TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Vincent, I've used landscape to present some types of info when it was
necessary to make the content legible (e.g., a lighting plan for a
house). Never used it for screens or screen shots, but I think it's a
better solution than running it across two pages (trying to see that
from the user's perspective, that is).
I"ve had to do something similar in lots of situations. My alternate
solution would be to take a full shot and shrink it to fit into the
regular page. Don't try to give all the necessary info it it--just
provide it for general orientation of (and callouts for) the major
components you're trying to discuss. Then, within the actual content,
use blow-ups of the individual item being discussed. I've even used
larger sections of the item along the way, so that people don't need to
keep referring back to the main picture.
In addition to appearance and usability, you might want to take into
account how hard it is for people to use whatever you're describing, and
how critical the screen is. I.E., the material is something they're
unlikely to need once they've learned it (and easy to learn), vs.
frequent referrals back, for one reason or another. Also, what happens
if they don't do something just right?
So if the material is easy to learn, not used very much, or
non-critical, it would be less important to devote a lot of time to the
material, illustration, layout, etc., than if the material is difficult,
used often, or critical.
Good luck,
Kathleen
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Landscape vs. Portrait
> From: "Latella, Vincent" <VINCENT -dot- LATELLA -at- saic -dot- com>
> Date: Fri, October 23, 2009 4:20 pm
> To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
>
>
> I'm currently writing a user guide for a proprietary application that features some *really* busy-looking screens. Some of the tasks described in this user guide require the user to view and analyze all of the information on a given screen.
>
>
>
> For that reason, I've taken some screenshots that span the entire width of the window at hand (cropped above and below the relevant area, so that they're narrow, but wide).
>
>
>
> The call-outs describing what's shown in each of these screenshots have gotten downright scary; because I'm squeezing the entire window width onto an 8 Â" piece of paper*, I've had to densely pack call-out descriptions above and below each screenshot.
>
>
>
> Obviously, this isn't optimal from a usability standpoint, so I'm revising it.
>
>
>
> My manager suggests that I split each wide screenshot into two separate shots, and space everything out over multiple pages if need be. My fear there is that the users will lose some context in the transition, and my manager acknowledges that it's a valid concern.
>
>
>
> My alternative suggestion was to change the document's orientation to landscape, so that I'm dealing with 11" of space instead of 8 Â". As a sample, I went ahead and re-oriented one of the pages with the crazy call-outs, and lo and behold, it's substantially more manageable and less frightening. I showed my manager, and he agrees that it's a big improvement.
>
>
>
> That said, are there any rules regarding document orientation that would apply here? I'm using IBM's style guide, and I couldn't find anything regarding page orientation in it. Am I violating some sacred law of technical communication here? If I go with a landscape format, are there any hidden caveats about which I should be concerned? Lastly, am I missing some far superior alternative solution?
>
>
>
> Thanks, and sorry for posing this kind of a question on a Friday Afternoon!
>
>
>
> -Vin
>
>
>
> (*The guide will ultimately be a user-printable .pdf.)
>
>
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> 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 kathleen -at- writefortheuser -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/kathleen%40writefortheuser.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
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-
