Re: What do you want from help? (was: Do online helps have chapter numbers)

[Steven Brown <stevenabrown -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

You forgot something...a powerful search capability.

I can go into Google and type (or is it "enter," for
those with TW-OCD?) a phrase or series of words and
retrieve a set of reasonably accurate hits in my
search results. That's what our users are going to
expect from the online help we deliver. In the
usability sessions I've observed, users almost never
went to the TOC or index to find the information they
needed. And if they did, they had to muddle through
what *I* thought was the best structure or the right
keywords.

Search is the future my friends!

Steven Brown
Technical Writer

--- Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca> wrote:

> 
> Jens Reineking wondered: <<What do you expect from a
> good online help?>>
> 
> I complained about the quality of online help in a
> previous message, so 
> I suppose I should put up or shut up. Here are a few
> things I commonly 
> find that annoy me to the point of going out and
> buying a third-party 
> book on the software.

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