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Subject:Re: need advice - writing wiki Help for web app From:"Connie Giordano" <connie -at- therightwordz -dot- com> To:Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>, TechWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:55:30 -0500
I always believed the universal "don't use screen shots" rule was rather
short-sighted. I typically built help with full and partial screen shots
in dynamic dropdowns so if a user knew where they were they could just go
to the info they needed, if they needed to figure out if they're in the
right place, they could click and expand to see the screen shot, then click
to close it again.
YMMV, but if you have a user base of widely varying skill sets, do your
analysis first!
Connie P. Giordano
The Right Words
Communications & Information Design
(704) 957-8450 (cell)
www.therightwords.com
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." - Walt Disney
-------Original Message-------
From: Gene Kim-Eng
To: TechWR-L
Subject: Re: need advice - writing wiki Help for web app
Sent: 31 Jan '11 15:42
We're writing more and more help that goes the other way - more
screens and less prose. Wizards "walk" the user through common tasks
by means of sequenced popups that appear over images of dialogs
pointing to buttons and data entry fields. The popups that name the
UI elements and provide procedure steps are text strings that are
localized with the product, and the screenshots have their text labels
removed or dithered so the same graphics can be used for all
languages. The traditional figure with numbered callouts and a table
of descriptions is now used only for printed docs or pdf versions of
the help.
Gene Kim-Eng
On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 11:57 AM, Di <[LINK: http://mbox.server274.com/compose -dot- php?to=dicorrie -at- gmail -dot- com]
dicorrie -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> i tend to translate this one thus:
> . dont use screen shots to illustrate procedures (why would you when you
> have got the app alongside)
> . in other contexts a screenshot or part of a screenshot, perhaps with
> annotation or two, will illustrate the general principle of using raphics
in
> documents - look nice and be a 'picture tells a thousand words'.
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Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with
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Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
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[LINK: http://www.doctohelp.com/] http://www.doctohelp.com
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