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Subject:Re: Secondary Help windows From:Scott Miller <smiller -at- CORP -dot- PORTAL -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 18 Nov 1997 16:04:05 -0800
>>>>
One of the other tech writers in my group is advocating for not using
secondary windows, saying that "some people don't like them."
I'd like some feedback from other professionals about this and how you
make your choices about topic length and using secondary windows.
<<<<
I use secondary windows exclusively. The main difference is they don't
include the menu bar, which is sort of overkill. You can also autosize
them, which you can't do with the main window.
I think that the distaste for secondary windows is a leftover from
Windows 3.1. In 3.1, secondary windows were not easy to deal with
because a lot of macros and navigation features didn't work with them.
For example, "Back" didn't work with 3.1 secondary windows, which caused
a lot of problems. Also, since we didn't have good control over on-top
attributes, secondary windows tended to stick around annoyingly and lurk
under other windows, waiting to appear at discomforting times, to the
confusion of the user.
