Comments on: Online documentation http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/ Usability an' that Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:14:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Sven Neumann http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/comment-page-1/#comment-138 Sven Neumann Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/#comment-138 Should be installed by default for any browser: <a href="http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/linktoolbar">http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/linktoolbar</a><br/> Should be installed by default for any browser: http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/linktoolbar

]]> By: David Pashley http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/comment-page-1/#comment-139 David Pashley Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/#comment-139 It's not that hard to generate decent navigation for Docbook. <br/><a href="http://www.davidpashley.com/articles/xslt-benchmarks.html">http://www.davidpashley.com/articles/xslt-benchmarks.html</a> or <a href="http://www.davidpashley.com/articles/automatic-proxy.html">http://www.davidpashley.com/articles/automatic-proxy.html</a> shows you what can be done with a little bit of effort. I realise it isn't much, but it allows you to navigation through the document fairly easily.<p/>Compare those to <a href="http://www.davidpashley.com/articles/gcj-automake.html">http://www.davidpashley.com/articles/gcj-automake.html</a> which is the default nwalsh xhtml output. It’s not that hard to generate decent navigation for Docbook.
http://www.davidpashley.com/articles/xslt-benchmarks.html or http://www.davidpashley.com/articles/automatic-proxy.html shows you what can be done with a little bit of effort. I realise it isn’t much, but it allows you to navigation through the document fairly easily.

Compare those to http://www.davidpashley.com/articles/gcj-automake.html which is the default nwalsh xhtml output.

]]> By: Lars Wirzenius http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/comment-page-1/#comment-140 Lars Wirzenius Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/#comment-140 For restricting the width of the text, you almost certainly want to use CSS's max-width attribute, with a relative width:<p/>body { max-width: 40em; }<p/>It doesn't work with most versions of IE, I'm told, but hey, at some point one stops caring. Someone with time on their hands could use one of the tricks to enable that only for non-IE, and use a plain width attribute for IE only.<br/> For restricting the width of the text, you almost certainly want to use CSS’s max-width attribute, with a relative width:

body { max-width: 40em; }

It doesn’t work with most versions of IE, I’m told, but hey, at some point one stops caring. Someone with time on their hands could use one of the tricks to enable that only for non-IE, and use a plain width attribute for IE only.

]]> By: Tim Janik http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/comment-page-1/#comment-141 Tim Janik Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/#comment-141 Calum, can you please provide a pointer to a study or usability website or similar, that backs up your statement about readability/reading speed and line length/word count? Calum, can you please provide a pointer to a study or usability website or similar, that backs up your statement about readability/reading speed and line length/word count?

]]> By: Calum Benson http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/comment-page-1/#comment-142 Calum Benson Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/#comment-142 <p>Here's <a href="http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/42/text_length.htm">one such study</a>, which concludes that a line length of 65-75 characters per line (for adults, 45 for children) is easiest to read on-screen.</p><br/><p>The average length of an English word is six characters, including the space or punctuation mark that follows it, so that's a <i>little</i> more than the rule of thumb I suggested. But of course there are always other factors to consider anyway-- leading, typeface and font size all come into play too.</p><p/><p>Here are some other design guides that mention the "ten words per line" guideline, albeit with less in the way of supporting evidence:</p><p/><a href="http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/23856.html">http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/23856.html</a><br/><a href="http://www.webpagecontent.com/corp_archive/139/5/">http://www.webpagecontent.com/corp_archive/139/5/</a><br/><a href="http://www.webstyleguide.com/type/lines.html">http://www.webstyleguide.com/type/lines.html</a><br/> Here’s one such study, which concludes that a line length of 65-75 characters per line (for adults, 45 for children) is easiest to read on-screen.

The average length of an English word is six characters, including the space or punctuation mark that follows it, so that’s a little more than the rule of thumb I suggested. But of course there are always other factors to consider anyway– leading, typeface and font size all come into play too.

Here are some other design guides that mention the “ten words per line” guideline, albeit with less in the way of supporting evidence:

http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/23856.html
http://www.webpagecontent.com/corp_archive/139/5/
http://www.webstyleguide.com/type/lines.html

]]> By: André L F S Bacci http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/comment-page-1/#comment-143 André L F S Bacci Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/calum/2006/01/30/online-documentation/#comment-143 What about this use of DocBook with a prety output AND navigation sidebars?<br/><a href="http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.phpinfo.php">http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.phpinfo.php</a> What about this use of DocBook with a prety output AND navigation sidebars?
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.phpinfo.php

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