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Subject:Re: Toolbar vs Menu From:"Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 18 Nov 1997 12:12:11 -0800
At 11:54 AM 11/18/97 -0800, Scott Miller wrote:
>When you document a procedure, do you document the toolbar method or the
>menu/command method or both, and why?
Well, it depends! ;-)
The toolbar button and the menu option aren't really supposed to do
the exact same thing. For example, in Word, selecting File > Print
from the menu presents the user with a dialog box full of options
while clicking on the Print toolbar button sends the entire document
to the default printer.
Were I to document this application, I would -- somewhere, not
necessarily in the chapter with the procedures but more typically
in an overview -- list all of the (default) toolbar buttons and
what they do. I would probably also list all of the menu options
and what they do. Then, in the procedures, I would document the
menu option and all of the choices it offers.
That said, there are lots of applications in which the toolbar
button and the menu option do exactly the same thing--the print
command in CorelDraw, for example. In documenting that application,
you could easily write the procedural instruction as "Select
File > Print from the menu or click {prnbtn.bmp}".
Would I do it that way? Probably not, because I'm comfortable with
the minimalist principle of documenting a single way to perform a
procedure and letting the user discover shortcuts through exploration.
However, audience analysis and team input would influence my decision.
I know this isn't the definitive answer you're looking for. Hope it
helps anyway.
