L Frank Turovich
Biography
L. Frank Turovich (1956- ) was born and grew up in Flint, Michigan to parents of Polish and Netherlands descent. For 12 years he served in the United States Marine Corps as a "grunt" stationed in Hawaii, and later as a radar repairman/technician/instructor in 29 Palms, California.
Frank bought his first Macintosh in April of 1984 and has never looked back since. He got into writing by publishing some articles in Nibble Mac, then in 1993 he self-published his first book on programming, with a second a couple of years later. Since then he's been a technical writer, trainer, and manager for several technology companies including Metrowerks, Motorola, Freescale Semiconductor, and Nokia where he's documented software development tools and other technologies.
He currently resides in Austin, Texas in a house filled with books, computers, and two cats (Java and Misty), where he is now working on his first fiction novel.
Where to find L Frank Turovich online
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Smashwords book reviews by L Frank Turovich
- Smashwords Style Guide
on Aug. 04, 2011
Updating the guide is always good, but different versions of Word have their settings in different locations. Showing where to find them in Word 2011 would be extremely helpful and cut down confusion and save many users time.
Also, showing the differences for Win and Mac clients would help as well. For example, on page 21 under Step 2 - Activate Word's Show/Hide, the Show/Hide command does not appear on the ribbon or toolbar by default in the Mac version. It has to be added by the user to appear.
In addition, the overlays that appear on some images could be more readable. Instead of hand scrawling the words and arrows, enter it using a readable font in any graphic's program and use an arrow tool (both supported in SnagIt, btw, a great PC program for grabbing screen images and marking them up).
Finally, I think the guide would be much improved if the steps were more layered in organization. I know I don't want to wade through page after page looking for that one specific step I need to remember, then read through several long paragraphs for the exact info I need. In other words:
1. Provide a step overview section that described all the steps at a high-level so experienced users can find the info they need immediately.
2. Provide step-by-step instructions like you have now, but organized slightly differently. Begin with a short rule, then any settings required to satisfy that rule, then follow with a more in-depth description. For example, in the step describing images, tell the reader up front the max dimensions an image should be. Don't bury it deep in the description.
3. Whenever possible, provide the user an example that illustrates the step done correctly.
A great place to see how one should document software programs/processes using well known, defined style conventions and languages can be found in the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications.
The current guide has all the information a user needs to be successful, but with just a bit more organization and by layering the information to facilitate the readers level of experience, it could be so much easier to read and comprehend for everyone.
