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Subject:RE: doc'ing the docs From:Mike West <Mike -dot- West -at- oz -dot- quest -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 5 Dec 2002 10:05:54 +1100
> Sure, we can all imagine situations where "help on help" might be
> useful, but here's an actual example. (Product name obscured to avoid
> accidentally embarrassing someone.) As they say, the proof is in the
> pudding, and there's nothing here that either already hasn't been
> discovered by the user (because they've navigated to this page) or
> isn't completely obvious.
Obvious to who? You?
As I stated earlier, there are programmers
on my development team who don't know what
help facilities have been created in the product
they cut code for. Why should users be any
different?
Forget about things being "completely obvious."
You have no way of knowing what is "completely
obvious" to every one of the product's users, nor
is there any reason *not* to include a topic
stating what help facilities are designed into the
product.
How the hell would I know whether there might
be help facilities in your product that *aren't*
obvious unless you tell me?
> For example, it contains the shocking
> revelation that the the index is in alphabetical
> order and contains links (which are blue and
> underlined) to associated topics.
Apparently you've never encountered
the supposedly technically competent people who
don't know the difference between a table of contents
and an index. Or the difference between a full-text
search and an index search.
I have -- scores of them, from programmers right
up to senior managers.
Don't give me "obvious" as an excuse for laziness,
please.
--
Mike W
Melbourne
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