Re: Robo "Printed Document" Graphics

Subject: Re: Robo "Printed Document" Graphics
From: "Chuck Martin" <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2003 10:00:55 -0800



"Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> wrote in message news:221667 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-

>
> > Can I assume that you're authoring in HTML?
> > If you are using the height and width attributes in your IMG tags, then
I'm
> > lost....
>
> Same here. It works fine in the .chm, it's the print
> output that's screwy.

Curiouser and curiouser.

I'm doing WebHelp as my default and generating printed docs. Here are
selected printed doc settings for what's working for me:

- Generate a single document
- Images: Embed in document

If you manually code an IMG tag so that it has only SRC, HEIGHT, and WIDTH
attributes (and not all the extra style attributes that RH adds), what
happens?

>
> > BTW, why do you need graphics at 100%?
>
> Because that's the correct size. :) Seriously, we spent a
> fair amount of time experimenting with different display
> settings on the app being documented so that our screencaps
> would be the right size for both .chm and print as-is, and
> now the #$%^ authoring tool is changing them to the wrong
> size for us!

Information I got from a class with William Horton way, way back when
suggests that screen captures (as opposed to informational graphics) do not
need to be full size. His research showed that users view them as little
more than confirmation that they are in the right place in a procedure. They
don't look for details. I remember that his research showed that screen caps
as small as 25% did little to reduce comprehension.

I typically do mine at 50%. But I almost never put them in the online Help
either. Why take up valuable screen real estate for something that sitting
right next to the Help window? Screen caps in online Help mean that a 4 or 5
step procedure might require scrolling 2 or 3 times--not to mention would
almost certainly require horizontal scrolling if a user actually wanted to
see the entire graphic.

I'm using RH's conditional text feature to have screen captures only in my
printed document. But I'm not doing the coding in RH. I did a test topic to
see what kind of code was needed for conditional text, then created a couple
of code snippets in Dreamweaver to add the HTML in code view.

>
> > And no, we're not surprised that a "major online authoring suite" has
such
> > "lousy" online Help. It's been that way for years and versions; it's
likely
> > that they are too committed to their six-month(!) new version
development
> > cycle (gotta churn for that income) to bother improving the docs or
fixing
> > long-standing bugs.
>
> Well, it's not exactly selling the idea of having the latest
> releases to me. Once I get this one working right, I may
> never upgrade again...
>
If Mcromedia takes RH under its wing and integrates it wel with Dreamweaver
(nad makes sure enough bugs are fixed before release, unlike DW MX 2004), we
could wind up with a very powerful, useful, and less frustrating development
tool.

P.S. Sorry this reply took so long; lists.raycomm.com was down all day
yesterday.


--
--
Chuck Martin
User Assistance & Experience Engineer
twriter "at" sonic "dot" net www.writeforyou.com

"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. The day
may come when the courage of Men fail, when we forsake our friends and break
all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day! This day, we fight!"
- Aragorn

"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given you."
- Gandalf



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