RE: Procedures (OK and cancel)

[Salo Karina <Karina -dot- Salo -at- comptel -dot- com>]

Thanks for all the good comments! As always, there were at least two
conflicting opinions about this matter, and I will present all the good
reasons for and against in our next group meeting. I think we can create a
nice debate about this (too). 
Personally, I think Eric's suggestion was good. After the procedure I could
put a short note saying what clicking Cancel does.
The UI is pretty easy to use and I'm not expecting many people to actually
read the Help, and if somebody reads only one page of it because of a
particularly tricky procedure, I think Cancel should probably be explained
every time it appears. I don't think the users will read the "Introduction
to the user interface"-section of the Help where the Cancel-button would be
explained.
Thanks again,
Karina

-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret Secara [mailto:margaret -dot- secara -at- alphather -dot- com]
Sent: 19. kesäkuuta 2002 18:56
To: Karina -dot- Salo -at- comptel -dot- com; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Subject: Re: Procedures (OK and cancel)


Are you documenting the interface, or telling the user how to perform a
task?  If the former, then I guess you should mention the Cancel button
every time it appears.  I guess.  But if the latter, then no. You have
already said "To do X, follow these steps" or something like it.  If the end
of that task is to click OK, then tell them to click OK.

Settle on what you're trying to accomplish. I don't think it's necessary, or
adviseable, to try to do everything at once.

Maggie Secara



>>> Salo Karina <Karina -dot- Salo -at- comptel -dot- com> Tuesday, June 18, 2002 >>>

Hi all!
We are having a slight problem in our tech writing team. If you write a
procedure that ends in the user having to click OK to save or has the option
of clicking Cancel to cancel everything, do you include the both in your
instruction?
Example:
1. Blaa
2. Blaa
3. Click OK to save or Cancel to return to the blaa page without changes.

Some think that since the procedure explains how to do something, you don't
need to explain how to not do it (hmmm... am I being clear?)
Some think, that since the Cancel-button _is_ visible in the UI, you should
also explain what it does. 
Any thoughts on that?
BR,
Karina




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check out RoboDemo for tutorials! It makes creating full-motion software
demonstrations and other onscreen support materials easy and intuitive.
Need RoboHelp? Save $100 on RoboHelp Office in May with our mail-in rebate.
Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

  Your monthly sponsorship message here reaches more than
  5000 technical writers, providing 2,500,000+ monthly impressions.
  Contact Eric (ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com) for details and availability.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.