Thanks for the compliment on my choice of cropped screenshots, but I am thinking that they could be reduced some more than what you may think. We shall see.
As I begin writing the Base Guide having read the thinking about judicious use of screenshots, I am thinking about using them in a slightly different way. For example, The two windows of the Base wizard. I am thinking about referring to the parts of of each window while just using just one screenshoot. In any case I will be moving what I have been writing so far into the latest template Jean has placed on the website and provided a link to it. That may provide me with some insight into how to take advantage of the newer template. On 6/2/08, Jean Hollis Weber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > In the debate about the number of pictures (mainly screenshots) in the > user guides, Gary offered some examples of screenshots that he thought > were unnecessary. One category was pix of how to open files. > > I agree that most of those can probably go, partly because that is too > basic a thing for us to be teaching people, but also because many > (most?) of them are operating-system-specific and the appearance of > various operating systems keeps changing. I'm not familiar with > Windows Vista, but I believe there are some significant differences in > appearance between that and WinXP, and indeed WinXP classic is quite > different from the default WinXP desktop and start menu view (whatever > it's called). So, for example, the screenshot we have of using the > start menu from WinXP shows the classic view and thus may not be of > much help to someone using the default view if they need pictorial > help in following the instructions on using the system menu. > > This isn't a matter of "too many pictures" but rather a matter of > choosing pictures that add value for those who want or need pictures. > A picture that doesn't resemble what the user sees may be more likely > to confuse than help. Clearly on o/s-specifc topics we can't provide > for everyone, so I'm now proposing to take those pix out, leaving only > the text. I'm sure there are other places in the books that would > benefit from some judicious pruning of pictures, always with the > criterion of value for those users who benefit from pictures. > > This is all quite apart from which o/s we choose to capture the OOo > screens from. OOo looks reasonably similar on all o/s, with some minor > platform-specfic window decorations and some variation in how wide the > dialog is (I've noticed that some dialogs are noticeably wider in > Linux than in Windows). > > BTW, as a good example from our books of the appropriate use of many > screenshots, I recommend "Getting Started with Base". Dan Lewis has > included many tightly cropped screenshots to illustrate his text. I've > identified a few pix that I would omit as not needed, but they are > definitely the exceptions. > > --Jean >
