RE: Small Reference Guides

["Will Sansbury" <wsansbury -at- alpha -dot- ipswitch -dot- com>]

David Shenton wrote:
> I'm wondering, the screens that I reduce to fit (for reference) are
> small and some of the text is not readable. These are the same screens
> that are shown in full size in our source manuals, does it really matter
> that you can not see the text "again I just want them to have an idea of
> what the screens look like".


My vote? If the screen shots aren't readable, chunk 'em.

If they're not readable, they're of limited value. You could argue that they
help the user orient themselves, but when the screen shots are small and
unreadable, that's a dubious claim. They might help someone with intimate
knowledge of each screen design in the product, but the casual user won't
have that context.

Think of it this way... if the screen shots in your user manual (the larger
ones) were not readable, would you keep them in the user guide?

Of course, I'm not a huge fan of screen shots at all unless they demonstrate
user input or call out some aspect of the screen that is likely to be
overlooked, so my opinion exposes my biases.

Will Sansbury

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