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At 9:43 AM -0500 10/4/99, Karen Neeb wrote:
>Our company develops software that is used on both Windows-based and Mac
>computers. [....]
The manual and help for FrameMaker 4 handled this very effectively, if ya
ask me (plugging instructions for both platforms in one paper manual, and
building seperate help for each platform 8-)
This is, of course, something Frame was designed to do.
For small manuals and/or total-newbie users, I usually go ahead and do
seperate manuals for each platform.
If the application is done well, once the manual is mapped out it's not
terribly time-consuming to do the book for each platform (you won't have to
write each book from scratch)...
>I don't know what impact this [using one set of instructions for both
>platforms]
>had on Mac end-users, who then had to use a UI with unfamiliar standards.
Well, the biggest problem I could forsee as a Macuser is that if the
application is pure windoze, and doesn't bother to behave like a Mac app
(say, f'rinstance, that it required me to 'Hit-F4' to close a window,
insteada "Apple-w' I'd get annoyed and wouldn't use the thing anyway, no
matter how well-written the manual or help were...)
But that's just me....
Regards,
dan'l
>The developers are now considering the effort it would be to create a
>separate UI for each platform. I would be interested in hearing from anyone
>who has to document in this environment.
>
>- How does this affect your printed documentation? Do you print two
>separate manuals? Or do you keep one manual and write separate step
>instructions or even keep one set of instructions and say, "in Window, do
>this" and "on the Mac, do this"?
>- How does this affect your online documentation? (same questions)
>
-------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Brinegar Information Developer/Research Droid
"Leveraging Institutional Memory through Contextual
Digital Asymptotic Approximations of Application Processes
suited to utilization by Information-Constrained,
Self-Actualizing Non-Technologists."
vr2link -at- vr2link -dot- com CCDB Vr2Link http://www.vr2link.com Performance S u p p o r t Svcs.
