Re: Field-specific Help

[l m <lm5582002 -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Okay, first of all, I'd like to thank everyone who has
responded so far. I think the idea of specifying alpha
v. numeric, hyphenation, etc. is a good one, but as
far as I'm told, there are no
requirements/restrictions on the data that will be
accepted by the system.

Secondly, thank you, Chris, for cracking me up this
early in the morning: "Legal Department?" I'm
ROTFLMAO. I only wish we were that, um, corporate.

And I think that's the main problem: We're a big
company but we don't have the structure that "normal"
companies do, so I feel like I have no resources for
questions like this, and those who are making the
decisions about what goes into the documentation/help
are people who've never written any kind of end-user
product before.

I don't mean to rant; I just feel like I'm being
directed by people who give no thought to the
users/audience to do something that isn't particularly
valuable for the users/audience. So I'm trying to
figure out how to add *some* value, if at all
possible...


--- Chris Borokowski <athloi -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:

> I would run this one by the legal department, since
> for an online
> application, they want to be very specific. "Your
> name" can mean just
> about anything to an internet user, so unless you
> want people typing in
> "Zorg-Amir, Elragon Dragonlord Level XIII" you
> should get the legal
> people to come up with some phrase like "Enter your
> name as it appears
> on your driver's license, passport or credit cards."
> 
> --- l m <lm5582002 -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
> 
> > Has anyone had experience documenting such an
> interface? Do I really
> > have to write, "In the Name field, enter your
> name?"
> 
> 
> http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
> technical writing | consulting | development
> 
> 
>        
>
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