Screenshots in Gnumeric Docs.

[Adrian Custer <acuster nature berkeley edu>]

hey all, 

this is in response to Kevin's message to me. 

On Thu, 2002-03-14 at 16:40, Kevin Breit wrote: 
> ac,
>       Okay, currently Gnumeric has upwards of 200 (or was it 300) figures. 
> We don't need that many.  I honestly think that having a screenshot of a
> box with the caption saying "This is a box" does nothing but take up
> time and space on the page.
>       I am proposing we drastically cut down the number of screenshots we use
> (limit to like...maybe 30, tops).  I would like you to go through the
> figures and delete the stupid ones.
>       Now, how do you know what is stupid?  Screenshots should be a visual
> reference to a user interface.  If you have any questions about what to
> do or if a screenshot is "stupid" then don't hesitate to ask.
>       This doesn't need to be started for at least a couple weeks, if not
> months.  Would you be able to do this?
>
> Kevin
When I picked up the documentation, they had an exhaustive list of the
gui-elements that was woefully out of date. One of the early docs in the
gnome doc project said that all gnome project docs should have an
exhaustive list of the gui-elements. However, 
1) there was a strong push for a totally different approach that
involved "task based" explanations as opposed to "element based"
explanations. 
2) lots of pictures don't do much for most people. 

Part of our problem is we are all targeting different audiences, with
totally different requirements and the current vision of a help system,
a linear document, is not nearly flexible enough. 

My ideal vision is the following. It requires a different infrastructure
and therefore is way beyond my capabilities. Clicking on "help" should
bring up a page something like: 

******************************************************************** 
**             Welcome to Gnumeric Help                          *** 
******************************************************************** 

1) Basic Intro 
2) Exhaustive list of Gui Elements 
3) How-To's 
4) Search 
5) ...others? 
******************************************************************** 

This could be tabs, or links or any structure. Both windows and macos
allow users some of this flexibility. Sometimes we want to know what a
button does, sometimes we want to know how to do something. How to find
what we want is not a linear process. 

I don't have time to follow the gnome-docs discussion so I don't know at
all what the structure is for gnome 2.0. Because I don't have time, I 
will leave the decisions to others. I'll be glad to contribute as long
as we have a well articulated vision for the long term. This should be a
two or three paragraph statement which includes: 
1) Who the help (or sections) are geared towards 
2) What the outline of the help structure is to be 
3) A clear long term (several year) committment to a particular set of
formats. 

Kevin, I know you wrote up a white paper earlier on this last part so
this could simply be "3) is that doc." 

I am not trying to flame or insult anyone so my strong statements are
not intented to be negative. Docs can be really difficult. In a couple
of weeks, I'll drag in a friend who does docs for a living and see what
he can suggest. 

cheers, 
adrian