Re: WinHELP Philosophy

Subject: Re: WinHELP Philosophy
From: The Tech Writer <techwrtr -at- CRL -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 11:11:33 -0800

On Wed, 31 Jan 1996, James M.Lockard wrote:

> David Dubin writes:

> "Help is not a lineal environment, as a user's manual is, even an
> electronic user's manual."

> While it's true that winhelp tends to be more hypertextual than linear, a
> user's manual is not necessarily a linear text. A novel is linear, but
> readers tend to bounce around in a technical document. Cross references,

[snip]

However, with paper documentation, you can *assume* that the person read
the previous page, even if they haven't. A reader will instinctively know
to look at the last few pages if he/she is confused. In online docs, you
cannot assume much at all. You've got to write very differently.

-David Castro
techwrtr -at- crl -dot- com
http://www.crl.com/~techwrtr/


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