RE: RE: my bad displays habit

["Leonard C. Porrello" <Leonard -dot- Porrello -at- SoleraTec -dot- com>]

Exactly. Standards should ALWAYS be geared toward audience.

Leonard


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+leonard -dot- porrello=soleratec -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+leonard -dot- porrello=soleratec -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- c
om] On Behalf Of Odile Sullivan-Tarazi
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 8:26 AM
To: Paul Goble
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: RE: my bad displays habit


That's a good point!

We have tried to go this route with screenshots, though I'd not made 
this connection.  In addition, we do not show screenshots at each 
step.  We include them when the UI is interesting, unusual, or 
complex.  The routine stuff we don't keep repeating.

We are also writing for an audience of developers.  I realize there 
are some environments (audience, situation, type of doc) in which a 
screenshot at each step makes sense.


Odile


At 4:01 PM -0600 3/2/10, Paul Goble wrote:
>Odile wrote:
>>  What we do, rather than including a separate results line, is locate
>>  the user in that new UI at the beginning of the step that follows.
>>
>>       1. Do this.
>>
>>       2. In the Such and Such dialog, do that.
>
>I gravitate toward this solution for another reason: it facilitates
>tightly-cropped screen shots which show the action being performed.
>The "such and such appears" style lends itself to static, cursor-less
>screen shots of whole windows.
>
>Graphics and text contribute equally to the active or passive "voice"
>of a passage.
>
>--
>Paul Goble

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