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Subject:Which is /w/o/r/s/e/ ... better? From:mlist -at- safenet-inc -dot- com To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:47:40 -0400
In Help (in my case, WebHelp), which do you favor:
- a long page that needs scrolling, but which sets up the current task
(explains why and the gist of how) and then goes through the complete steps
necessary... even if it's 29 steps on a very lengthy page
- multiple pages, breaking at every opportunity, and requiring that you
visit all pages in the cluster in order to get the idea and complete the
task ... but at least, gosh, you never have to scroll
??
I do have a Reference section that is just command-syntax stuff (with links
in from HowTo pages and links out to HowTo and Concepts pages), as well as a
Concepts section that gives description, explanation, background without
procedure (but has links...), and so on.
I came to Help from writing paper/PDF documents in the range of 80 pages to
about 400 pages, and some of my sections were several pages long - I didn't
try to keep each and every page self-contained. So, I've carried that over,
perhaps to the detriment of my end-users.
I've read or heard stuff that has prompted me to give the matter some
thought.
What say y'all?
Kevin
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