Re: (fwd) Listing of Field definitions: Question

[Susan Seifert <sseifert -at- FAIRFIELD -dot- COM>]

At 9:17 PM 1/23/96, Connie Winch wrote:
>The following is forwarded to the list for a friend who's having trouble
>posting:

>I need your input:

>I'm working on a team of folks who are coding an On-Line Help system.  A
>question has come up.  On any one screen we may have between 20 and 50
>fields to code jumps for.  In the past we have always listed these fields,
>in the screen chapter,  in the order in which they appear on the screen.

>Here's our question.

>Would it be acceptable to list these fields, that is, all fields on all
>screens, in alphabetical order instead of their order of appearance on the
>screen?  In some cases one field may be repeated  in different places on
>one screen.  In the past we have handled this by dividing the screen chapter
>into "Header", "Body", "Detail" sections and then listing their associated
>fields in those sections.

>We would greatly appreciate any and all opinions on this question.
>Thanks,

>Cheryl D. Kidder
>Senior Tech Writer/Symix Inc.
>Columbus, OH
>chekid -at- symix -dot- com


I guess it depends on what you're writing. If you're writing something
task-oriented such as a tutorial, I'd advise showing the fields in the
order they are used. If you're writing a reference manual, list them
alphabetically. I prefer to write manuals that have *both* task-oriented
sections and reference sections for this reason.

Susan
sseifert -at- fairfield -dot- com