I was working on a number of SOPs this week and discovered the “Bulk Step Creator” feature of Dozuki and found it immensely helpful in cranking out SOPs.
Essentially it lets you write out the steps in pseudo outline form and it creates the shell of the steps like:
Title: Insert key into lock
Insert the narrow end of the key into the lock.
The key should seat fully to the bow.
Title: Turn the key
Turn the key to the left (counter-clockwise)
They key should turn approx. 90 degrees.
Title: Open the door
Grasp the handle and turn to open the door.
Pull firmly. The door should open toward you.
Also I sped up the process by uploading all of the images I was going to use at once. The media manager takes multiple files for upload and they’re saved there until you use them in a step.
Another useful tool was Skitch for getting screen shots. Its not available anymore, but I have found sketchy download sites that have an old copy of it for download. The best thing it had/has going for it is after you snap a screen shot, there’s a “Drag Me” handle for dragging and dropping… and the Dozuki uploader supports drag-and-drop. Saving me all the trouble of having to save files and then upload those files.
Last thing was reusing images. Sometimes I need the same image for two different steps (with the same or different markup). Rather than having to re-upload, you can go to where it’s already being used, hover over and click “Copy” to copy the image (with its markup) to the media manager. You can also edit the markup without affecting the other image.
