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Re: FW: When to use screen shots (was: screen dumps in books)
Subject:Re: FW: When to use screen shots (was: screen dumps in books) From:Carol Kime <ckime -at- PEERLOGIC -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 19 Jan 1999 13:59:06 -0600
One consideration for including full screen shots, especially in online
doc, is whether the screen shot might be easily confused with the live
software. Have you ever had online help active, been interrupted, and then
wondered why the heck the software wasn't responding as you clicked on a
button? Yep, can be a drawback to showing the entire, exact screen shot in
online doc...
A "fix" used at one place I worked was to overlay the word "Example"
diagonally over the screen shot.
Carol Kime
Austin, TX
>
>We use screenshots heavily in our tutorials. Our documentation is online
>only, so we only have to think about the screen. If you have print to worry
>about, your choices might be different. I tend to copy the entire screen,
>regardless of how much is repeated from the previous screen. In step-by-step
>information, users appear to ignore the part of the screen that isn't
>relevant. Providing the entire screen seems to orient them better, however.
>
