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Subject:Re: Screen Capture Placement From:"Mark L. Levinson" <nosnivel -at- NETVISION -dot- NET -dot- IL> Date:Sat, 24 Oct 1998 14:11:24 +0200
barb.ostapina writes:
The article was about visual design and stated that screen
captures should appear after the instruction/text that references them,
never before.
** Sounds like a confusing overgeneralization. I'd say
after the first text, but not necessariy after all
the text.
On the one hand, you don't want the screenshot suddenly
appearing out of nowhere like an unannounced party clown
when the reader doesn't yet know what to understad it as.
On the other hand, you don't want the reader struggling
with instructions that refer to the screen and not
realizing a helpful illustration is coming up.
Maybe, to borrow from the metadiscourse thread, you
should tell them what you're going to show them, show
them, and then tell them about what you showed them.
For example,--
1. When you click the Bones button, a disassembled
skeleton appears.
[ Illustration of skeleton screen, with its
features labelled ]
2. Using your mouse and the command buttons shown above,
assemble the skeleton.
On the other hand, there may be alternative conventions
that are no less reader-friendly. For example, if
every page consists of an illustration at the top and
relevant text beneath, I imagine readers will understand
that the text belongs to the illustration.
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Mark L. Levinson - Herzlia, Israel - nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il
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I never metadiscourse I didn't like.
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