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Subject:Re: Toolbar vs Menu From:"Bergen, Jane" <janeb -at- ANSWERSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 18 Nov 1997 14:25:33 -0600
We generally document everything from the menu bar, for several reasons.
* Unless EVERYTHING is available on the toolbar, you're going to end up
with a confusion of methods for your user.
* Many users dislike using icons and prefer to use the keyboard to use
commands, such as Ctrl + S for Save. The menus display these keyboard
shortcuts.
* If you document commands from toolbar icons, you have to show your
reader the icon. The result is a lot of extra graphics in the docs.
Clutter.
Somewhere I read some articles about this subject, but can't remember
where or when. I hope someone else can point to something...
Jane Bergen
Jane Bergen, Technical Writer,
AnswerSoft, Inc. Richardson, TX
(972) 997-8355
janeb -at- answersoft -dot- com
On Tuesday, November 18, 1997 2:14 PM, Wayne Douglass
[SMTP:wayned -at- VERITY -dot- COM] wrote:
> At 11:54 AM 11/18/97 -0800, you wrote:
> >When you document a procedure, do you document the toolbar method or
the
> >menu/command method or both, and why?
> >
> I only document the toolbar method as an indirect way of explaining
the
> "intuitive" icons. The icons are there as shortcuts, and I want my
users to
> learn the fastest, easiest way to do anything.
>
> I don't want to document both in a procedure because it clots up the
flow,
> and technical writing already has enough instances of misplaced
concreteness.
>
> Moreover, any fool (see the Idiots thread) can pull down a menu.
>
> --Wayne
> ---------------------------------------------
> Wayne Douglass phone: 408-542-2139
> Verity, Inc. FAX: 408-542-2040
> 894 Ross Road mailto:wayned -at- verity -dot- com
> Sunnyvale, CA 94089 http://www.verity.com
> "Connecting People With Information"
>
