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Re: Content of Help Systems

Subject: Re: Content of Help Systems
From: Peter Neilson <neilson -at- alltel -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 18:22:50 -0400


M Parcell wrote:

... Should
help system content duplicate documentation content?
Or, do these items serve distinctly different purposes
that merit different content?

Help screens should not overwhelm the reader. In the
best circumstance they should deliver exactly the needed
info and no more. They should never be the sole
repository for the information needed to repair a
non-working system, or for the steps for getting the
system started up.

Be that as it may, my own experience with the sole help
system that I created was that a "decision was made" to
make the content identical to the printed manuals because
it would be too difficult to maintain two sets of
information. The result was overwhelming verbiage in
which the user could not possibly find the required info.

All the effort that I had put into tailoring terse
persentation was flushed. Be prepare to sell the powers
that be on doing things right instead of appearing to
"save" money.

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References:
Content of Help Systems: From: M Parcell

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