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Re: suggestions on how to "hide" UI-based topics in online Help TOC?
Subject:Re: suggestions on how to "hide" UI-based topics in online Help TOC? From:Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:10:15 +1100
Christine Kent wrote:
> If I have understood, this all sounds pretty standard to me.
>
> Both types of documentation are required.
>
> We used to use terms like User Guide for process based documentation, and
> Help for function based documentation. Software development projects often
> do both kinds of documentation, as they serve different needs. Some people
> need to work out how to do the job so they want the process based
> documentation, and some people just need to work out what to do with a
> particularly nasty field, so they need the function based documentation.
>
"Required" is rather a loaded word. The answer to
the issue of whether interface-based information is
necessary for product documentation usually depends
on the product. If your audience is users of the
interface and not interface developers, then they
could easily need to know the interface only in
relation to tasks that they need to do, and generally
rarely examine the interface independent of trying
to accomplish some specific goal.
-- Janice
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