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Documenting Floating windows - how would you do it?
Subject:Documenting Floating windows - how would you do it? From:"Misti Tucker USAET(UTC -04:00)" <mtucker2 -at- E-MAIL -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 22 May 1997 11:54:52 EDT
Carla,
> * Or, would you make a new chapter called Floating windows at the end of the
> book (where it may not be seen by a user) in an appendix and just mention
> the existence of these windows and refer users to the appendix in each
> module for more information?
As long as the information is pretty much the same for all three modules,
this is the solution I'd choose. I wouldn't call it "Floating Windows",
though. That's confusing unless your users are also programmers. I'd call it
something like "Universal Windows" or "Other Windows" and explain in the beginn
ing of that chapter that these windows appear in more than one module and what
choices I'd made in explaining any minor differences.
Something else to consider: users seemto find Appendices more useful for that
sort of function than an extra chapter at the end of the book. Maybe it's more
visible, or maybe folks are used to the idea that the Appendices are where the
important stuff usually is. I don't know why, but it seems to be the case.
(I get fewer calls about material in the appendices than I do about similar
material in the body of the document.)
Misti Tucker
Technical Communication mta -at- cyberspace -dot- org (h)
& Help System Design mtucker2 -at- e-mail -dot- com (w)
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