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Re: Documenting in Windows 8 - Click? Press? Select?

Subject: Re: Documenting in Windows 8 - Click? Press? Select?
From: "William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:21:37 -0500

I haven't used it yet, but a programming friend had an early copy. He said there was a way to make it play like the old Windows and when you do, all the problems of finding things and making things work go away.

However, getting the other 200,000,000 who will end up on Win8 to change their settings is another issue.


----- Original Message ----- From: "Wroblewski, Victoria" <vwroblewski -at- NECsphere -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 2:12 PM
Subject: Documenting in Windows 8 - Click? Press? Select?


Has anyone out there had to start documenting anything for Windows 8 yet? It's starting to peek over the horizon with some of my projects, and I'm trying to see if there is yet any standard way of dealing with it.

If you've happily ignored everything about Windows 8, it's designed to work on both traditional PCs and also tablet devices. And they obviously forgot the uproar from a lot of technical writers back when the replaced the word "Start" menu with the icon - they've removed the start menu entirely.

While I'm okay with the idea that we may just have to tell user to open/access and application without direct instructions on how to find it via the Start menu (instead of "Go to Windows Start > All Programs > Application Name", just saying "Open Application Name") I'm struggling with how to document the user experience since it may not be a single experience - will they be using a tablet and used to "press/tap" terminology? Or a standard laptop with a mouse and clicks? Or even a touch screen enabled PC where they may be able to press/tap or use a mouse?

For my own purposes - the likelihood is going to be adding Windows 8 support to an application that used to be desktop-based only. And it's still looming on the horizon (but those things also tend to appear that way, and then approach you rather quickly).

I've done some searches and if Microsoft has provided any guidance on this, it's well hidden enough where I haven't been able to find it. (Curse you, MMS for making us all go the "click" route years ago and then changing the game on it).

So, anyone doing this yet? Or planning their approach?


- V

Victoria J. Wroblewski
Technical Writer
NEC Sphere Communications, Inc.
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References:
Documenting in Windows 8 - Click? Press? Select?: From: Wroblewski, Victoria

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