Re: Task-based versus UI-based documentation

Subject: Re: Task-based versus UI-based documentation
From: Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>
To: TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2014 08:25:36 -0700

I think that's a straw man. Task-oriented documentation can and should
be comprehensive. Any UI text that's not self-explanatory can and
should be explained somewhere. That doesn't mean you need a topic for
every dialog box, but neither does it mean some topics won't be about
one dialog.

Context-sensitive help should go to the topic you think users are most
likely to be looking for, and that topic should have links to any
other topics relevant to the context.

Task-oriented documentation pretty much always needs to include
reference topics for things such as APIs and configuration files that
are not task-specific.

I stopped upgrading Paint Shop Pro because the UI got overly complicated.

On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 3:50 PM, Mike Starr <mike -at- writestarr -dot- com> wrote:
> The current received wisdom within the technical writing community is that
> we must focus on task-based documentation... give the users instructions for
> the most common tasks they might want to perform. Overall, I agree with the
> need to provide task-based documentation but I disagree vehemently with the
> position that we don't need to provide reference-based documentation.

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References:
RE: Task-based versus UI-based documentation: From: David Artman
Re: Task-based versus UI-based documentation: From: Mike Starr

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