RE: Examples of Minimalist Writing

Subject: RE: Examples of Minimalist Writing
From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
To: "Janoff, Steve" <Steve -dot- Janoff2 -at- Teradata -dot- com>, "Leonard C. Porrello" <Leonard -dot- Porrello -at- SoleraTec -dot- com>, "Boudreaux, Madelyn (GE Healthcare, consultant)" <MadelynBoudreaux -at- ge -dot- com>, "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:41:54 -0400

Janoff, Steve said a bunch of stuff, including:
[snip]

> One thing I meant to mention in the discussion on screen shots -- the
> "less is more" idea particularly applies to online help,
> since the idea
> is that you have the application open, and the exact screen
> visible (in
> the configuration you're trying to apply), when you consult
> the help, so
> you don't need to reproduce the screen that the user is
> looking at right
> now UNLESS you really have to show something completely non-intuitive,
> let's say.


On the other hand, if Help (to you ... ok, to me ... and to your/my customers) means standalone WebHelp, rather than context-sensitive Help, then maybe a completely obvious and blatant screencap is just the thing to orient the user who just came looking via:

- the Help ToC
- the Help Index
- the Help' search function

... a kind of "you are here... or at least, you should be if you've found the correct topic for your need."


I once wrote a longer sentence than that. It, too, hurt to read.

- Kevin ( who still does WebHelp without the context-sensitive aspect )


The information contained in this electronic mail transmission
may be privileged and confidential, and therefore, protected
from disclosure. If you have received this communication in
error, please notify us immediately by replying to this
message and deleting it from your computer without copying
or disclosing it.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat


References:
Examples of Minimalist Writing: From: Janoff, Steve
Re: Examples of Minimalist Writing: From: Chris Morton
RE: Examples of Minimalist Writing: From: McLauchlan, Kevin
RE: Examples of Minimalist Writing: From: Leonard C. Porrello
RE: Examples of Minimalist Writing: From: Janoff, Steve

Previous by Author: RE: Examples of Minimalist Writing
Next by Author: RE: one vs 1
Previous by Thread: RE: Examples of Minimalist Writing
Next by Thread: RE: Examples of Minimalist Writing


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads