Windows 7 Pro Help – what are you looking for

Last week I introduced the idea of scenario-based Help and asked for input on what might work best for you. On further reflection, the post was a bit jargony and stilted so I'm trying again.

Most Help is written for a specific feature or procedure, such as this article on cropping pictures in Publisher 2007. But this shows only part of a larger task,Windows 7 Home Premium, which might include inserting a picture, cropping it,Office 2010 Professional Plus, adding captions and effects, aligning it on the page, and so on.

Here's an example of a roadmap style article on manipulating images in Publisher 2010 that does start with inserting the picture to cropping, to adding to a shape, and finally resetting the image to remove any formatting you've added.

In the next version of Office we plan to deliver more of the Help content in workflow formats,Microsoft Office 2010 Professional, little scenarios that show an end-to-end process that spans multiple procedures to get basic tasks successfully finished.

These workflow scenarios might take several forms. They might be little stories with characters, sort of like my author parodies only with more emphasis on the procedures. Help scenarios might be roadmaps of Help articles,Windows 7 Pro, like this Access 2007 roadmap for creating a form, a collection of links to separate Help articles for each of the procedures in the workflow. Or they might be given in video form like the Office Intervention series.

Explaining a whole task from beginning to end can be challenging,Windows 7 Serial, especially if the way the task is explained doesn't match what the reader wants.

So, my poll question to you is:



If you've got any other ideas please log-in to the comments to let me know.

-- Bob deLaubenfels
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