Reference no: EM13541141

1. Read Chapter 6 of the manual, noting organizational issues. Create a formal outline to the third level of detail.
2. Analyze that outline and write a one-page (MAX) explanation of the problems.
3. Create a new outline of the material; provide a brief discussion of your changes.
4. In a separate section, provide two or three sample pages that demonstrate your proposed
page layout; edit the text as necessary and indicate the types of graphics that are needed.
Provide a new outline that incorporates those changes.
5. Perform a copy edit for Chapter 6. (Do NOT rewrite the text.)
6. Write a brief report (no more than two pages) on your design and organizational strategies,
including a definition of the problems presented by the original document and the solution
effected by the revised document plan.

6.0 Maintaining Manuals

It's never too early to start thinking about how your manual is going to be maintained. To many organizations stop thinking about a manual once it's finished and allow it to go out-of-date. The result is a manual thats unreliable and unused. Manuals need to be updated regularly to reflect new legislation, accomodate program changes, or correct content errors. Thinking of manuals as going through 2 phases: the development phrase and the maintenance phase.

In this Document, we'll discuss the maintenance phase of maintaining a manual and cover the following;
maintaing the manuals, role of the manuals
responsibility of revisions, frequency of revisions, revising print manuals, revising online manuals, writing revision procedures, training.

Manuals, particularly policy and procedure manuals--must become an integral part of how an organization is managed. Senior management must use them as the reference source on policy. Staff should be held accountable for complying with the contents of the manual. New content should not be issued by memo, bulletin, or verbally without following up immediately with a revision or addition to the manual, or letter. If the manual is not seen, as a definitive reference source, and staff are not required to comply with it, it's unlikely that it will get the time and recourses required to keep it up.

Too often no one is assigned responsibility for insuring the manual is kept current. The result is usually a manual that ceases to be a reliable source of
information. Make sure that somebody is assigned responsibility for periodically reviewing the manual and initiating changes. They are sometimes called the manual owner and are often the person responsible for the functions have been documented in the manual. Depending on what all the manual covers, different people may be delegated responsibility for different sections. All comments on the manual and suggestions for changes should go to this person, who makes the final decision to revise the manual.
Usually the manual owner will need help with the following:
editing; word processing; coordinating reviews; printing copies;maintaining the distribution list; distributing revisions; providing copies of the manual to new staff; answering holders' questions; answering holders' questions; periodically auditing manuals in the field; revising the online version of the manual;troubleshooting software problems

The person who provides these editing and production services is often called the manual coordinator. If necessary, some of this work could be contracted out. The coordinator must have the time available to maintain the manual. While this is often a part-time function, if you have five or more different manuals to maintain, this would be a full-time job.

Timely maintenance of the manual is essential to its usefulness. Ideally, it's contents should be updated as soon as the need for a change is identified. Maintenance of the manual that is timely is essential to its usefulness. While updating on an ongoing basis gets revisions out more fast than periodic updates, it's also more work.

Organizations periodically that update their manuals sometime have to issue bulletins or memos before the manual is revised to inform staff of the operational change. The bulletin, or memo, is then a few months later followed with the revised section of the manual. The efficiency updates of batching is then lost because of the additional effort in issuing a bulletin or memo as well. In many cases its better to revise the manual immediately and save the extra effort.

As a back-up to ongoing maintenence, manuals can be reviewed periodically (at least annually) to reaffirm the accuracy and appropriate nature of their contents. The ideal is, every section should be reviewed. If this is too much effort for someone, critical sections or those that are considered likely to have changed, should be reviewed. The review needs not be all that formal, but could simply be setting a side some time with key staff to read through and verify the accuracy of the selected sections.

Replace out of date sections with whole new ones. Don't try to revise single pages of sections-if any part of a section needs to be revised, revise and reissue the entire section. While you'll have to print a few more pages, the manual will be easier to revise, and more importantly, easier for holders to update. Don't try to revise single pages of sections-if any part of a section needs to be revised, revise and reissue the entire section.

Also: change the Issue Date of revised sections so they can be distinguished from the old ones. For policy manuals, this date is usually considered to be the date the policy comes into effect. Alternatively you can use revision numbers. The purpose is the same-to identify the most recent version so the new and old versions aren't confused.

Make any necesary changes to the section-then indicate where change have been made by placing a change bar in the right margin (see opposite). Holders of the manual can then see where changes have been made, and if necessary, can compare the new section to the old one. Change bars are created differently in different word processing programs.

Also change the table of contents to show added or deleted sections, title changes, or new issue dates. Before you finish, check to see if the index needs to be revised as well. If you've added or deleted sections, or made significant changes, chances are it does.

Revised sections should be reviewed and approved using the same process you would use for issuing new sections of the manual mark the review drafts with DRAFT and give each successive draft a new date or revision number. Version control is as important for drafts as it is for approved sections.

As sections are revised and replaced, keep a print copy of each version so that you can go back at any time in the future to see what was in affect on any date. This is particularly important for policy manuals.

When you've re-produced the sections, you're ready to assemble and mail out the up- date packages with a cover letter. The letter should cover the following:
titles and module numbers of sections attached
general description of revisions made
instructions for updating the manual (or reference the holder to the set of instructions already in the manual)
your name and how you can be contacted

Some organizations like to include a recipe response card which the holder then sends back to the manuel coordinator, confirming that the packet was received and the manual updated. However, many people forgot to return the card, so to find out who actually didn't recieve the package, you have to do lots and lots of follow-up.

Update packages should be numbered and the # clearly showing on the covering letter. Instructing holders to keep the cover letters at the front of their manuals as a record of having received the update package. That way they notice if they don't receive an Update Package.

If two-thirds or more of the sections of the manual have changed, consider replacing the entire manual (excluding the binder and divider tabs). The cost saving of printing only the revised sections does not warrent the considerable effort required by manual holders to physically integrate the new sections and ween out the old ones.

Instead of mailing the update packages, if only a small number of copies are in circulation, and they are all located in the same office, consider sending someone around to locate and update each and every copy. That way, you'll know that the new material has been intergrated into the manual properly.

One of the big advantages of online manuals is how quickly they may be revised. While print manuals require you to reproduce revise sections for every holder of the manual and distribute them (usually by mail), online manuals, can be revised by which simply uploading the revised files to the server and overwrite the old files with the new ones.

Online manuals eliminate the effort, expense, and time required to:
reproduce copies, maintain a distribution list prepare cover letters and mailing
labels, stuff envelopes and apply labels, mail to holders, integrate new sections and recycle old sections (manual holder's time)

While you'll save money here don't forget that you'll still have to do all the steps up to this point, such as writing the new section, editing it, and having it reviewed and approved--all time consuming activities.

One potentially problem with simply updating the files of your online manual is that this process is visible to users of the manual unless you specifically notify them that a change has been made. With which a printed manual users know what changes are taking place in the manuals (and to their work
processes) when he receives the updates to the manual.

To notify users of an online manual of important changes, you may want to consider one of the following methods: send a letter or email informing them of the changes (this will require you to compile and maintain a list of the known users of the online manual); on your organization's home page, or on the manuals first page, list knew or revised sections (consider using a flashing new button)
change the colour of revised text, or use a change bar in the margin

The single-sourcing strategy can have several advantages:
fewer work to maintain both versions
the too versions of the manual will always be the same if you make an error in revising separate files, the two versions will be different)

Some authoring software is especially designed to let you produce a professional- looking print manual, and a professional-looking online manual using the same set of electric files with a minimum amount of manual coding. This is often referred to as single sourcing since both forms of the manual come from the same source files.

But single sourcing can also have disadvantages: it requires authoring tools specifically designed for single sourcing

• the process is usually more complicating than simply creating a stand-alone online document

• the need to drive both versions of the manual from the same set of files usually requires compromises in either the print or online versions, or both

As you finish up the project, it's a good idea to document the procedures required to maintain and revise the manual, particularly if someone else will be taking over.

While you can't cover everything, considered writing step-by-step procedures for: modify an existing section (for minor changes)
replacing an existing section (for major changes)
created a new section
reviewing and approving changes and additions
revising the table of contents and index
merging the mailing list to labels and cover letters

If you've developed an online manual documenting the procedures, is a must. Make sure you have clear written procedures for : modifying an existing section (for miner changes, replacing an existing section (for major changes)
creating a new section, reviewing and approving changes and additions;
revising the online table of contents and index, making minor innerface
changes, such as adding new buttons, uploading to the server; managing the site. Also record the software you used to create the manual, the vrs numbers, and the directories where related files are kept.

Pass the files for the procedures over to the new person so new info can be added later on.

If others will be taking over responsibility for maintaining and revising the manual, you'll probably need to train him. These chosen should have great computing skills and experiences with both the word processing, and the authoring tool software. Use the written procedures for training this person.

Schedule a couple of days where you won't be disturbed and take them slowly through all the steps. If you've got sections which need to be added or revised, focus the training around these sections. After you've shown them how it's done, let them try it for herself, but be available to answer questions.