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Karen Kay wrote:
>But I have another question. 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. In other words, there isn't enough
>information to help me find it. In the other case, there's too much
>information to find it. So what do you do? Do include half the screen?
>How do you handle this? Am I the only user who has this problem?
I only put in a part of a screen when it doesn't really matter where on
the screen it appears (as in the case of a window that opens when a
key is pressed) or when a full screen grab, previously given, provides
the necessary context. For example, if pull-down menus always come from
a particular part of the screen, and this has been illustrated with a
full screen shot earlier on, then the information concerning placement
need not be repeated.
This method gives the manual a "lighter" feel - makes it more
approachable by the visual variety resulting from graphics of
different sizes and shapes.
Marika Piehler (cy19 -at- musica -dot- mcgill -dot- ca)
