On Tue, 2007-12-11 at 10:13 -0800, Karsten Wade wrote:
On Tue, 2007-12-11 at 09:18 -0500, Dan O'Brien wrote:
> >
> I refrained from adding to many pictures because I saw something
> mentioned in another post about it being harder
> when it comes to translating the document. I can definitely add more
> pics if you'd like? I still have some from
> when I did this page originally.
We called out this type of page as being an exception to the rule. It
is useful to show the pieces of the desktop when describing how it all
works. This use to be how the GNOME intro was handled, but it looks as
if those were removed.
Sorry about the confusion; let's see if this clears it up, then I can
update the appropriate StyleGuide pages.
For example, imagine a section in a document that explains how to use a
mouse. It would be useful to show a picture of the mouse icons and
explain what they mean -- the arrow, the clicking HTML hand, the timer,
etc.
When that document section gets to explaining about the mouse
preferences dialog, there is no need to show the GUI; explaining it is
better, for the reasons you allude to about pictures being harder to
deal with in many ways.
If the section was on "understanding GUI elements" then you would
certainly show GUI elements in explaining.
In this way, the images work as simple diagrams. A diagram is something
useful in a document, where a screenshot often is more trouble than it
is worth.
I wonder if we should try and trim this section down to a minimum --
there is an entire GNOME (or KDE, if KDE is installed) Desktop User
Guide already installed on the system. The DUG would need to explain
enough for the user to be able to use input devices -- mouse *and*
keyboard, remember not everyone has or can use a mouse -- to locate the
menu, choose System > Help, and select the Desktop User Guide (or
equivalent KDE doc). The GNOME DUG is exceptional and rewriting it
seems redundant.
--
Paul W. Frields, RHCE
http://paul.frields.org/
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