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Subject:Re: The Burden of Screen Captures From:"Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 22 Nov 2002 11:46:54 -0800 (PST)
Mats wrote:
> each manual requires at least 30-40 screen captures in
> the reference section of the manual to explain all menus
> and dialog boxes in detail.
Is this really the most effective way to describe how to use the
menus and dialog boxes? My impression is that this technique is
was generally replaced by the task-oriented procedural approach
sometime in the mid-1990s. I don't know your app, so I could be
way off base...
> Each manual will also be translated to up to 10
> languages, which means that I will need to carry out
> approx. 600-1200 screen captures in total (all translations
> included). I am not looking forward to it.
Are you sure *you* need to do it? Often development shops will
leave this kind of work up to their overseas distributors who
wish to sell it... Is this an option for you?
> I can't imagine that Adobe or Microsoft or any other
> large software company have 10 persons sitting in a room
> all day doing screen captures for their manuals, in 25
> different languages?
I think they mostly leave this up to the third-party
aftermarket, but that's a benefit of their market position.
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