Consistency of a technical documentation is what creates that subliminal sense of trust and confidence in the end-users. Consistency and trust in technical documentation starts with a document TEMPLATE. You can Downnload Free Document Templates or choose from the paid ones. It is harder to shift between different page templates if you are using MS Word as your main text editing program, and much easier if you are using Framemaker or (for some design consideration) InDesign since the last two are built on the “Master Pages” concept. But a page template in any format is what you definitely must have.

Someone once quipped: “it ain’t technical documentation if it ain’t boring.” This of course is not true since I always found technical documents very interesting indeed. I’m the sort of geekish person who can marvel at a well-designed user’s manual for hours and appreciate its beauty and all the effort and thinking that went into its production. I imagine how happy people would be when they use that manual and solve their problems and that, believe it or not, makes me happy as well. That’s the main reason why I’m in this business.

However, the above quip also reflects the truth that a technical document must be “boringly consistent” in order to be taken seriously. Deviation from standardized expression is a highly-rewarded skill in artistic creative writing. But in technical writing it is a sure sign that the writer cannot be trusted, even when the content is correct.

Just ask yourself: would you trust an airplane maintenance manual that has missing page numbers; chapter headings printed in different fonts and sizes; or differently formatted figure captions for consecutively printed figures (like “Figure 2-14″ on one page, but “IMAGE 15″ on next)? I didn’t think so…