Re: Captions for screen shots

[Mary McWilliams Johnson <mary -at- SUPERCONNECT -dot- COM>]

Gee, Dick, I can't agree with your elaborate "captions." I'm sure
everything you've written after the four-word label,  could easily be
included in the text without losing any punch at all. From a formatting
standpoint, long captions look funny (IMHO).

Cordially,

              ------------------------------º><º------------------------------
                                 Mary McWilliams Johnson
                               McJohnson Communications
                                  Documentation Specialist
                Web Site Design, Development and Graphics
                                  www.superconnect.com
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At 05:59 PM 7/2/98 -0400, D. Margulis wrote:
>Amy G. Peacock wrote:
>>
>> I have a doc with a number of screen shots in it. As I was editing it
>> last night a thought occurred to me.
>>
>> For the captions for screen shots do you prefer to:
>>
>> 1) Describe the picture - what it is. As in, The Order Editing Form.
>> 2) Describe what it does. As in, "Use the Order Editing form to change
>>    your order."
>> 3) Describe what the user is doing or should do when they see the
>>    screen shot. As in. As in, "Viewing the Order Editing Form."
>> 4) No captions at all.
>>
>> Amy Peacock
>
>
>Amy,
>
>You are asking for personal preferences, so here are mine.
>
>[First, just to clarify terms, I am assuming that you are referring to
>the legend, which we usually place below or to the side of a figure, and
>which most people now call a caption. Right? A caption--the root word
>means head, as in captain, chief, chef, kopf, etc.--is traditionally a
>small headline that sits immediately above an illustration. But I
>digress.]
>
>When I have the freedom to set the style for a publication, which I
>usually do these days, I like to write long, informative legends, a la
>Scientific American. In order to facilitate a short form in the list of
>figures, I try always to begin with a brief fragment.
>
>So the result is something like this:
>
>Figure 3-7  The Order Editing form. [that's the end of the LOF listing]
>Use the Order Editing form to change an order that has already been
>submitted but that has not yet been filled. Use this form when a
>customer calls to change an order or when the system returns an order to
>you for corrections. Be sure to double-check your work, because once you
>release the form it will return to its original position in the
>processing queue and may be processed immediately. Note especially the
>fields in the shaded box. These must be complete and accurate in order
>to prevent further delays in filling the order.
>
>I also use callouts freely where I think they add clarity; but while the
>legend may refer to the callouts, it does not duplicate them.
>
>Just my .02
>
>Dick Margulis
>
>