your thoughts on screenshots?

[Jason Taylor]

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
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