A little bit of technical writing.

I was asked to write up instructions on some common computer tasks around my office, so I've put together a manual while my boss was away. Thee Bygge Boke of Instructions- Wyth Referense to: Logging In - Rebootyng Ye Servers - Backynge Up Ye Servers - Changing Ye Pass-Words - & Startynge & Stoppynge Ye Raiser's Edge. (That last is a fundraising database we use.) I've presented most of the topics as fairly simple conversations between the user and the computer in the hopes that it would help people feel more comfortable. To ensure that I didn't step on anyone's toes, the user names were all things like kwagner, pparker, eblade, jgrey, and so on. When it comes to Changing ye Pass-Words, though, our material's a little complicated. We've got two separate servers and only one is set to have passwords expire on a regular basis, plus most people have their machines set up to allow them to log into individualized Windows settings. Passwords cause us the most trouble around here, at least from the number of anguished calls I get about 'it won't take my password!'. I still have trouble getting people not to write their passwords on post-its stuck to the monitor, too, so people need to know how to choose a secure yet memorable password. Some of that was covered in ordinary text. Here's the current draft of the dialogue in that bit of the manual. . .

( . . . starring user bbanner. )