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I did choose the topic of my example just because I knew the dialog box contained a number of sophisticated controls that (in my opinion) need to be fully explained in the documentation.
However, thinking about it a little bit, yes, there is a good reason that this might be a primary task. If I want to output .GIF files, they're limited to a maximum of 256 colors. If I just do a "Save as" and choose .GIF, the program uses its defaults to reduce the color depth of the image to 256 colors, a process that may yield unpleasant results. That's the reason the dialog box exists... to allow the user to control the downsampling used, thus yielding more acceptable results.
Mike
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Milan Davidovic wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 12:32 PM, Leonard C. Porrello
> <Leonard -dot- Porrello -at- soleratec -dot- com> wrote:
>> A Minimalist approach doesn't preclude reference
>> documentation. It precludes giving step-by-step directions covering how
>> to do things that users already know how to do or can easily figure out.
>
> Do think that task analysis that's true to the minimalist ][aradigm
> would produce topics such as "How to decrease the color depth of an
> image to 256 colors"? My impression has been that minimalism is more
> focused on user goals such as "reducing the file size" or some such.
>
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