RE: Best Practices in Indicating Versions

["Michael West" <mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- net -dot- au>]

jsokohl -at- mac -dot- com wrote:
> My concerns center around unnecessary clutter and filters to
> communications--users being required to wade through administrivial
> metablather before they get to the information they _need_ 

"Wading through" is not a problem if that material is
visually distinct, properly labelled, and set apart from
substantive content.


> So I'm thinking that change bars
> unnecessarily draw cognitive attention (redundant? not sure) to the bar
> itself instead of to the message at hand. That is, perhaps the user's then
> drawn to a metamessage: "This line of information is different from what
> it was at an earlier point." Instead, perhaps the user needs to know the
> information itself.

Change bars are useful to me as a reader only if
I am reviewing *changes* to a document -- either as
a reviewer or as a user who is familiar with the 
previous content. I can think of no other reason for
inflicting change bars upon an end-user.

-- 
Mike West
Melbourne



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NEED TO PUBLISH FRAMEMAKER CONTENT ONLINE? "Mustang" is a NEW single
sourcing tool for FrameMaker that lets you easily publish your content
online. No macro language required! http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l3

Mercer University's online MS Program in Technical Communication Management:
Preparing leaders of tomorrow's technical communication organizations today.
See www.mercer.edu/mstco or write George Hayhoe at hayhoe_g -at- mercer -dot- edu -dot- 

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.