RE: Screen captures (was RE: TECHWR-L Digest, Vol 35, Issue 14)

["Hemstreet, Deborah" <DHemstreet -at- kaydon -dot- com>]

Deborah E-S. Hemstreet
Technical Writer Contractor, RCM Technologies
Kaydon Custom Bearings
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I think the issue is, though, that the partial screen captures are TOO
partial.

If I have the tooltip and part of the toolbar, with the top part of the
window, I am more likely to locate the command, than just seeing the
tooltip floating in space.

Partials can work - it just depends on how wisely they are cut...

Deborah


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+dhemstreet=kaydon -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+dhemstreet=kaydon -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Boudreaux, Madelyn (GE Healthcare,consultant)
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 2:35 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Cc: Combs, Richard
Subject: RE: Screen captures (was RE: TECHWR-L Digest, Vol 35, Issue 14)

Combs, Richard wrote:

>I've seen far too many manuals crammed full of these kinds of useless 
>illustrations. I've seen manuals with screen shots of every stupid 
>notification or error message -- for instance, the text "A message box 
>informs you when the XYZ process is finished" is followed immediately 
>by a screenshot (complete with figure number and caption). It's a popup

>containing the words "XYZ process finished" and an OK button. How does 
>that picture help anyone? 

The user who easily digests the written word understands the text, while
the user who better understands visual aids understands better with the
pop-up. A verbal person may not see the difference between the words in
a paragraph and the words in a box, but the visual learner DOES see the
difference, and is potentially aided by such. 

By providing both, you help both types of learners to use your
documents, which is more than just an attempt to add pages and get paid
more. (I hate voice-overs on tutorials, and always turn them off, but
for people who need to hear the words to better process the material,
I'm glad that the option is included.)

***

This discussion really suggests that a new study is needed. However,
people seem to be missing that they did the follow-up study in 2004,
only 4 years ago (I mentioned it in my initial comment). Can anyone find
that study? 

Also, bear in mind that the researchers didn't expect the results they
got, either. 

- Madelyn
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