Re: (fwd) Listing of Field definitions: Question

[Kent Newton <KentN -at- METRIX-INC -dot- COM>]

Sure its acceptable to do that -- as long as you are consistent.  If you
list the fields on one screen that way, you should do it for all the
screens.  Users tend to get easily confused and you need to be consistent
so their expectations are set accordingly.

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From:  TECHWR-L[SMTP:TECHWR-L -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu]
Sent:  Tuesday, January 23, 1996 4:18 PM
To:  Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L
Subject:  (fwd) Listing of Field definitions: Question

The following is forwarded to the list for a friend who's having trouble
posting:

I need your input:

I'm working on a team of folks who are coding an On-Line Help system.  A
question has come up.  On any one screen we may have between 20 and 50
fields to code jumps for.  In the past we have always listed these
fields,
in the screen chapter,  in the order in which they appear on the screen.

Here's our question.

Would it be acceptable to list these fields, that is, all fields on all
screens, in alphabetical order instead of their order of appearance on
the
screen?  In some cases one field may be repeated  in different places on
one

screen.  In the past we have handled this by dividing the screen chapter
into "Header", "Body", "Detail" sections and then listing their
associated
fields in those sections.

We would greatly appreciate any and all opinions on this question.
Thanks,

Cheryl D. Kidder
Senior Tech Writer/Symix Inc.
Columbus, OH
chekid -at- symix -dot- com