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Subject:Re: Appendix within a chapter. From:Hal Wrobel <hal -at- TECNOMATIX -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 29 Jun 1999 08:10:25 +0200
Dear John (Why does that opening bother me?),
Your description reminds me of PDM software I documented that could be
installed on various operating systems and had to work in conjunction
with a database application. Installation and configuration procedures
differed depending on the clients' operating system and which of the
major database programs they was working with.
In our case all the variant information was organized by OS with the db
programs as subheads in the conventionally located appendices at the
back of the book. After reading your post however, it occurred to how
often as a user I've heard the inner voice of my indolent gut whining,
"Whoa, the appendix is such a long way off, and all those pages between
there and where I'll have to keep my place, and...." In short, I think
that under these kind of special documentation circumstances, your idea
of a mini appendix at the end of each chapter is brilliant. If I were
the user, I'd appreciate it.
This may put you up there with the inventors of air conditioning and
Saran wrap.
Hal
===========================================================
Hal Wrobel, technical writer
Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd.
Delta House, 16 Hagalim Avenue Tel: 972-9-959-4953
Herzeliya 46733, Israel fax: 972-9-954-4402 mailto:hal -at- tecnomatix -dot- com
===========================================================
If a man speaks in a forest, and his wife is not there,
is he still wrong?
John Posada wrote:
>
> I want to do something "different" and I was wondering
> if anyone has attempted this.
>
> The software developers on my application (bless their
> heart) tried to make the application so cutomizable
> that they've made it almost impossible to configure
> for anyone with experience short of developer level.
> This happend by attempting to incorporate every wish
> of every user, even if only one out of a hundred users
> had that wish. Therefore, one of the problems is that
> almost every dropdown box (and there are MANY) can be
> customized.
>
> In trying to address a process in the document at the
> time that it would occur in the application, the
> procedure gets bogged down in side-processes that
> makes the average user deviate from the normal
> procedure.
>
> Therefore, I'd like to group the side-processes in a
> section at the end of each chapter. In this way, if an
> advanced user wants to address some of the
> configuration cababilities that most users wouldn't
> care about, they can reference the procedure at the
> end of the chapter.
>
> I realize that this description probably doesn't do
> the problem justice, but based on my description, does
> this seem like a totaly bizzare way of addressing it?
>
> ===
> John Posada
> Western Union International
> (w) jposada -at- westernunion -dot- com
> (p) john -at- tdandw -dot- com
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