Poll: How do you differentiate commands, etc. in text? (Take II)

[Combs, Richard]

Geoff Hart wrote: 

> This is why my favorite approach in documentation is to 
> minimize the use of the icons in the first place by referring 
> almost exclusively to the menu commands. My rationale is that 
> in addition to avoiding the kind of visual problem Tom 
> described, I know that the menus will work for all users of 
> the software--whereas many people (me, for instance) hate 
> working with toolbars and icons. A well-designed menu system 
> is generally more logical than a toolbar, and also reveals 
> the keyboard shortcuts for power users (me, for instance) who 
> hate taking their hands off the keyboards.

Boy, are you going to hate Windows Vista and Office 12! :-)

In the former, the menus for most windows are either gone or hidden by
default. I understand that the latter does away with menus completely.
The folks at MS think menus are obsolete. 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to hate it. I agree with Mark Levinson and
Donna Jones -- when we're learning reasonably complex, sophisticated
tasks or applications, we should learn concepts and ideas, not just
where to click next like a chicken taught to play tic-tac-toe. As Donna
said, "Give me WORDS."

Curmudgeonly,
Richard 


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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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