SUMMARY: QUERY: File associations

[Geoff Lane <geoff -at- GJCTECH -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

In response to my post (quoted at the end of this summary), I received
several replies, both on and off-list.  Thanks to all who responded.

While most agreed with me, some respondents put the issue into a wider
perspective.  For example, Michael Collier wrote, "Hmm...could it be that
this developer takes tech support calls and is trying keep them to a
minimum?".  Since I consider minimising support costs to be a major function
of technical documentation, I had to take notice of that!  Others suggested
that my decision should take the user's level of expertise into account.
Karen Metzger and Michael Collier suggested that I recommend checking
checking the "Always use ..." box, thus leaving users free to disregard the
recommendation.

John G. Boland offered a nice piece of lateral thinking: replace the .log
extension with .txt -- Thanks, John, I've offered your suggestion to the
developers.

FWIW, I've decided to recommend that users check the "Always use ..." box
(as opposed to instructing them to do it).

Thanks again to all who responded.

Geoff Lane
Cornwall, UK
geoff -at- gjctech -dot- co -dot- uk

---------[ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ]----------
>
> I'm currently writing a tutorial for a Windows-based product.  While
> performing some functions, this product writes log files
> (with the extension
> '.log') to its log directory.  I have to document how to view
> these log
> files.
>
> the procedure goes something like:
>
> 1. From the Tools menu, choose "View Logs".  The Logs folder opens.
> 2. Double-click the log file that you want to view.
>         * If the LOG extension is associated with a program,
>           then the log file opens in that program.
>         * If there is no such association, Windows opens the
>           "Open With" dialog box.  In this dialog box, select
>           a suitable text editor (for example, Notepad) ...
>
> One of the SMEs insists that I instruct the users to check
> "Always use this
> program to open files of this type".  However, this worries
> me because it
> changes things for the whole operating system (not just for
> the product).
> IMO, I should tell the users the purpose of this check box
> and leave them to
> make the final decision.
>
> What do you think?
---

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=