RE: HTML docs

[Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- jci -dot- com]

>If you make sure that your documents are published according to the
>industry standards (such as those published be W3C.org) and that they
>validate correctly, then anything the users do on their own computers
>shouldn't worry you at all.

I've less against the concept of smart tags than their implementation. For
example, if you put a reference to Microsoft Word in your docs (let's say
you're documenting a Word add-on) that reference will link to the MS stock
ticker, other MS products (inlcluding ones that are direct competitors with
yours) including a link to buy them, perhaps also a link to a "benchmark
comparison" which was bought and paid for by your competitor and biased
against your product.

Do you really think that if the user follows a smart tag off your site to
some bad information, that he won't blame you, even though you had nothing
to do with it?

Now, if MS built a "read more about it" sidebar and put  the links there, I
wouldn't have that much of a problem. It should be easy for a user to tell
the difference between what I supply and what the browser supplies. The
current implementation of smart tags blurs that distinction. In addition,
it breaks the user interface, because it flags the smart tags the same way
the rest of the Office products flags errors in spelling or grammar. It's
just plain bad UI, which will confuse your customers.

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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In God we trust; all others must provide data.
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Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
If JCI had an opinion on this, they'd hire someone else to deliver it.


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