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And If I was piloting a helicopter, got lost in a fog and asked you where I
was, would you give me the technical definition of helicopter?
K. Joyce McDonald
Bill Swallow Wrote:
> Hoo Hoo! This is getting good!
>
> BUT...
>
> 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.
>
> :)
>
> *****************
> 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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