Re: xref vs link

[Jason Huntington <JasonH -at- CAPTURA -dot- COM>]

Joe et al,

The approach you describe may be a little askew.  Rather than making a
blanket links-per-unit-text judgement (a Procrustean bed at best), and
then fitting your needs into it, take a step back from the problem and
do some preparation such as:

*       Make a map of your information and a story board of your site.
*       Make a heavily hyperlinked prototype and a more linear
prototype, and then test their relative usability.

Let your research and preparation educate your decisions.

This approach will save you agony and time, and makes your end product
easier to justify/sell, too.

Respectfully,

        Jason R Huntington
       Senior Technical Writer
              (425) 487.9484 x146

      Captura Software, Inc.
You may be losing money by waiting.

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Joe Malone [SMTP:joe -at- VNETTECH -dot- COM]
        Sent:   Thursday, October 30, 1997 3:14 PM
        To:     TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
        Subject:        xref vs link

        I wrote a hardcopy manual once and simply loaded it with
        cross-references, feeling proud that a reader could get anywhere
they
        needed to go (the xrefs included page number). Reaction was
negative.

        Now I'm preparing to do html files for a browswer. Figured I'd
load it
        with referenced links between files. But will this still be a
turnoff -
        should I duplicate lots of info to minimize jumping around?
Compromise?


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