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Romay Jean Sitze said:
> I believe that Susan is right on target here. Not only is it unnecessary
> to include the whole screen where only a piece or picture will do, it can
> even create more confusion in the reader to include too much.
Karen K. said:
>I understand that--sometimes you can't find the particular piece the
illustration is meant to illustrate.
> I'll admit that I haven't had to include screen shots in my own writing, so I
don't have any idea how I would do it.
>On the other hand, as a user, I am frustrated when only an icon or only a
pulldown menu is presented, because I
>can't figure out where the hell it is on my screen.
I agree with Karen K. And as many others have said, you have to know the
knowledge level of your readers. On
campus here, I write for an audience that is a mixed bag. However, the people
who have to pick up the
documentation to do a particular process is at the low knowledge level. So I
normally either 1) have the whole
screen shot, or 2) have a partial screen that is reduced in size with an arrow
coming from the particular field. That
field is "exploded" (blown up) to show the detail. By using option 2, I show on
a little bitty picture of the screen
where the particular field is located, and the exploded field is also shown in
detail.
Chris Tarski
UT Southwestern Medical Center
ctarsk -at- mednet -dot- swmed -dot- edu
