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Among other documentation, I maintain a System Administrator's Guide for
Solaris and Windows admins. It's in Frame, and I use icons.
Warnings get a red exclamation point inside a black triangle, notes get
a small b&w pencil point, and procedures get a solid black arrow that
resembles a triangle on its side (all go in the left margin, anchored to
the text). Next to the first two icons, the word "Warning" or "Note"
appears in bold and all caps. Next to the procedure icon is simply the
title of the procedure, also in bold (i.e. "To Install Cygwin:").
My customers have never complained about these icons, but I have a
feeling things would be different if they were removed. I think their
design keeps them from appearing juvenile or oversimplified, and I think
they're a great help to navigating the doc.
Regarding the help: no, the icons don't make it there. The on-line help
is very simple, and doesn't include any graphics, figures, tables, etc.
In short, for the actual docs I say "go, icons!" :-)
--Jenny
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Jenny Igoe
Technical Writer
FGM, Inc.
Dulles, VA
www.fgm.com
