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Subject:Re: Online vs. Hardcopy documentation From:"Wing, Michael J" <mjwing -at- INGR -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 31 Jul 1996 13:22:26 -0500
>----------
>From: David
>Jones/KSBEISD[SMTP:David_Jones/KSBEISD -dot- KSBEISD -at- datahub -dot- com]
>Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 2:49 AM
>To: Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L
>Subject: Re: Online vs. Hardcopy documentation
>mjwing @ INGR.COM ("Wing, Michael J") wrote:
>>> True, the on-line documents don't provide the same
>>artistic qualities > when printed when compared to documents formatted
>>for
>>print.
>>
>>"...artistic qualities..." Do you mean communication skills and
>>everything
>>that is implied by that
>Nah, just page layout and formatting. Correctness of language does not
>improve/degrade because of the medium in which appears. Does it?<
>But communication is much more than just correctness of language. I'd
>suggest
>reading a book called _Editing by Design_, about how design (the
>superset of
>"page layout and formatting") affects communication. The book was
>written for
>people who were focussed primarily on content rather than the "medium"
>-- just
>like many of us dealing with on-line docs.
>David Jones, Technical Writer
His question to me was "what I did I mean by artistic?". In my
statement, I meant just simply "page layout and formatting". In no way
am I saying that correctness of language is all that there is to
effective communication; otherwise, we wouldn't need tables, charts,
graphics, document design, and so forth.
He also asked me to look at his signature file to expound on his
question. I did. There I found references only to correctness of
language. Therefore, I focused my question on the medium changing the
correctness of language. I am not asking if correctness of language is
all that is needed for communication. Instead, I am asking "does the
medium in which the language appear change the correctness of the
language itself?". Design limitations between the mediums is an
interesting discussion itself. There I feel that the product drives the
type of documentation that best suits it.
Mike Wing
>_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
>_/
>_/ Michael Wing
>_/ Principal Technical Writer
>_/ Jupiter Customization and Educational Services
>_/ Intergraph Corporation
>_/ Huntsville, Alabama
>_/ (205) 730-7250
>_/ mjwing -at- ingr -dot- com
>_/
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