RE: Coordinating Field Defs and Procedural Info

["Hickling, Lisa (TOR)" <lhickling -at- Express-Scripts -dot- com>]

[LONG]
We take a lot for granted about the way we write. We never usually have
to justify our approaches until someone else proposes a different path.
>From the comments received it appears though that there is at least some
method in my particular brand of madness.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in! I really appreciate your comments.
Here are the key considerations in presenting the case for separate
field descriptors complemented by separate, thin, task oriented procs:

Paul (for the challenging approach):
Field-level info in a procedure and concept info in the overview

Damien:
Description of each tab - what the tab does with the fields laid out in
a table, field, description, permissible values etc as required +
Straight procedural steps with minimal info and refs back to relevant
sections for more details. Occasionally have duplication if I feel
there's too much jumping back and forth.

Bear:
procedural steps as concise as possible. + If the field requires
definition we do that either in the preamble leading up to the steps, or
in a table that could precede or follow the steps.

Tracy:
field descriptions within a procedure makes the information buried. + 
In an ideal world, the field descriptions would be embedded in the
application itself, perhaps available on hover over the field label, and
help would just be procedures, also available in a dedicated application
pane.  

Jan:
The procedures include just enough information about the fields to
answer most any question the end-user may have when completing the
fields. Cross-references are included, when appropriate.

Janice
Where the field location is clear and the procedure has just followed
an explanation of the widgets that provide the information, then I
wouldn't provide any further information or links.

Diane:
I prefer giving the definitions prior to the procedure if adding the
definitions make the procedure long and complicated, or if the
definitions break the continuity of the procedure flow.

Linda:
Document separately and point to where needed: reusable info; info of
interest to only a smaller user subsets; and reference info. Other info
gets fully detailed on the spot.

If I'm missing anything please let me know.

Thanks,
Lisa
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