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Subject:doc to help theory -Reply From:David Hailey <FAHAILEY -at- WPO -dot- HASS -dot- USU -dot- EDU> Date:Wed, 12 Jun 1996 10:54:37 -0600
Hi Angela and Alexander,
I must say that I completely agree with Alexander. These
are really different media--read differently, used
differently. I suspect that much of the reason people hate
to use help files is because so many of them are written
with little regard for their medium. I think while you
might use one to generate the other (perhaps hardcopy to
online) they should be written in different styles and
voices, and constructed differently.
But that is only an opinion. We are still at the beginning
of understanding these media. Who knows what styles we will
finally choose as it evolves.
Dave Hailey
USU
Snips from Angela and Alexander follow:
>>> Alexander Von_obert <avobert -at- TWH -dot- MSN -dot- SUB -dot- ORG> 06/12/96
10:02am >>>
Hello Angela,
* Antwort auf eine Nachricht von Angela an All am 30.05.96
A> From: Angela <amoore -at- softdesk -dot- com>
A> We're working on a manual that we plan to convert to help
very
A> shortly
A> Because of the nature of the beast, the manual and help
are two
A> very different things and need to be maintained
separately.
I prefer to generate them separately - different contents,
different writing
styles...
You should decide first on where to put what. Background
info should be in the
manual, but all the important details like data formats
could be in the online
documentation only. You could even try to exclude from the
manual many of
those details that change from version to version or even
from bugfix to
bugfix. This way you could use one batch manuals for a
longer period of time.
Greetings from Germany,
Alexander
--
|Fidonet: Alexander Von_obert 2:2490/1719
|Internet: avobert -at- twh -dot- msn -dot- sub -dot- org
| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly
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