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Paul Strasser wrote:
Put yourself in the place of the
user who's trying to figure out this procedure. Do you like
cross-references, or do you prefer not having to bounce around from page to page, and just have the procedure spelled out for you in linear fashion?
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initially I thought of that too.
BUT, I then I thought that if I were presented how-tos, and the first three steps SEEMED to be the same every time I went to a how-to, I would start assuming that all the how-tos have the same three steps. I would automatically skip down to step four without even looking at them. This will be a problem if the first three steps turn out not to be the same for ALL how-tos, but only for a subset. You'll end up with people wondering why things aren't working even though they've "followed" the how-to. At least with a cross reference, you can point to different core steps when you need to. I think this is the best way to go if you're creating online help, but I'm still a little wishy-washy for print.......
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"And in the morning, I'm makin waffles." ~ Donkey
Sean Hower - tech writer http://hokum.freehomepage.com
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