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Subject:RE: Designing a new help system -- Oh boy! ...ugh From:"Kathi Jan Knill" <Kathi -dot- Knill -at- template -dot- com> To:"John Posada" <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 2 Dec 1999 13:59:24 -0500
Hey there John,
While I appreciate why you think the ss are necessary, I still can't
agree. I have created many help systems where I had the pop-up
definitions come from the word on the page for the help page.
So, if you clicked on help from the Widget screen, you
would be taken to the widget screen help page. there you
would find an overview and a list of fields and such that
needed to be defined. When you clicked on the field name, it
did a pop of a definition. So, it can be done, and done well.
Alot of people don't care for STC, but in one company that I worked
for, my manager insisted with enter the STC competition (either online or
whatever the other is called). I entered a help system that included
the kind of screen help I just described, and received an award for it.
Guess it boils down to a subjective decision, but I still think they
add confusion.
Again, just mho.
Kathi Jan Knill
Sr. Technical Writer
Template Software
Kathi -dot- Knill -at- Template -dot- com
"Sometimes the majority means
that all of the fools are on the same side."
