Re: Styles for User Guides

[Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM>]

> Sharon Burton writes:
> >I do agree that people will ask for a manual that looks like someone
> else.
> >And that there is not ethical problem with creating one that looks
> like
> >someone else's.

Over the years we've had a tremendous number of clients who, when asked about
the look of their pages, say "Make it like Microsoft."  They want their docs to
look "legitimate," and making it look somewhat like a Microsoft manual gives it
that kind of legitimacy.  There have been a few clients who've insisted on
something really special, but for the most part people want a pretty general,
ubiquitous look.

And don't a lot of us start with the standard Frame or Word templates?  Sure we
add things or change things for particular applications or particular clients,
but there's nothing copyrighted about the templates that come with the word
processing package, other than the overall copyright that applies to the
software.

Get real, folks.  A template is a guide, not rules stamped in concrete.  There
will be situations where you have to change the way a Figure number gets
computed because it doesn't like the letters in your appendices, or situations
where a table has to be adjusted in order to get complete lines of screen text
on a single line - all of those are adjustments to a general guide. But you're
still using the same template. Just because one client wants a 2" indent from
the left page edge doesn't mean you can't ever use that same measurement again.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems


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