Although I started my career as a TV/Video Producer and Scriptwriter, I have worked for many years as a Documentation Specialist (Technical Writer). This page contains samples of technical documentation I have written.
Please feel free to e-mail me or call me with any questions you may have.
Phone: 610-337-8541
E-mail: mmcdole@heavyhorse.com or mmcdole@germane-software.com
ETools User Guide
This document is an extensive
user guide that I developed from start to finish when working as
Documentation Specialist for the US Forest Service in Bend, Oregon.
ETools is a suite of analysis software for use by Forest Service
employees (but is not classified).
I was fortunate enough to
start work on this project at the very beginning, and I enjoyed a
great rapport with the development team. This project was an example
of the way I love to work: I was involved in the development of this
tool from the very beginning, so I got to learn it from the ground
up. I was involved in testing and design of the user interface, and
provided input from a user perspective. Overall, a great experience,
and in my opinion, the way documentation should always be done!
Forest Vegetation Simulator Use in INFORMS
This documentation explains how to use the FVS within INFORMS, which is a large system of tools for performing various kinds of analysis. INFORMS is an older architecture than ETools (see above), and was intended to be replaced by ETools, but had not been replaced by the time I left the project.
The Forest Vegetation Simulator, just as the name implies, is used to simulate a variety of conditions in a virtual setting so Forest Service employees can investigate the results of various actions (logging, road building, recreation, etc.) before implementing expensive initiatives that may not work as planned.