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Subject:RE: paper documentation vs. online help From:"MacKenzie, Colleen" <cmackenzie -at- DENOVIS -dot- COM> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 18 Apr 2002 11:02:07 -0400
At 11:52 PM -0500 4/17/02, Mike Starr wrote:
>Scott...
>
>My perspective is that if I've got the content, why should I leave it out
>of the online help system?? The pixels don't cost us anything, I'm going to
>write the stuff anyway... what do I gain by leaving it out?? Nothing. What
>do I gain by leaving it in?? Customer satisfaction.
>
>Sure they're different media but so what?? Does that mean that the content
>loses its validity?? I don't think so. Like I said in my previous post, I
>happen to believe that most users will only look in one place for the
>information they want. Why not take every possible opportunity to give it
>to them? I don't believe in being stingy with information a customer might
>want.
>
>Mike
>OK, Make the online documentation XML based. Its intent is still not
>the same as Help. What is the intent of Help?
>
>To help the user with questions about immediate operational usage,
>the what is answered.
>
>Anything else is not Help. It is online documentation. Online
>documentation is not Help. I refer you to the man pages of a Unix
>system. That is online documentation. Yeah, it's a poor example, but
>because the intent there is complete documentation of how the command
>works, which to the programmers who wrote them was a Help system, it
>is still not Help. Help should answer your question within a few
>paragraphs at the most. User documentation will often include screen
>captures of windows. A Help screen is not the best place to display
>that, rather a fragment is more useful.
>
>I have no patience with Help systems that take up more screen
>realestate than the program, that give me more than I want to know at
>that particular time.
>
>This is a philosophical problem that will not be solved right here.
>Many of us have preferences that are not going to be changed by our
>arguments.
>
>Scott
What about layering information in online Help systems? In this structure, reference & conceptual information (and other material not immediately needed for task execution) is linked to relevant procedures, but is not in-your-face (thus, taking up real estate or making the user hunt for the kernel).
Colleen
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