Comments on: Long Help Topics: A Help Author’s Crime against Humanity http://www.gryphonmountain.net/2008/09/long-help-topics-a-help-authors-crime-against-humanity/ Technical Communication and Other Writing Topics (by Ben Minson) Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:12:35 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Leaning Towards Longer Topics and Shorter TOCs | I'd Rather Be Writing - Tom Johnson http://www.gryphonmountain.net/2008/09/long-help-topics-a-help-authors-crime-against-humanity/comment-page-1/#comment-3806 Leaning Towards Longer Topics and Shorter TOCs | I'd Rather Be Writing - Tom Johnson Tue, 23 Sep 2008 05:41:36 +0000 http://www.gryphonmountain.net/?p=128#comment-3806 [...] My colleague Ben Minson, however, raises an important objection to long topics. He says, In reality, people don’t want long topics. They want to think that procedures are short and simple. Long topics intimidate people and make them reluctant to consult the documentation in the future. (”Long Topics: A Help Author’s Crime Against Humanity“) [...] [...] My colleague Ben Minson, however, raises an important objection to long topics. He says, In reality, people don’t want long topics. They want to think that procedures are short and simple. Long topics intimidate people and make them reluctant to consult the documentation in the future. (”Long Topics: A Help Author’s Crime Against Humanity“) [...]

]]> By: Ben http://www.gryphonmountain.net/2008/09/long-help-topics-a-help-authors-crime-against-humanity/comment-page-1/#comment-3554 Ben Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:00:23 +0000 http://www.gryphonmountain.net/?p=128#comment-3554 I thought of the bloated TOC problem. With MS products, I never browse the TOC because I can rarely find what I want. (Maybe that means I need to rethink having the TOC as the default display in the left pane of my help systems...) I admit that I'm a member of the Google generation, and I use the search to locate what I want. I thought of the bloated TOC problem. With MS products, I never browse the TOC because I can rarely find what I want. (Maybe that means I need to rethink having the TOC as the default display in the left pane of my help systems…) I admit that I’m a member of the Google generation, and I use the search to locate what I want.

]]> By: Tom Johnson http://www.gryphonmountain.net/2008/09/long-help-topics-a-help-authors-crime-against-humanity/comment-page-1/#comment-3507 Tom Johnson Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:22:44 +0000 http://www.gryphonmountain.net/?p=128#comment-3507 I think Microsoft's help in Word and SharePoint (and probably others) has trended toward longer topics, with a quick jump menu at the top. It's nice to break up a topic into a lot of little subtopics (each separate files), but then you end up with a bloated table of contents that makes the app look a lot more sophisticated than it really is. I think Microsoft’s help in Word and SharePoint (and probably others) has trended toward longer topics, with a quick jump menu at the top.

It’s nice to break up a topic into a lot of little subtopics (each separate files), but then you end up with a bloated table of contents that makes the app look a lot more sophisticated than it really is.

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