screen shots for online help

["G. Abenhaim" <g -dot- abenhaim -at- nhc -dot- com>]

P.S. Are the "clients" referred to that actual users of the software and
documentation? Or are you creating software and documentation for said
clients who are buying the software and documentation to be used by their
users? If the latter, many clients in such situations believe that
documentation requires lots of screen shots, but users may or may not need
them. I've been in situations like that, and give the clients what they
want, but you have to know the real end users to know what will work best
for them. many clients in such situations are making assumptions based on
their own beliefs, not real user needs.


--
I totally understand what you are saying..you are right to a cretain
extent..but in my case the actual users are the employees (technicians,
system administrators etc. )of our client (bell canada). Most of them have
not been trained on our products and must use our software as they possibly
can. But our documentation is also used for our (internal) business units
and their tech support guys who are out on the road and connect to the
application.
In our past versions, we did not have any visuals in the documents but more
and more, clients are asking for them whether it is in pdf or using webworks
for online help. Most people say it is alot easier to have screen shots to
make sure the information they are looking for is exactly that.
My guess is it depends what the client has asked or paid for (other than the
system requirements). They always get what they want and we gotta obey and
do the work that they want. There's always changes to teh docs according to
what the client "believes" is better for the employees.

Grace