Responses to multiple posts

["Lauren" <lt34 -at- csus -dot- edu>]

I didn't really care to see my name pop up in 8 posts at once, so I combined
my responses into one post.  The responses are in random order and discuss
toggle switches, the Rob and Bonnie wedding website, curmudgeons with a
tie-in to garden gnomes, lengthy web pages and other documents, Screen
Captures 102.pdf, Lotus Chokes, I mean Notes, Star Trek and Al Gore (that
sounds odd now), and VPN (with more chatter about why some of my jobs are
annoying).

Lauren
__________________________________________

RE: toggle switch instructions?

I don't think that your using "toggle" as an adjective because the term is
"toggle switch."  "Toggle" by itself is a noun.  There is also "toggle bolt"
and of course the verb form of "toggle."  Like, "light" in "light switch"
for switch that turns on a light.  "Light" is part of the term and the term
is noun.  But "light" in "light switch" for a switch that is a lighter
weight than other switches, "light" is a modifier, so it's an adjective.

I can understand why you don't want to "toggle the toggle."  I see that your
reasons are similar to why we don't say "switch the light switch" but we say
instead, "flip the light switch."  Both "light" and "switch" are nouns and
verbs, each with different meanings that do not apply to the action of
turning on a light switch.  "Light" as a verb means "to illuminate" or "to
set on fire."  "Switch" means to change position.  Neither verb applies to
turning on or off a light, but somehow "flipping" a light switch works for
us, colloquially anyway.  I don't really have a good answer to get away from
"toggling a toggle switch," unless you decide to "switch a toggle" or
"toggle a switch."

Here's wikipedia's view about the term with an example of its use,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toggle_switch.

You can "set" or "clear" a toggle switch, but if your documentation
discusses the switch similar to "toggle on *or* off" and you discuss setting
the toggle switch, then you should also discuss clearing it.

A patent description that discusses the function of a toggle switch,
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3986039.html.

Lauren
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com 
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On 
> Behalf Of Andrew Warren
> Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 3:13 PM
> To: arroxaneullman -at- aol -dot- com; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: RE: toggle switch instructions?
> 
> arroxaneullman -at- aol -dot- com wrote:
> 
> > If you're going to use the term "toggle switch" you should also be
> able
> > to use "toggle" as a verb.
> 
> Actually, I see it differently:  If I'm going to use the word "toggle"
> as an adjective, I want to AVOID also using it as a
verb.__________________________________________

RE: Firefox vs IE - help

I did notice that in IE, everything is to the left of the screen but Firefox
centers the page.  You might try putting your pages into tables.  That
technique seems a little popular these days.  Tables can help with
placement. You can have one centered table with a cell that spans all
columns for the title and quote and image I guess or put the image in a cell
in the next row.  The following row can have a column with one cell and your
links, followed by a cell with content and another cell with the "more info"
stuff.  I don't know what to think about the latest popularity of tables but
does help with placement.  You can also place your one table into a cell of
another table that is flanked by blank (that contain  ) cells with
fixed widths to control placement.

Otherwise, your web site has a very nice and clean design.

Lauren
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com 
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On 
> Behalf Of Elizabeth J Allen
> Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 9:34 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Firefox vs IE - help
> 
> Greetings all,
> 
> I've strayed out of my comfort zone to create a web site for 
> a friend  
> of mine who is getting married. Found an open-source template,  
> tweaked it, added text and images. It looks great in Firefox on my  
> Mac, yadda yadda. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer has, er, issues.  
> Specifically I hear that IE 7 doesn't like the site. To wit, "on  
> Internet Explorer 7, the photo of the labyrinth covers up 
> most of the  
> Berry quote and the names." I don't have IE7 and would prefer not to.
> 
> Here's the URL: http://robandbonniewedding.com/
> 
> I have validated both the HTML and the CSS using the W3C tools--it  
> passes fine. I would appreciate any and all help that comes my way.  
> My knowledge of web sites is now officially maxed out.
> 
> Gratitude in advance,
> 
> Elizabeth
__________________________________________

RE: The coming predominance of user experience andtechnicalcommunications

> Behalf Of Eric Dunn
<...>
> As helpful and insightful as you can be at times John, other times you
> come across a stubborn curmudgeon. :p

Here's a comment totally unrelated to technical writing.  As I read the
words "helpful," "insightful," and "John" a picture began to form.  When I
had those in my mind and I read, "stubborn curmudgeon," that picture became
a gnome.  Like, a garden gnome.  I now have a picture in my head of John
Posada as a garden gnome.

http://www.sevenoaksart.co.uk/gnomes.htm
http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/gallery/gnome/gnome-sit-anim-small.8.gif

Thanks, Eric.

Lauren
__________________________________________

RE: Best practice for technical documentation page length on a website?

Personally, I don't think that this is an issue with scrolling as much as it
is an issue with how much a person needs to read to get necessary
information.  When documentation was only (or mostly) available in paper
form, sections of documents needed to follow general guidelines about how
many pages or words they contained.  I think that we sometimes forget the
need to limit the number of words in a section.  Documents that are written
consumers need to be shorter than documents written for end-users, but web
documents need to be short regardless because of user expectations about web
information.  Our society is developing a rather short attention span and
documentation needs to account for this lack of attention.

I find it best to summarize long documents into a paragraph and provide
links or references to longer discussions.  The standard for documentation
for one company was to provide an intro with bullet points for each section
of the document.  The help file converted the bullets to links, so
navigation became less intimidating than if all of the content was made
available without the summary.

Lauren
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com 
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On 
> Behalf Of procrastiwriter
> Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 8:45 AM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Best practice for technical documentation page 
> length on a website?
> 
__________________________________________

RE: FOUND!! Screen Captures 102.pdf

Sean did say last Wednesday that he would post this and that he was
surprised is was gone from Techwr-l.  But even without his direct permission
now, wouldn't the publishing address in the copyright information that
points to the old repository be valid permission to replace the document in
the repository?

But thanks for looking out for the rights of techwhirlers.

Lauren
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com 
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On 
> Behalf Of Eric Dunn
> Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 9:39 AM
> To: Chris Borokowski
> Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: FOUND!! Screen Captures 102.pdf
> 
> While everyone is simply striving to be helpful, it may be within our
> professional duties to respect the copyright holder's wishes.
> 
> Before sharing, and certainly before hosting the file, some attempt
> should undoubtedly be made to contact the author.
> 
> >From the title page:
> 
> Reprint Permissions
> Copyright 2002 Sean Brierley
> This document is published on the
> TECHWR-L Web site:
> (www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/).
> Contact Sean Brierley
> (sean -at- pubsink -dot- com) for reprint
> information and permissions.

__________________________________________

RE: Wikis replacing email

Lotus Notes leaves me feeling a sense of dread.  I find it to be a
cumbersome, irritating, and far too busy piece of software.

Lauren
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com 
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On 
> Behalf Of Chris Borokowski
> Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 3:15 PM
> To: Nancy Allison; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: Wikis replacing email
> 
> It was a lot more organized than the anarchic Wikis, that's for sure.
> 
> Apparently, it's not dead:
> http://www-142.ibm.com/software/sw-lotus/notes
> 
> A nice piece of software; groupware, a database and a communications
> medium enwrapped in an organization system. In many ways ahead of its
> time, as we have all those things now in separate softwares and search
> them via Google desktop.
> 
> --- Nancy Allison <maker -at- verizon -dot- net> wrote:
> 
> > Maybe I'm revealing one of my many peculiarities, but I remember
> > Lotus Notes with some fondness. 

__________________________________________

RE: The coming predominance ofuserexperienceandtechnicalcommunications

I think that the ideas for technology and science fiction are both based in
our imaginations of what would work better in our world than what we already
have.  All of it is a continuing quest to satisfy our hedonistic drives, but
then we contradict our hedonism by making more work in other areas.  For
example, we designed freeways so that we could get places faster, then we
made those places further away.  Gene Roddenberry didn't invent the cell
phone with Star Trek's communicators or bluetooth with Uhura's earpiece, but
technology has followed fantasy and a lot of fantasy comes from shared ideas
about what will work.

The connection between fantasy and technology doesn't really explain why Al
Gore thinks he invented the Internet.  I've tried to figure out in what
possible world could this even be true.  The only stretch of an idea that I
could come up with for why he'd think this is that the Internet, as an
easily accessible technology vehicle where one computer could exchange data
with another computer that is more than just BBS, got a bit of help when
military bases were decommissioned and decommissionees (can that be a word?)
wanted the technology that they had in the military.  Al Gore helped close
military bases.  There.  Al Gore invented the Internet.  Actually, I think
that a few steps are still missing.

Lauren
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com 
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On 
> Behalf Of Gene Kim-Eng
> Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 1:18 PM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: The coming predominance 
> ofuserexperienceandtechnicalcommunications
> 
> This is sort of like saying that Gene Roddenberry "contributed" to the
> development of big-screen television because there was one on the
> bridge of the USS Enterprise.  Al Gore would have a better claim
> to the Internet, if he had ever actually tried to make it.
> 
> Gene Kim-Eng
> 

__________________________________________

RE: FrameMaker Graphics

I've never had a job that gave me VPN permissions.  I think that part of the
reason for that is any time spent on a work system, even through VPN,
becomes billable hours, so I'm not being given that.  I can take my laptop
to work (when the state finally approves its freakin' budget) and use that,
but employers tend to discourage using personal equipment for work because
of confidentiality issues and such.

Lauren
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Borokowski [mailto:athloi -at- yahoo -dot- com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 2:03 PM
> To: Lauren; 'Jay Maechtlen'
> Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: RE: FrameMaker Graphics
> 
> Another option: a VPN connected to your home machine, where 
> you can use
> software with which you're familiar.
> 
__________________________________________

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