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Re: Minimalist approach to conceptual information (was: minimalist or--- low-level)?
Subject:Re: Minimalist approach to conceptual information (was: minimalist or--- low-level)? From:kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 5 Mar 2002 09:00:31 -0700
"open the file" versus "select File, Open" ?
Either way it's only three words - suitably minimalist, I would think. (Or
is that "minimalistic?" I can never remember the rule.)
The second option is much clearer, I think.
Depending on the size and nature of the documentation, I tend to lean
towards repetition. I've done lots of behemoth docs (400 to 1,000 pages),
and when people pick one of these up, it's generally to solve a specific
problem. If they want to adjust the FrambleFroozit, I don't think they
want to be sent to some other section of the manual to learn how to open
the file first. So I'm inclined to include that information wherever it
might be necessary. Makes for a very redundant doc, but much faster for
the user.
- Keith Cronin
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