re: A grand, grand opening line...

[Greg Holmes <holmegm -at- attbi -dot- com>]

"Andrew T. Brooke" <abrooke -at- pathcom -dot- com>

>I used to work at a place where the doc standard was to have the first
>sentence in the manual be:
>
>Welcome to the <name of product> <name of document>.
>
--snip some words---
>
>I can't decide if this is:
>
>A) The smelliest opening line ever for a doc, resulting in both
>laughter and/or sickness.
>B) A nice, gentle way to guide the reader (primarily a developer) into
>the great work they are about to enter.

It's probably C) - thrown in because the space seemed bare without *any* 
introductory sentence, but there wasn't really a more meaty sentence 
that fit. "Like the title implies, this is a user manual.  Please use 
it.  We hope you find it, um, useful."

Have to call this one "font-fondling" ;)  If the document flows right by 
just jumping in, I'd do it that way, and if it needs an introductory 
fluff sentence to avoid seeming abrupt, I'd do that.  Not a lengthy 
decision either way, in my opinion.

Greg Holmes


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