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I guess I didn't mention the limitations of the software I'm using to write
the Help. It's another proprietary application that doesn't allow me to use
any HTML. So, no links. No hotspots. No images beside text. It was intended
to make it easy for people who don't know HTML to write help (this was
pre-me--I'm the first and only tech writer), but is intensely frustrating to
me. I can add 3 kinds of element to a page: paragraph title, paragraph, and
image. And they just sit one after the other, all full width of the Help
window.
All our applications are fixed size. So it doesn't matter what size your
browser window is, nothing moves and the content stays in place. I think the
content area is 950 x 455. You'll end up with horizontal scrollbars in a
small window, or you'll have lots of wasted space in a large window.
I don't have a lot of choice of applications either, for resizing. But I
_do_ have Photoshop, which isn't bad.
I think I'm going to end up with a mixture of full-size slices and some
shrunk full-width images...
Thanks for all the ideas!
Rosemary
Christopher's suggestions:
- Is this a Web-based application? Can you resize the browser window of the
application first, and then take screenshots? Let the applicaiton
re-paginate itself as necessary and then take your shots.
- I'm not convinced that shrinking images (even with text) necessarily makes
them illegible. Shrink them far enough, yes, but you ought to be able to
shrink them to some degree and maintain legibility. Note that various
programs resize images better than others. For example, Microsoft Photo
Editor does a very poor job of resizing, but the ReSize tool within RoboHelp
does it quite nicely. Try a few products and see.
- Another suggestion: make your help system full-screen and use a mock-up of
the application with hotspots that link to help topics or popups. So
essentially the user would be using the app UI to learn how to use the UI
itself. Your version of the UI (taken just as a screenshot of the app)
would ONLY display help when the various areas are clicked.
- Try chunking it up. If you show _only_ the lists, and not the rest of the
UI of the app, are they easier to fit in?
-Chris Grant
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