RE: Flow-charting question

["Nuckols, Kenneth M" <Kenneth -dot- Nuckols -at- mybrighthouse -dot- com>]

Kevin pondered...

> 
> All,
> 
> Let's say you are documenting a procedure. A device will ask two,
three or
> five questions, depending on how you answer some of the questions.
> 
> You want to flow-chart each path through the question set. You are
trying
> to
> fit this onto WebHelp pages, so you don't want an individual
flow-chart to
> show all possible combinations and permutations. You just want to
chart
> one
> path, meaning that you want to force the answer to each question and
> ignore
> the other answer(s). Then, another page will chart a different path
> through
> the same few questions, and so on.
> 
> Would you just use normal question diamonds with a path continuing
from
> the
> desired answer on one side and a dead-end bubble on the other side
saying
> "Not Used" or similar?
> 
> What if, for some operations, certain "usual" prompts would not occur,
and
> you want to give the user some indication that those prompts would
occur
> down the path they aren't taking just now?  I thought of including a
box
> or
> two of the path that they won't take, but grayed out and trailing off
into
> a
> dotted line.
> 
> In other words, certain operations would be common to the point of
being
> habitual, but some sequences (used rarely) would start off as "normal"
and
> then branch away. I was thinking that it would provide a certain
orienting
> comfort to show the path not taken.    Or is that just too dumb?
> 

I'm not sure I understand exactly your intent, but perhaps my response
will let you know if I understand the question properly.

My first thought would be to flowchart using Visio Professional (if that
tool is available to you). When you have a question diamond with
multiple options, you can place "off-page reference" markers for each
option. On the appropriate subsequent page the corresponding off-page
reference is the starting point for the rest of your procedure.

In other words, one of your decision diamonds might be:

"What is your favorite color?"

And each of the diamonds would show several off-page references
corresponding to possible answers (such as "Red," "Blue," "Orange,"
"Gold"). Clicking on one of the reference markers navigates to the "Red"
page (or Blue or Orange or Gold appropriately) with the rest of the
procedure there depending on the user's choice.

Would that satisfy the needs of the chart you envision, or have I
misunderstood something in your request?

To be honest I don't know how well Visio translates to the web, but it
does support publishing drawings as web pages.

I hope this is helpful.

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