We hope you enjoyed your summer and had many lazy summer days contemplating the meaning of technical documentation. As for the DocuDoctor, he spent his vacation atop Maine's Cadillac Mountain devising new and clever ways of helping you to improve your technical documentation. And after such a picturesque vacation, where better to continue our series than on "Adding Value with Graphics"! So, for all of the tech writers and tech editors out there, let's get started...

A picture is worth a thousand words. You've probably been hearing this cliché for much of your adult life. Besides, as everyone knows, pictures are certainly more pleasing to the eye than pages of plain text. There are more than a few magazines that maintain their readership solely on the merits of their photographs and images. But since we are here to discuss adding value to your technical documentation with graphics, I pose this question to you: Have you ever added a graphic or illustration to your document?

Of course you have. We all have. But are you certain that they added just the right value to your document? That's a difficult question and certainly one open for debate. So, here is the idea we will be discussing: Your graphics MUST add value to your document! Sounds like a pretty basic concept, but you would be surprised how many of us don't understand it.

So how can you ensure that your graphics DO add value to your document? Here are a few questions to ask yourself when considering adding graphics to your technical document:

Determine That Your Document Really Needs Graphics

Does YOUR document really need to use graphics for the reader to understand your subject matter? Honestly? Let's start by looking at some general examples of technical documents that really need graphics to be thoroughly informative:

For these types of documents, you would expect there to be graphics. In fact, you could probably anticipate what the graphics would represent. So consider the purpose of your document. If it is obvious to you that graphics are a must in your document, then you're ahead of the rest of us. If you are still undecided about whether to include graphics in your document, then you may want to re-review your document's purpose or ask your co-workers for their thoughts and ideas.

Now, we're all pretty confident that our writing style is so clear and concise that our readers will immediately understand our subject matter. However, you should still give your reader's experience, knowledge, level of education, and available time due consideration. Don't make him wade through two pages of text to find an essential bit of information that he could have extracted from a simple graphic in mere seconds. Did I tell you about several young soldiers that were wandering around the Iraqi desert trying to 'figure out' their global positioning (GPS) equipment? They told me that the provided documentation was so confusing and poorly written, that they just "chucked it". I'd bet there weren't many useful graphics in those documents!

Graphics Should Add Real Value to Your Document

So, you've decided that your technical document desperately needs some graphics. And, your manager has just dropped a pile of graphics on your desk that she extracted from the original proposal, the last design review, and a document that she wrote in 1937. Now what do you do? You, as the technical writer, must select the graphics that will add the most value to your document.

Let's start paring down the pile by eliminating those that don't appear to have anything to do with your document's subject matter. If the graphic doesn't address the topic, system, or product that you're documenting, it's a safe bet that it won't add much value.

Now try to select the graphics that have some visual appeal. Granted that this is one of those obscure and highly subjective areas, but we (technical writers) usually have a good eye for this. Remember, however, that the visual appeal should be evaluated to fit with the document, audience, and audience's purposes for reading. Graphics can legitimately be used to keep the reader interested in actually reading your document. Use a little creativity to graphically 'spice up' an unavoidably boring topic.

The graphic must convey the right amount of information to the reader. It should not present more information than is needed for your document or your reader may become lost or get the wrong information. If the graphic needs to be made less detailed or split between separate figures, hand it back to your illustrator.

Choose the Position and Placement Wisely

Now to choose where in the document your graphic will be placed (placement), and how it will be positioned on the page (position).

Your document should contain a balanced collection of graphics with a comparable number of graphics placed in each chapter. Also, try to follow a uniform standard for placing them. For example, should you include a photograph of the system in the beginning of the "System Overview" chapter, try to incorporate photographs of each sub-system component at the beginning of the associated chapters. Establish your own style or follow the required standard for graphical layout throughout the document. Be consistent!

Try to place your graphics so that they are spaced as evenly as possible throughout the document. Don't force your reader to endure ten solid pages of text only to be bombarded with four pages of graphics. Try to use your graphics to encourage or lead your reader through the text.

A graphic's position within a document is often constrained by its size and layout. However, you can maximize your graphic's value by selecting its position such that it conveys the most information in the shortest amount of time. By positioning your graphic just after or within sight of the associated paragraph, you can minimize the reader's page flipping. Be careful, though, not to resize the graphic to fit your document to the point of losing detail. Common sense should prevail in positioning the graphic and in developing the overall document's composition. If necessary, consider providing some or all of your graphics in an appendix or separate volume.

In conclusion...

By considering the need, value, position, and placement of graphics within your technical document, you have taken the first strides towards standardizing your document's format, content, and presentation. But as experienced technical writers, we know that there are many types of documents and a variety of graphics that can be included within. If you have the luxury of a submittal and review process, ask for specific comments about the graphics that you have included. As is true with nearly all aspects of technical documentation, feedback from your customer or end-user audience can prove invaluable in fine-tuning your processes. And, as always, feel free to contact "The DocuDoctor". If you'd like your question (and the DocuDr's answer) to be shared by everyone, use the MSD GuestBook to submit your question. See you next time...

The next newsletter in this series will be "Making Your Documents Concise." Upcoming titles and previous issues in the series How to Save A Quarter Million On Your Documentation Tasks may be found on The DocuDoctor's page of MSD's web site.