Peter Hillier-Brook wrote:
Jean Hollis Weber wrote:
[cut]
Unfortunately, many people do want, and need, lots of screen
captures, while others do not want, or need, them. And those who need
and want lots of pictures are among the people who would not cope
with linked graphics.
Many people are very visual; they learn more, and retain more
information, from pictures than from words. Removing pictures can
seriously diminish the value of the books for those people. (And it
has nothing to do with intelligence; there's a lot of literature on
the topic of how people learn. I am among those who learn better with
pictures, and I am also in a high intelligence range. In a similar
way, some people learn better by being taught in a classroom
situation, while others learn as well if not better from reading.)
People who don't need the graphics can skip them. People who do need
graphics will be disadvantaged without them. There is no easy
solution to that dilemma.
That said, certainly some of the graphics could go, or be cropped to
better show the main point... as I mentioned in a note yesterday.
"A picture saves a thousand words". That may be trite, but
nevertheless it is a truism, even for those of us without an
exceptional IQ!
Peter HB
Aren't there areas where the screen captures could be spared, especially
if some common captures are on the large side? We tend to screen capture
many steps that by now should be commonplace. After all, kids in
elementary school (at least in the US) do plenty already with their
computers--in class, at homes, and in their labs--much of that
intuitively. Is it beneficial for our docs to keep reinventing the wheel
by showing many common steps with captures?
The example snippet would have been much larger had screen captures been
added. Would any screen captures have helped? [There was one area where
I had to check something out myself, due to my ignorance of a term. But
the word description was adequate when I followed the instructions.] Or,
did that snippet speak to more experienced users/readers? If there are
many such captures, the book size will reflect their addition. And some
graphics introduce (extra, is this redundant?) white space due to
placement on the pages.
--
Gary Schnabl
2775 Honorah
Detroit MI 48209
(734) 245-3324
