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Subject:Re: Icons in running text From:Barbara Karst-Sabin <Phillinion -at- AOL -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 1 Jul 1998 14:58:12 EDT
In a message dated 98-06-29 13:59:17 EDT, you write:
<< I agree with all of the reasons not to include icons in running text. To
counter this, I have a solution that works great for our manuals.
We use FrameMaker and have about 1 1/2 inches of white space on the left side
of each page. Right by the heading that discusses the action (File/Print), we
insert a frame with the icon and the shortcut keys in the white space. This
way if a user is just scanning for the shortcut key, or looking for the icon
(What does this button do?), the solution is easy to find. >>
I absolutely agree with all of this. And the fix you describe is exactly what
I've used in various places. In fact, I have to stop myself from overusing
it, since I tend to want to know what the button or whatever looks like, when
it's more than just a text-labelled click-on. I've done the same thing in
other apps, like Word, by using small boxes in the "margin" or having a narrow
column at the left side. (In Word I find that putting things in a table is
often the easiest fix for layout problems.
