Thanks everybody so far. Definitely a few things there I hadn't considered, and it would appear a compromise is in order - perhaps an 'establishing' screenshot at the start of the section to explain the UI. Hedley, as for the big book, I've already split into an admin guide (230pp) and user guide component (450pp), and I'm planning to further split the user guide into a book for teachers and a book for school admins (hopefully 150pp and 300pp respectively). It's just a big application. I've already done that sort of fine tuning too - reduced font sizes, increased margins, reduced para sizes/leading etc. Since I'm single sourcing help and ref guide using Frame, I'm not sure if two columns would work well when converting into online help... Correct me if I'm wrong though. Thanks again, Craig -----Original Message----- From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of hedley.finger@xxxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, 29 March 2006 3:29 PM To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: atw: Re: Screenshots in user doco - Yes or No? All: > [...] Do you include screenshots in your printed doco or not? Why? Why > not? > > [...] > > So from a user's point of view, is it more user-friendly to include > screenshots for a novice reader? You don't have to include a screen shot for every step. But consider a shot as a recognition device to reassure the reader that they have indeed come to the correct window. And insert a screen shot after every step that causes a change of context, as when a window opens from a window (drill down), again to reassure the reader that they are at the correct GUI location. Consider screen shots when a number of screens appear to be quite similar but have important differences, which can perhaps be emphasised by on overlaid ellipse or box. Remember that readers of a book have to look away from the screen and back again and can lose their place. Screen shots help them find what step they are up to. In online help the relevant window is presumably open when the reader accesses help. In any case, the explanation is adjacent to the window so it's easy to keep your place. About your big book -- can you: @ cut down on verbosity -- are you over explaining @ reduce the margins @ reduce the font size and leading @ change to a two-column format @ break it down into separate books, perhaps an installation/configuration/maintenance/admin guide and an operations/user guide? Regards, Hedley -- Hedley Finger Technical Communications Tools & Processes Specialist MYOB Australia <http://myob.com/au> P.O. box 371 Blackburn VIC 3130 Australia 12 Wesley Court Tally Ho Business Park East Burwood VIC 3151 Australia <mailto:hedleyDOTfingerATmyobDOTcom> Tel. +61 3 9222 9992 x 7421, Mob. (cell) +61 412 461 558 (c) MYOB Technology Pty Ltd 2005 ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ************************************************** ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************