28-Feb-2017 Analyse-it 4.80 in-depth: The revamped documentation

As we mentioned last week in the post announcing Analyse-it 4.80, in this release we took the opportunity to revamp the documentation.

The revamp involved rewriting many topics to make the content clearer, adding new task-oriented topics, including refresher topics on common statistical concepts, and improving the indexing and links between topics so you can more easily navigate the help system.

The new task-oriented topics give you step-by-step instructions on completing common tasks. For example you will now find topics on how to create an Xbar-R Shewhart control chart, how to perform ANOVA, how to fit advanced models, and even simple tasks like calculating descriptive statistics. We have also fully documented the supported dataset layouts for each type of analysis so you can see how to arrange your data for Analyse-it. The links in each topic help you more easily find related topics, for example links to topics on how to interpret the statistics, links to explain the pros and cons of the available statistical tests, links to topics for common tasks, and a link showing you how to arrange the dataset.

Of all the requests, the most customer-requested improvement is the new printable PDF user guide. Previously we offered EPUB and Kindle reader editions of the help, but not PDF. To be honest, producing a PDF user guide from the DITA tools we use to write the help was a real technical challenge. The PDF produced just wasn’t good enough for us, and certainly not for our customers – the formatting and layout were poor, indexing was non-existent, and there were so many other niggles. So we took the time to make the user-guide both look good and be usable. Take a look and let us know what you think!

With the addition of the new PDF user guide, you can now find documentation in a number of formats suitable in all situations:

• Online: Browse and search the documentation online.
  
• In application: Access the help directly from within Analyse-it, even when you’re offline. To see the documentation, click the Analyse-it icon on the Analyse-it ribbon tab, then click Help. The Microsoft HTML Help will be shown, complete with full index and search capabilities. You can also see the context-sensitive help popup for any option or ribbon command in Analyse-it simply by hovering the mouse over it.
  
• For printing or reading on your computer: To get a fully formatted book with table of contents and index that you can read or print, download the PDF.
  
• For reading offline on an iPad or Kindle device: For best reading experience on an iPad download the EPUB, or on a Kindle device download the MOBI. The eBook versions are more flexible than the PDF as the content is reformatted and re-flows depending on the screen size of your device and your preferred font size.
  

Let us know your thoughts and how we can further improve the documentation.