English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

My technical instructions will cover how to install Ubuntu as a virtual machine. Ubuntu is an alternative operating system to windows. My primary audience will be a user who is new to Ubuntu who wants to try a new operating system. Installing Ubuntu as a virtual machine is a good option because you do not have to destroy your current OS to try Ubuntu. My secondary audience will be a more advance user who is interested in cutting costs by running Ubuntu as a virtual machine on a computer they already have instead of having two separate computers.

I have to say, I was pretty surprised by the Thomson Handbook's statement that capturing screenshots can be difficult and even time-consuming. While I can't speak for PCs (although Google informs me that you simply have to press the 'Print Screen' key), I can tell you that Mac has a some great key shortcuts that make it easy to catch anything on your screen and turn it into an image file. For any Mac users in the class, here are the shortcuts:

For my topic I have chosen to write instructions on how to use the free disk emulator Daemon Tools. Daemon Tools allows the user to create a virtual disk drive on their computer, create, and play disk images. One of the biggest benefits of disk emulators is that a computer without a physical disk drive such as some notebooks and laptops can now run disk images from their hard drive. I have also noticed many installation files have become disk images because it preserves all of the original menus and links of the disk.

The technical process that I have chosen to write instructions for is how to prepare and list an item to sell on Ebay. In the instructions, I will include each step that the user will need to take in order to sell an item successfully on the auction site. It is my hope that novice computer and internet users will be able to follow the instructions easily and completely. I also hope that some veteran Ebayers will get some tips and possibly a structure to use for listing that might be a little more efficient and effective than what they are currently using.

Proposal for downloading and installing iTunes as well as transferring music to an iPod.

I want to create a user manual that will teach a user how to install CentOS on their current computer. It is a free Linux operating system. I have installed this operating system a few times during my computer career and it would help me write the document to a novice user who never has done installed their own OS (operating system) before.

For my instructional process I have chosen to prepare and cook a beef tenderloin (fillet). I will outline the steps, ingredients, and tools necessary to complete this task as well as some insight on cooking technique and process. With these instructions I’m hoping to take some of the “fear” people have out of cooking and show them it can be fun and rewarding.

I have decided for this instructions project that I will describe in detail how to properly download, install, and ultimately play online poker using a program called FullTilt Poker. These instructions will include a review of the various functions within the software, including creating an account, depositing (not necessary), withdrawing, and locating players, among many other features. I feel that I am very qualified to speak on this topic as I am a frequent player, and have used the software extensively over the period of several years.

For my topic I have selected to create instructions on how to use the open source software program TrueCrypt to create a hidden and encrypted virtual drive for storing sensitive files. This topic is legitimate and necessary because information, stored on a computer as data, is becoming a businesses most guarded asset. TrueCrypt provides government grade 256-bit AES file encryption. In theory it would take the current world's fastest super computer longer than the time-span of the universe to guess at the key.

My technical instructions will cover the steps required to create a histogram in Microsoft Excel. Histograms are an important type of graph because they can effectively display the frequency of data items using a bar-type chart. The problem lies in the fact that Excel does not include a function in the chart creation wizard that counts how many times a certain value appears in a table of data. It is up to the user to define what will be displayed on the graph.