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Re: How much do people need to be told in documentation.
Subject:Re: How much do people need to be told in documentation. From:Sandy Harris <sandy -at- storm -dot- ca> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 17 Sep 2001 10:57:23 -0400
John Posada wrote:
>
> Hi, guys...I'm having a back-and-forth with one of my senior
> developers (in fact, THE most senior) and it involves editss to my
> document.
>
> Two issues. I'm documenting a script where the person using the
> script must fill in a form and some of the form fields require an
> email adddress. He insists on including a full paragraph on what a
> valid email address looks like.
>
> This is his explaination:
>
> "Any email address ...
>
> The other issue ivolves something as simple as copy and paste. ...
If your format allows hypertext links, they can solve both
problems.
You write one explanation of what a valid email address is,
then link to it wherever "email address" turns up in the doc.
Or perhaps only the first time the phrase occurs in a section.
Write one of the different ways to copy and paste, link to
it often.
Where this really helps is if something changes, perhaps the
software is ported to a new environment or you just realize
you forgot some details. e.g. on Unix, there are other methods
for the copy and paste and the login name of any local user,
without an @ sign since its on this machine, is a perfectly
valid email address.
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