Re: Category vs. Alphabetical Listing in Contents Tab in Online Help

[Chris <cud -at- telecable -dot- es>]

I fully agree with David.  The categories you provide help the user 
model the product - if nothing else, the way you view the product model 
influences the way you write about the product, so explicitly describing 
that model via TOC categories will at least help users understand *your* 
organization of the material.  To the degree that your organization 
reflects the organization of the product itself, you will also help the 
user understand the actual product model.

If your organization of the paper version is categorized, the paper TOC 
will also be categorized.  That's because the TOC follows in page-count 
order, and so does your organization of the material.  Just because you 
go online, there's no reason to drop this effect from the TOC.  Just 
because you don't have pages, that doesn't mean you suddenly don't have 
an organizing model.  In fact, it's that much more important to 
represent the model, because the loss of pages means you lose the 
tactile representation of your organization.

At least that was the theory behind the one help system I designed from 
the ground up.

Then again, if there's no organizing model to the thing, alphabetical 
makes sense.  For example, a command reference for programming is often 
best done alphabetically.  In that case, the TOC would come out 
alphabetical in paper - probably should online, too.