RE: Screen captures (was RE: TECHWR-L Digest, Vol 35, Issue 14)

["Hemstreet, Deborah" <DHemstreet -at- kaydon -dot- com>]

Hmmmm,

My immediate reaction - looking at the samples in the article, is that
the partial screen captures did not give close to enough info to help
the user get oriented to what they are looking at...
I would also think that the application matters. For example, I'm
working on something now where the dialog boxes are HUGE - both in size
and in content.
A person can get lost looking at one screen, let alone one part of the
screen. So I show the entire dialog box, and then I show the relevant
chunks that are being used in a specific procedure, but I always give a
link to a full pic for the reader to get oriented, and a verbal reminder
of WHERE this chunk is in the dialog box.
I hope it works... if you could see the box I'm talking about, you'd
understand why giving the same picture with different callouts each time
is NOT an option!

At the end of the day, as I follow this, and other threads - it's all
about meeting the needs of our audience. We need to be aware of the
research. But we need to research our audience... the documentation is
going to vary tremendously depending on their needs.

Deborah



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