Re: Title Page Suggestion

[Eric Baudais <baudais okstate edu>]

On Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 06:46:51PM +0000, Pat Costello wrote:
> Hi Eric, 
> 
> I sent out a revision of the proposed title page on the mailing list, but I want 
> to answer the question you put in your mail, namely would the attached design 
> fit the bill. Well, unfortunately, no, the attached design doesn't fit the bill 
> for several reasons: 

I now understand where you are coming from.  With all this information we 
definitely need a separate title page, but I believe there is still pertinent 
information needed to be displayed on the first page the reader sees.

> Perhaps there could be an either/or mechanism in the tools, so that contributors 
> could choose to use a partly visible Title Page, as you suggested, or a 
> completely separated Title Page, as I am proposing. Would that be something 
> worth pursuing? 

I think that there needs to be something more than just the TOC on the beginning 
page of our documentation.  I think that the reader needs to see the title of 
the documentation, the current author, the last date it was updated and the current 
developer (if pertinent).  I think that the current author's name, current 
developer's name, and the last date it was updated should have links to the expected 
information in the title page.

The reader should know some basic information about the application and the 
documentation by just glancing at the starting page.  The links will provide an 
intuitive way for the reader to view the title page.  The amount of information to 
be displayed is small and shouldn't be a distraction to the reader if they only 
want to cruise the documentation.  The current author and current developer should 
be displayed in the starting page so the reader has no doubt who to contact in case 
they need to.  Otherwise having a list of authors and developers in the title page 
is not very intuitive as to who the reader should contact.  Also having the last 
date the documentation was updated lets the reader know how old the documentation.  

Eric Baudais