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I try to make the defaulot page that the help opens to (which is not necessarily the first page in the browse sequence)
be the overview of running the application:
______________________________________________________________
Message: 29
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 11:07:37 -0500
From: mlist -at- safenet-inc -dot- com
Subject: Where's the beginning? (was RE: When to Spell Out Acronyms)
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID: <88484FCE42800C499ED8254F9F5E35EF048ACEF6 -at- EXCHCA1>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
This, of course, got me to wondering what's the best approach
in Help.
We've pretty much been dropping paper and PDF documents in
favor of Help. Mostly WebHelp.
So, where's the beginning of Help?
I've already got contending demands to have my WebHelp
start page be:
a) the disclaimer, acknowlegement and copyright page
b) an intro page for product configuration (my preference)
c) various other bright ideas.
Since I can only really have one "Start" page, I can't accomodate everyone.
I _could_ spell out acronyms in hidden-til-you-click dynamic html
expanding or drop-down text... but since a person can enter Help
at any point, that would mean putting expansions behind (under? around?)
virtually every occurrence of an acronym. That would make my Help
pages even patchier than they are now. Eek!
As well, I already make liberal use of expanding or drop-down text
for asides, non-essential examples, good-to-know stuff, etc., and
I don't wish to "devalue" those links by crowding them among
thousands of repetitive expanded acronyms.
What do others do?
Kevin
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