Yesterday and Today

At work, I have diagrams of Test & Prod servers. I want to include them in the documentation I'm creating and thought I'd layer the content. I spent the morning fighting with a RoboHelp sample project and ultimately gave up trying to get the JavaScript that worked in the sample project to also function in my "real" RoboHelp project.

After lunch, I looked for another solution.

When I came upon  http://www.w3schools.com/w3css/tryit.asp?filename=tryw3css_dropdown_card, I smiled. No JavaScript and a chance to expand my CSS coding skills? I'm in. Thus, this is what I did yesterday afternoon to implement the method on the link to my purposes:

1. Rewrote “Move the mouse” to “Hover the mouse here to view a diagram” but didn’t like that rewrite.
2. Implemented fewer words “View a diagram of the Prod server.”
3. Changed the CSS definition of the text over which the user hovers to be blue to give the user a visual cue.
4. Decided the blue text would be enough of a visual cue to the user and I wouldn’t have to tell them “hover the mouse here”.
5. Decided I don’t really want “mouse” in the instructions.
6. Considered a phrase like “Hover your pointing device…”.
7. Rejected “Hover your pointing device…” because I would have to define “pointing device” in a glossary or in a “about the documentation” page.
8. Rejected creating phrases that would make the user refer to a glossary in order to comprehend the documentation. My audience is using what I create only because there’s a disaster.
9. Rededicated myself to the CORE principle – Create Once, Reuse Everywhere.
10. Went home.

As soon as I figure out what I want, I will implement a solution.