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> A hyperlink is a hell of a lot more than a jump from one location to
> another. A hyperlink is, by definition, a trigger that initiates an
action.
> Whether that action is displaying another topic, playing a movie, playing
a
> sound, sending an email, or what have you is up to you. So yes, the
> documentation is very accurate. The preconception that a hyperlink is a
jump
> from one location in a document to another is what makes the task of
> following the instructions difficult.
Bill, open a typical PDF file -- one of yours, Adobe's, anybody's -- and
estimate quickly what percentage of the links in that file are jumps to
another location and what percentage are "to play movies and sound clips,
execute commands from a menu, or other actions"?
(BTW, to be a *real* PITA, that should be "...or _perform_ other actions.")
;-)
Christine is exactly right. They've buried in an out-of-the way place the
*critical* piece of information that the user needs in order to accomplish
by far the most common link-related task.
The document's purpose isn't to correct readers' preconceptions about
hyperlinks. It's to help them use the software to do what they want to do,
and that requires taking into account what they're most likely to want to do
*and* what their preconceptions might be.
Richard
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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
richard -dot- combs -at- voyanttech -dot- com
303-223-5111
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rgcombs -at- free-market -dot- net
303-777-0436
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