I agree with the points/arguments made with the caveat that most people are visually oriented types, especially non-technical users. They aren't interested necessarily in reading through a paragraph of text where if they look at a picture with the information they need they are happy. I agree with you but that doesn't necessarily make it the right thing to do, I would personally lean more toward a use them *sparingly*, which is to say, use them only if for some reason you can't concisely describe with text what you are trying to accomplish, and that would be where editing/peer-review comes in? my $.02 -Jason On Tue, 2007-03-20 at 12:46 -0700, Karsten Wade wrote: > I was explaining something this morning that I thought all could benefit > from. I want to convince writers to avoid using screenshots. What do > you think of this? > > Here are the reasons: > > * They are hard to translate. > > * They have to be redone every time there is a change in the UI (string > or graphical change). > - This comes from the rule, "Make certain what you tell/show the > reader is 100% accurate to what they see on the screen, or the reader > loses trust in you." > - Changing text that refers to a UI is *much* easier to fix and > translate than the same change in a screenshot. > > * They take up a lot of space on the screen/on paper. > > * They don't show anything more than the reader is already looking at in > the application on their computer screen. > > * At most, they confirm for the reader, "Yes, I see the same thing in > the documentation as I do on the screen, I am in the right place." This > can be done with words alone. > > * A description of a screen takes up less space than a screenshot. > > * Since we do not want our documents to be a catalog of what can be done > in a UI screen, we're never interested in everything visible to the > reader. We're interested in only a subset of what is in the UI. > Showing the entire UI in a screenshot is therefore distracting. > > * A screenshot is not the same as a diagram or other useful graphic. > > Okay, what are the advantages of using a screenshot? > > * Useful if the reader cannot read the language of the document; the > screen shows them they are in the right place. > > * Useful if the reader believes they cannot follow a document without > screenshots. > > * Nice for desktop tours, to show what applications look like. > > * Useful for when you need to define a specific term on the desktop, as > in the FDUG where the elements of the desktop are explained with a > graphic to show which piece it is. > > I would like to make this part of our guidelines. What do you all > think? > > - Karsten > -- > fedora-docs-list mailing list > fedora-docs-list@xxxxxxxxxx > To unsubscribe: > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-docs-list
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part
-- fedora-docs-list mailing list fedora-docs-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-docs-list
