Re: FW: When to use screen shots (was: screen dumps in books)

[Sybille Sterk <sybille -at- BOFFIN -dot- BEYOND2000 -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

At 09:01 20/01/99 -0500, Carl Stieren wrote:
>When do I use screen shots? As sparingly as possible. I get much more
>documentation usability - and product usability - by influencing the GUI
>designers in the first place so that screen shots aren't necessary.

Well, this topic has been on this list quite a few times and the opinion to
use as little screen shots as possible has been on here quite often, too.

Generally, I don't have a problem with this but I think it really depends
on what your users and the software you write about are like. The programs
I am documenting are very complicated because the tasks they perform are
not simple (image editing and analysing software as used in cytogenetics
and material science). I can't get away without screen shots, the users
would be completely lost after a while. For example, one of our programs
has a menu bar which changes depending on the stage of the image analysis.
There are ten (!) different menu bars with not just the menu bar changing
but also the menu items within the menus... Explain that without screen
shots!

It's great that some technical authors have a lot of influence on the
actual graphical user interface - I do not, though - so I have to make do
with what I get.

I used to work as a radio journalist and in radio they tell you that most
listeners can only listen to someone reading or reciting text for 2 minutes
after that their mind starts to wander of, therefore radio journalists try
to get the balance right between music, sounds and text to keep their
listeners on the radio.

With a manual it is quite similar, you want the users to read or at least
to use your manual. A manual is not like a book, it's not very exciting and
not something you want to read because it is a great work of literature.
You read it because you need the information in it. If all you get is text
and text and more text you don't even want to start reading it. Pictures
(screen shots, diagrams, icons etc.) break up the expanse of text and help
the user to find reading the manual not quite so hard. You still might not
want to snuggle up in bed with the manual, but maybe it isn't quite so hard
to read it...

The main advantage of the manual over the on-line help is that the manual
is portable, you can carry it around wherever you go. However, you may not
have the program with you. Without screen shots the manual loses this
advantage, because the user needs the computer + program to be able to
access the information in the manual in a useful way.

Sybille



Sybille Sterk
Technical Author and Translator (German)
email: sybille -at- boffin -dot- beyond2000 -dot- co -dot- uk


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