About this site
How to write everyday documents for the new Web medium, started by Dan Bricklin of Trellix Corporation
Last modified: 10/6/98
A site helping you with everyday writing for your Intranet, not cool web sites

New mediums need their own forms for writing
Every new medium brings with it the need to develop an appropriate way of writing. Writing a speech involves different words and organization from writing a report. A television show does not use the same script, word for word, as a radio broadcast. A documentary is not word for word the same as the history book on which it is based. A brochure, white paper, and advertisement may share some words, but the organization, headings, and many of the words will be different.

Writing for reading with a browser is different than writing for paper
Writing everyday documents that are destined to be read on-screen and not printed out means different words and organization than the same ideas written to be printed out on paper. You can't take what you wrote for paper, paste it into an HTML editor, mark it up with a few tags and call it an on-screen document. You need to write specifically for the screen if you want to take best advantage of the medium. Early television was a camera pointed at a radio announcer reading the same news as on radio. We don't do that anymore. Early web was taking word processing and putting it up as a long scrolling page. We won't be doing that in the future, either.

This site shows you how to write everyday documents for the new Web medium
This site, www.gooddocuments.com™, gives ideas on how to write and organize when your main target is linked pages to be read on-screen, e.g., for reading with a browser on an Intranet.

Not for web sites, but rather the documents of the Intranet
Most other discussions of how to write for on-screen focus on writing for the World Wide Web as homepages to attract readers. This site is not for "web sites" like that. It is strictly for material people need to write and need to read, the "boring" stuff like analysis, status, tips and techniques, policies and procedures, presentations, etc., that makes up most writing in business.

The success of a traditional web site is measured by how many visitors come and come back. That is not the goal here. The success of the documents we are talking about is measured by how many readers find what they need quickly, how useful they find the document, and how efficient it is. For example, quickly finding that the document you are reading is not what you need at this point is as important as finding out that it is.

Research has shown that readers can find material in correctly written sites in half the time it takes to find it in incorrectly written sites. In companies where employees spend hours each month reading or researching material on their Intranet, writing correctly can save very large sums of money.

We know how to make a site touting the latest perfume. We don't know what makes a good on-screen status report or materials-return policy write-up. How should summaries be written? When do you use them? What makes them most effective for their readers? Reading on-screen must be better, not the same as, or worse than, paper. If the reader feels they have to print out the information to use it, we have failed. This site aims to address those questions and more.

Areas to be addressed include:
•   How to organize: What should be in each page
•   How to write summaries: Which words should you use and what typography goes with them
•   How to write links: What should be at the link site
•   How to write the text: What writing style works?
•   How to use backgrounds: Which "looks" give the right feel
•   Makeovers and samples: Variations on the same content
•   Tips, techniques, hints
•   Links to other related sites

An evolving area
The widespread use of computers for reading this material is new. There will be much trial and error as we develop the dominant styles for business writing in the Web era. Just as newspapers moved from printing correspondents' letters as the news 200 years ago to today's inverted-pyramid with heads, leads, subheads, call-outs, illustrations and captions, on-screen documents will move from the words destined for paper to interactive, linked documents destined for screen.

This site, and others like it, are where we experiment and learn how to move to that new world.

The design of this web site
This web site underwent a redesign in October 1998. See "The new web site design" for more information about how to use the navigation.

Started by Dan Bricklin, growing out of the Trellix 1.0 research
This site was originally created by Dan Bricklin of Trellix Corporation. It comes from the requests we received for guidance on how to write business documents for reading on-screen. In developing the Trellix 1.0 and 2.0 programs, we came up with lots of ideas, techniques, philosophies, etc., about reading on-screen. This site is a way of sharing, and improving upon through discussion, that work.

Dan is used to being involved in new types of writing, having helped create an early word-processor in the mid-1970's (WPS-8, later known as the DECmate), the first electronic spreadsheet as we know them today in the late 1970's (VisiCalc), and one of the more popular character-based linked-page systems in the mid-1980's (Dan Bricklin's Demo Program).

Other people at Trellix contributing to the information here have backgrounds at Lotus, Interleaf, Atex, and other companies that made products for writers. We also draw upon the work of other researchers and commentators, some of whom are listed in the Related Sites section of this site.

Please send us your comments
This site is not one-way. Send us your comments and suggestions (there's a mailto link on most pages to comments@gooddocuments.com). Check the Mail section to see what others are saying. We also have a newsgroup.