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Subject:Using screenshots in Online Help From:"nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il" <nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Mon, 18 Aug 2003 08:05:30 -0400
> How many of you include screenshots
> in your Online Help files?
I like screenshots in books, to give the reader
the benefit of knowing for sure that what's being
discussed is exactly what's there on the screen.
(And where, amid all the junk on the screen, it is.)
In online help, that benefit needs to be weighed
against the consumption of real estate. In online
help I favor the occasional square inch of screenshot,
especially when the reader may otherwise have difficulty
identifying what's being discussed. (How is the reader
supposed to know what the "Average the Data Disparity
Across the Population while Discarding the Extremes"
icon looks like?)
Best, if you can afford it, is help integrated into
the application rather than appearing at the expense
of the application's own space.
Mark L. Levinson
nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il
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