RE: I've been wrong all along...more pictures less words

["Lauren" <lt34 -at- csus -dot- edu>]

> From: Gene Kim-Eng

> But if I hit F1 within the program, the last 
> thing I want to see pop up in the online help is a fullscreen 
> capture of the same screen I'm already sufficiently confused
> about to need to hit F1.
> 
> Gene Kim-Eng

I didn't think about the F1 ramifications.  I also don't think that
screenshots should always contain the full screen.  A full screen screenshot
is necessary as a starting point to assure that both author and audience are
on the same page, so to speak, but after that introduction, then snips of
widgets and what-not should be sufficient to illustrate the current subject.


I have been frustrated by help text that did not include any screenshots and
would simply refer to a control.  In one case, for some new Word feature or
moved old feature, whatever it was I needed, the help text would refer to
using a particular control and assumed that I knew where it was or what it
looked like.  I did not.  I had to backtrack through the Help menu to find a
starting point that I could match to the documentation, and then step
through the help documentation to get to the information that I needed.  

As I recall, I needed to go through this several times before I was able to
get what I wanted because I needed to configure my Word as it was configured
in the help documentation.  I think that one occasion of Word "help" was
when I was looking for a way to disable those annoying pop-up what's-its
whenever I typed something that looked like a name or a town.  Word didn't
want me to disable their precious "feature."  I think that I have may won.
Another occasion was when I needed to find out why Word would no longer
spell check my resume (thanks to one recruiter) and I needed to access
language settings that were not as conspicuous the Help menu seemed to
imply.  Little pics of the widgets discussed in the help text would have
helped.

Lauren

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