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How do users look up what they need to know if they don't know what it is?
We saw this problem clear as day with "hyperlink". Someone needed to know
how to create a hyperlink (given their definition of hyperlink was different
than the product's). Now, someone else's definition of "hyperlink" may still
be different. Who's right?
In this case, I argue that the product is right. Why? Convention. We define
and use convention every day. Some of us "press" OK, some of us "Click" OK,
some of us "hit" OK... Kind of a bad example, but ideally we define these
conventions. I think in the "hyperlink" example, a glossary definition of
"hyperlink" would have been nice, this way the reader looks up "hyperlink"
in the index, or maybe directly in the glossary, and then understands what
"hyperlink" means to this application, and *then* how to create them.
:)
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BILL SWALLOW
Technical Writer
C O U R I O N C O R P O R A T I O N
1881 Worcester Road
Framingham, Mass. 01701
T E L * 508-879-8400 x316
F A X * 508-879-8500
www.courion.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: K. Joyce McDonald [mailto:KJoyceMcDonald -at- satx -dot- rr -dot- com]
This argument appears to be where we lose the user in any kind of
documentation. The user doesn't give a rat's ass what the technical
definition of a hyperlink is. I don't give a rat's ass what the technical
definition of internal combustion is. I just want to know that when I turn
the key and step on the accelerator, the engine will start.
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