TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
My personal view is that screen captures generally add little IF the manual is intended for use while the reader is looking at the screen.
Reviewers are often tempted to ask for them because they are using them to visualize the software.
However, if your manual requires some kind of general explanation or if the division of fields into chunks on the screen is conceptually important, a screen shot makes sense.
Full disclosure: I'm one of those people who'd always rather have the 1000 words a picture is worth than the picture itself.
The problem with doing two versions is that there's more work to do than just removing the pictures. All those "as shown in Figure 4" phrases need to be removed, and you may want to be more specific in describing a control or field if there is no screen shot to refer to.
- Jessica
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
STC Vice President Nicky Bleiel is giving a free webinar on best practices
for creating mobile help.
