I'm taking a Technical Writing course this semester, and for the last project of the semester I and a partner are writing a set of instructions. Our chosen topic is the typesetting system LaTeX, and we'll be writing instructions on how to use it to produce a short report (since our in-class usability testing is limited to about 15 minutes).

As long as I have been conversant enough in LaTeX to use it without referring to the documentation for the simplest tasks, I have thought that indie authors ought to use it in the production of their books, because it makes many of the difficulties of Word (or other word processors) that I so often hear authors complaining about become trivially easy. (It has its own difficulties, of course, and it's not a nominally what-you-see-is-what-you-get "word processor" like Word. And there's an initially somewhat steep learning curve. But still.)

To supplement the "usability testing" my partner and I will be doing in class a week from Wednesday, I wondered if any Holy-Worlders might be interested in trying out our instructions (when we've written them) and letting me know how well the instructions worked.

It sounds interesting. I'd be happy to test it...of course I can't promise anything because I have so little time to do things other than school. And I've never heard of that program.

Thank you, Kya. I'll post the instructions, or a link to them, here when we have them written.

I'd also be willing to help you out. I really like trying new things.

Okay. Sounds good.

Thank you, everyone who expressed interest. The instructions are now, I and my partner think, ready for testers. So I've made them an attachment to this post.

We would like to know anywhere you had any difficulty understanding or following the instructions, or anywhere that you think something could have been made more clear. Second, we would like to know how long it takes you to work through these instructions, including time waiting for software to download and install (we will be running a usability test in person in class on Wednesday, and we'd like some basis for estimating whether we'll be able to run one or two groups of our peers through). And third, we would like to receive any questions or comments of any kind you would like to give.

We will be doing our in-person tests in class this Wednesday, and the final version of our instructions is due that evening, so the sooner anyone can test and tell us his or her results the better.

Thank you!

Adobe says the file is damaged, and nothing will open it readably for me. Error, p'raps?

Sigh. I've just checked, and you're right. I've now re-uploaded it, and tested opening it this time, so this should be at least readable.

Since I only get to download stuff on school computers and I can't download programs onto those, I don't think I'll be able to test it. However, I did read through the instructions and went through the initial set up steps. They seemed pretty clear. Sorry. *hangs head*