Re: How to reference screen captures in online help

[Mike Stockman <stockman -at- JAGUNET -dot- COM>]

On 3/10/99 10:45 AM, Michelle Vina-Baltsas
(Michelle_Vina-Baltsas -at- US -dot- CRAWCO -dot- COM) wrote:

>I'm stuck on this, so I figured I'd ask the experts what they do.  How do
>you all reference screen captures in your help files?  Traditionally, I
>have used something like this, "The XYZ sample window is shown below.", but
>I'm wondering if anyone else has any other suggestions.  Also, for those of
>you who add hotspots to your screen captures, how do you reference them in
>your help file?

I've generally avoided "below" in descriptions, which is a habit left
over from my printed manual days. An illustration or screenshot may
appear physically below the text, but it may also appear at the top of
the next page due to the joys of pagination. Since "below" would not be
accurate there, I've used different methods, as shown in these absurd
examples:

     This example shows how to enter your first name in the First Name
field:

or, in a procedure:

     1. Enter your first name in the First Name field, as shown here:

or, when I think the graphic is a clear example of what I've described:

     1. Enter your first name in the First Name field.
     <graphic goes here without any additional explanation>

For hotspots, I've always introduced the graphic and concluded with
something like "Click any field or button in this example for a
description."

I think some variety in wording helps keep the doc. from sounding boring,
but these are the general sentences I've used...

Hope this helps,
----->Mike


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