RE: terminology question: pointer vs. cursor

["Giordano, Connie" <Connie -dot- Giordano -at- FMR -dot- COM>]

Barb,

Since when has any writer at Microsoft done a halfway credible job with
explaining how to use their platforms?  I don't spend a huge amount of space
with platform discussions, but I do try to give them some context if the
conditions and the audience warrant. I once had to document an application
for the Feds that was being ported from MAC to Windows--and was required by
the contract to develop some information on the differences between using
the two.  During a training session for clerks using a new version of some
imaging software, I had to tell several of the workers which was the scanner
and which was the PC (no I am not making that up.)  If I had to work with a
typist using an IBM Selectric for the first time, or a shorthand secretary
picking up a fountain pen for the first time, I might indeed have to explain
some things that seem obvious.

Despite some statements to the contrary on this list, there are a huge
number of technophobic computer illiterate people out there who are forced
by their employers to take the plunge in order to keep doing their jobs in
the new information age.  They're not stupid, they just don't see what all
the fuss is about.

BTW, I write actively all the time, I also write accurately and I know my
user base--and sometimes you just have to tell them where to place the
cursor before they start typing.  I don't do it for everything, just places
where observation tells me they get confused, such as when the developer
didn't default it to the most logical field. To communicate successfully
about an application, I have to know where my users are right now, what the
application is supposed to do, and what it actually does--among many other
things.  It becomes a judgement call, and you go with your gut instinct on
what's going to work best for the situation.

And yes, I have seen lots of cases where developers recreated something such
a Print dialog that already existed.  Some people are not satisfied unless
they can re-invent the wheel--I guess sometimes I have to at least put some
new tread on it:)

Connie

-----Original Message-----
From: Barb Einarsen [mailto:barb -dot- einarsen -at- gnnettest -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2000 3:08 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: terminology question: pointer vs. cursor


Now I didn't say I don't document the procedures, I said I do not refer to
the DOS insertion point and the Mouse Pointer/Cursor. If you write
'actively' you will soon discover that you do not use such terminology. You
wouldn't tell a typist how to press a key or a shorthand secretary how to
use a pen - would you?

When writing for users who are new to Windows, you should refer them to
Windows help or other O/S documentation. The operating system writers are
better equiped to instruct the user on their platform. After all, do your
developers re-create the Print dialog, or do they use the one supplied by
the O/S?