Re: Screenshots in Gnumeric Docs.

[Jody Goldberg <jody gnome org>]

On Thu, Mar 14, 2002 at 04:37:33PM -0600, Kevin Breit wrote:
> I understand the purpose of having a GUI element reference.  I don't
> really think that they are a huge benefit to most users.  I can't recall
> the last time I said "What does this button do!?"  If I do question, you
> have tooltips for the job.  A GUI reference is used less than the real
> documentation and would be a huge task for the documentation writers. 
> If a user wants to write it, they can.  But I question if it really is
> OVERLY important.
As Scott points out there is a usecase for element docs.  Specificly
finding an explanation of what some feature actually does.

> Adrian asked the following requests:
> 1) Who the help (or sections) are geared towards
Gnumeric like most office apps is going to have 2 broad user groups.
    - your average user that just wants to get some work done.
      These folk need 'howto' type writups for day to day
      operations.  1.0 is sufficient for the majority of there
      needs.
    - power users
      This is a whole different ball of wax.  1.0 is no where near
      complete enough to handle the extras these folk want.
      Additionally what they want is ulta-detailed specs of what
      each feature does.  Something only marginally higher level
      than reading the source.

Catering to the former seems like a higher priority right now
because that set of capabilities are not going to be changing that
quickly.  Trying to document the power features as they are being
implemented seems like an excercise in frustration.  Those docs will
likely be generated as the features firm up.

> 2) What the outline of the help structure is to be
> TOC
automated I hope
> Introduction
optional
> Task Description
useful
> Glossary (optional)
optional
> Index (optional)
NOT optional,  A good quality index is paramount.
Very few people want to read an manual.  They want to be able to
jump to the section they are interested in.

> 3) A clear long term (several year) committment to a particular set of
> formats. 
I don't follow what you mean.

Going forward I'd like to see development along 2 lines
    - getting a deployment environment setup for the function docs
      and getting the help system in place.
    - Continued addition of content.  We have a first pass at things
      for 1.0 lets go back over things and fil lthem out.  XL
      manuals fill hundreds of pages without breaking a sweat, this
      is not a trivial task.  There are lots of features that are
      not covered.
        - autoformat dialog
        - better converage of text/import export
        ...

Revamping the set of screenshots seems like a low priority for now.
Changes there will happen over time.