The True Image documentation is good. It could be better.
I'm a retired EE / programmer / technical writer. I have a selfish interest in the quality of user documentation.
Most user documentation is terrible. The True Image documentation is surprisingly good. Whoever wrote it understands the basics of user documentation. It starts from the simple and proceeds to the more-complex. And it's task-oriented, with plenty of examples.
But...
Though the author understands English well, he or she doesn't have a perfect grasp of it. There are some odd word choices and weird usage. More importantly, the material is somewhat over-written, with excessive repetition. It could be terser and gain clarity.
The woman who said she was worried about her ability to use the software suggests that the documentation -- as good as it is -- is not addressing her need for hand-holding. There's nothing wrong with holding the user's hand. If users knew how to use the product, they wouldn't need to read the manual!
A company once passed e-mails to me from happy customers. One said that my writing sounded as if I were talking directly to him. (Ken Kessler from Hi-Fi News & Record Review said the same thing.) Another said that she'd had trouble with software, but she followed my directions and it worked.
This was no accident. I write instructions so that blindly following them will always work. More importantly, I make sure the reader understands the context of what's being done. The most-imporant function of documentation is to make sure the user never has a reason to contact the manufacturer.
The True Image manual needs a careful edit. I hope Acronis management will contact me about this.
Comments are welcome.


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Thanks! Just the kind of response I was looking for.
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Hello William,
We've found your feedback in our internal ticket system and forwarded it to the product management.
Thank you for your attention to our userguide!
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A well-organized and -written user guide can closely approach perfection. Let's get started.
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