Re: Thoughs on reproducing what's on screen

[Ginna Dowler <gdowler -at- questertangent -dot- com>]

"Brierley, Sean" wrote:
> Nonetheless, I am opposed to adding the 35 pictures because of the file
> bloat they cause and because I dislike reproducing what a user sees on their
> computer screen. Instead, I prefer to add a short, bulletted, admittedly
> unexciting text list of key information each report provides. Am I
> unreasonable in this? What do you guys think? Reproduce the first page of
> the report, as described, or no?

This is timely because I am, as a user, grappling with reports. We have
a new inventory system, and there are around 50 standard reports that we
can generate. We are now in the process of getting enough data together
to generate them all, so we can evaluate their usefulness. The verdict?
We would have been thrilled to have samples of all of them, with dummy
data attached. The only problem I have with your solution is the
prospect of shrinking them. We need to evaluate how the standard forms
will look printed on letterhead, or our purchase order forms etc. If
they were full-size, we could copy them onto other paper and test. 

I'd recommend including some sort of "example report package", maybe
separate from the manual, on loose sheets which could be photocopied. 
-- 

Ginna Dowler
Quester Tangent Corporation
Sidney, BC
gdowler -at- questercorp -dot- com