HTML docs

[Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- jci -dot- com]

And I just thought I'd toss out another thought on the general subject of
HTML docs, while it was fresh in my mind.

The new Smart Tag technology that MS is demonstrating in IE6 will insert
links into any document it views, based on values supplied to it by the
user (and by MS, of course). Some ramifications:

1) The page layout gets cluttered up with excess links that we didn't
design for, and in fact can't design for. Not a biggie, except when a user
calls up and wonders why your documentation has links to your company's
stock price, or Microsoft's, or perhaps even to your competitor's products.
Or worse, gets completely confused because he follows a link to
incorrect/contradictory information about your product and is holding your
company responsible for it.

2) Your boss may now look over your document and ask what all these
squiggly lines are. After you convince him they aren't spelling errors or
mistakes in grammar, he'll say "Get rid of them." And you'll have to figure
out a nice but effective way of telling him that you can't. (MS claims
they'll change the code so that the user can't set the preference for them
always to be on, but they haven't done so yet. And if you want to try,
you'll have to add a tag to every single page in your doc. Happy tagging!)

Both of these scenarios are likely to occur, so we'd best get started now
on building our explanations for them.

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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In God we trust; all others must provide data.
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Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
If JCI had an opinion on this, they'd hire someone else to deliver it.


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