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Re: Rhetorical question about formatting devices :-)
Subject:Re: Rhetorical question about formatting devices :-) From:Steven Brown <stevenabrown -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 16 Oct 2001 08:55:59 -0700 (PDT)
Hi Jessica,
I know I shouldn't answer an rhetorical question,
but....
I write for an Internet application that features lots
of odd UI elements that are difficult to document with
formatting devices:
- some of the "clickable" elements are links, others
are buttons.
- everything label, field name, screen, and tab uses
initial lowercap.
- everyone refers to lists, drop lists, radio buttons,
etc. in different ways.
- the UI designers used frames, in which screens
appear.
On top of all this, I have to collaborate with
Marketing since they weild a great deal of power (and
share the responsibility for producing documentation).
What the Marketing wonk and I agreed upon is to avoid
using formatting devices as long as the
term/phrase/sentence is understandable. This allows us
avoid cluttering the documentation with multiple fonts
and emphases and risk it looking like something a
college freshman wrote.
Microsoft's biggest crime is not creating a monopoly
(which I think is okay), but providing average
computer users with more fonts than they need.
Steven Brown
Senior Technical Writer
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