New screenshots needed on the wiki

[Matthew Revell]

On 10/06/06, Corey Burger <corey.burger at gmail.com> wrote:
> Lets just avoid screenshots in general. They are just maintenance
> headaches, tbh. Removing screenshots also reduces the size of the
> page, which is a good think also.

Screenshots are essential for almost all software help/docs. If they
result in an additional burden for the docs team, we need to find a
way to reduce that burden without weakening the documentation itself.

> We just use words to describe what we are doing (which we are doing anyway).

Yeah but words aren't always the most efficient way of helping the
reader to achieve what they're trying to do. It's often easier to show
something, than to describe it. Also, a good many people don't work
well with words - they think visually.

For example, the "Filters" dialogue in Synaptic has fourteen
check-boxes, three tabs, seven buttons and a scroll-list. Getting
someone to select the "Broken" check-box, eg:

Step 1: Click the Status tab towards the top of the dialogue box.

Step 2: Select the Broken check-box, which is under the Other heading.

That's no problem for a relatively experienced computer user, who can
quickly read through a list of fourteen check-boxes to find the right
one. If you're not overly sure of what you're doing, it's great to
have signposts that look reassuringly like what you're seeing on your
screen.

I have a friend who has dyslexia. It would be considerably more
difficult for him to read through each option, than it would for a
non-sufferer to quickly pick out the Broken check-box.

If my friend had a screenshot, which contained only the relevant
window and had a red ellipse around the Broken check-box, he'd be able
to find the check-box by its location on the screen, rather than
having to hunt through the full list. Similarly, I would personally
find it easier to see the location, than to read through the list,
although I don't have dyslexia.

You could go into greater detail in describing the location of the
check-box, but that would just make it harder for dyslexia sufferers,
and a less pleasant experience for the rest of us.

I couldn't do my job properly if I didn't make considered use of
screenshots. However, I can't think of the last time I took a full
screenshot and pasted it into a document. Instead, I take shots of the
relevant part of the screen and highlight the bit they should be
interested in.

Richard Johnson mentions, in this thread, that he feels consistency
can be a problem. It's our job to fix problems like that :) With a
some standards and friendly tips in place, we can make it easy for
docs contributors to produce screenshots. With good quality control,
we can filter anything that doesn't make the grade.

-- 
Matthew Revell
www.understated.co.uk