Gary Schnabl wrote:
[cut]
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?
I came to this project after it had been established for some time, and
my first impression was that it was targeted at the lowest common
denominator. This seemed eminently sensible, as those of our readers
with a high IQ, or a US elementary education, could ignore the
simplicity of the images whilst the rest of the world - probably a
significant majority - could benefit.
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.
A fair amount of white space could be eliminated by cropping images and
flowing text around them, as already suggested by Jean.
Peter HB
