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Subject:Re: The Problem with STC From:Becca Price <becca_price -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sun, 10 Dec 2000 20:15:38 -0800 (PST)
--- Avon Murphy <avonmu -at- home -dot- com> wrote:
> Andrew is
> totally on-target in affirming that bad content always means
> bad
> documentation. Bad content sneaks in--or leaps in--as steps
> that can
> endanger the user, illegal requirements, illogical code
> syntax, misplaced
> emphasis, mislabeled components, neglect of new information,
> etc. This
> content makes the document at best worthless.
<rant>
What I hate is documents that state the obvious and neglect more
important information. I know that when I click "OK" the
function of the screen happens (assuming the program doesn't
have a bug there). I know what a menu is, and that Open means
to open a file, and if I want to open a file, I look for the
File --> Open command, or similar.
what I want to know is how to accomplish tasks - and too often
end-user documents don't tell me what I need to know. (OK, I
know that, to insert a comment in a Word doc, I need to select
the Comment option - but on which menu? how do I find things?)
And I know from experience that this kind of shallow content is
often because the writer is writing under too tight a deadline,
or on too many other projects (or, alas, is too lazy) to develop
the kind of in-depth information I need.
</rant>
-Becca
who is testy, having spent 5 hours doing crafts with six 8 and 9
year olds...)
There's no such thing as useless information, only information for which you haven't found a use yet.
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