Re: Capitalizing...research need
Bolding text is a total pain to maintain and, with appropriate subject
headings and subheadings should be unnecessary. It is also extremely
time-consuming to create and to review.
It is almost a universal axiom that a more usable product required more development time and effort.
Bold topic heads should suffice quite nicely. If your text needs
particular parts only bolded, I would suggest you have too much text.
I'm not sure how topic heads communicate steps in a procedure, especially if the procedure is more than one or two steps.
Or, if you really want to be able to "scan for the needed items
quickly" you should consider using the Information Mapping style. For
this purpose in procedural docs, it is (possibly) unsurpassed.
I'm not familiar with Information Mapping, other than the name. I've seen some recommend it. I've seen jobs listings that require it. And I've been to the web site and encountered in the samples there some of the most indirect, unclear technical writing I've ever seen (at least, non-translated technical writing).
I'm open to an explanation of how Information Mapping relates to how people read content, especially considering that many people, especially when encountered with technical documentation, often tend to scan rather than read. Using appropriate emphasis, such as bolding the terms of the UI items that users act upon, enables users to catch the critical points when they scan.
But here's an experiment to try. Take a printout of a procedure where
the UI items that the user would act upon are in bold, the button names,
the field names, etc. Run it through a copy machine. Take the copy and
run that through the copy machine. Take that copy and run it through the
copy machine. Repeat a few more times until the body text is faded and
fuzzy enough to be unreadable. Then see if you (or someone else) can
figure out what to do by using just the bolded (although probably
somewhat fuzzy themselves) terms.
--
--
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
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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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