TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
<<when the instructions said Press ALT+F4, he knew to press the ALT key, the
+ key and the F4 key. needless to say, he wasn't not getting the results he
wanted.>>
This thread has gone on for a loooong time, but c'mon, folks, do we really
have to write to *this* member of our audience? I clipped most of Sharon's
story, but this was a class to teach FrameMaker to reasonably computer
literate students. I agree we don't want to use weird characters that could
be confusing, but there are already precedents for using > and the pipe
symbol (which I don't have on the keyboard here, and this client has, in its
infinite wisdom, removed Character Map from the computer).
You can also use any grammatically valid sentence. Bolding the commands is
nice. But for even my most Windows illiterate audiences, I will cover
conventions of the documentation (such as Alt+F4 means press and hold the
Alt key, then press F4, then release both keys) *once* and be done with it.
