+1 It's a major point. How to find something that you don't know the name or don't ever know it exist ! Or if it's a generic name with thousands of entries.
I saw with Excel user's list that when the simple examples are at a precise place, it is easier to give educational support to beginners. The beginner wants to have results at once. He searches into help manual and find a programmer help. That is useless for non programmer, it takes time to use this help. With 3 or 4 lines of code a "takeaway" example is a good tutorial. Best Regards --- In [email protected], "progster01" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], Dennis Brown <see3d@> wrote: > > >When I first started, I did not know what to call things, > >so most of my searches failed. > > Ha! I can relate to that! > > Sometimes people may find it easier to dash off a quick question to > the list than to troll deeply through the several possible references > available. > > I always try to keep in mind that, in general, if the person knew > where to find the answer, they would go right to it. But, until a > more thorough acclimation takes place, newbies don't know where to look. > > IMO, it's not realistic to expect every poster to have spent a few > months getting deeply familiar with the reference material. Even > those who have spent significant time with the reference material may > still need a bit of "extra" or "different" explanation/example before > the light comes on for any particular topic. > > A quick question may deserve a quick answer: > > "Try reading this page or topic and see if that helps." > > And what is wrong with that? (nothing, IMO) > > If a person more experienced with the product and the docs can direct > someone to where the answer exists, it only takes a moment, and that > moment could substitute for hours of (fruitless?) searching on the > questioner's part. > > Clearly some people form an opinion along the lines of: > > "Oh come on, that's so obvious, and it's RIGHT THERE IN THE DOCS" > > Well, maybe (and perhaps definitely!). OK, so just don't answer that > poster. Don't let it get to you! Either someone else will answer > (question posed, question answered, no nick on you!), or the poster > will email support or figure it out themselves eventually. > > Civility (or refraining from incivility) helps the list, lack of > civility hurts it (IMO). > > Posing a simple or "obvious" question is not "lack of civility" (IMO). > > BTW, "It's in the docs" is not a very helpful answer (to the > questioner or the list). > > "I think what you are looking for is in the docs, HERE" is a very > helpful answer, and if more people who are capable of this answer > would step up to it then TJ would not have to! >
