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Tutorials: how to walk users through a printed quick tour
Subject:Tutorials: how to walk users through a printed quick tour From:"Burns, Nancy" <nburns -at- BREAULT -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 16 Apr 1999 10:36:05 -0700
For those of you who have experience writing software tutorials for users,
your input would be greatly appreciated.
Which method below would most novice users benefit from when using a printed
"Quick Tour" tutorial. This is for a software application with a typical
interface of windows and dialog boxes. Users will do the quick tour on their
own (tech support is available) to become familiar with the program. The
Quick Tour is accompanied by a Getting Started manual and online Help:
1) Steps are succinctly delineated with bullets or numbered items,
accompanied by details in descriptive paragraph form before or after the
steps. Users refer to tables of values as well as screen shots in the manual
to see what they need to enter in a dialog box on their monitor.
or
2) Steps are presented within descriptive paragraph form. Users refer to
annotated screen shots in the manual to see what values to enter in the
dialog box on their monitors.
If neither of the above, what would you suggest for a printed tutorial?
