is easy to read and clear, not too dry and never frivolous. The book gives clear examples and labels them "correct" and "incorrect" to help the reader. I have used this book for about 18 months and it has served me well. Some unique topics in this book include legal guidelines for protecting copyrights and trademarks, and a description of different types of technical documentation. This is a very good style guide, but I wonder about its future, since Oracle's purchase of Sun Microsystems was completed a few months after this edition was published. Also, as another reviewer mentioned, the print in the book is less than ideal and sometimes a bit fuzzy. I knocked off one star for that.
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