RE: Creating one help system

Subject: RE: Creating one help system
From: Jean Hollis Weber <jean -at- jeanweber -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 20:15:42 +1000


I wrote:

Case in point: I am trying to figure out how a
particular [product] does something (or even if it can do that). I don't know where to start. I'm not at a dialog box, wondering how to use it. So I have to look in the index or the ToC to see if I can find a clue on where to start.

And Sean Hower asked,
But if the particular isn't in the interface in the first place, you wouldn't wonder how it's working because you wouldn't know about it.....unless I'm just not getting the point you're trying to make,

Well, I left out a word (inserted in my quote above), which didn't help me make myself understood. <g> My point (as Jim Shaeffer understood) was that I am using this product (OpenOffice.org Writer, if you're interested -- this wasn't a hypothetical example) and thinking, "Surely this product has a way to do X; I wonder IF it does X and if so, how. Where do I find out?" A variation is "I know it can do X (because others have said so), but I can't figure out how or where to start."

I've just spent an entertaining (that's polite for frustrating <g>) several days working out some features that are quite easy to use once I "got it" but totally obscure until then, not helped by some really appalling online "help" and almost no other explanations. But hey, that means the book I'm writing ("Taming OpenOffice.org Writer") should be really popular with other people who want to do the same stuff. <vbg>

Regards, Jean
Jean Hollis Weber
jean -at- jeanweber -dot- com
The Technical Editors' Eyrie http://www.jeanweber.com/



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