Re: Question about offering solutions here (head up, MVPs!)

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Hi Doug,

It always amazes me that people can find newsgroups but not find Help.
However, I think that people think of searching Help as searching through an
index and not knowing what things are called, etc. so they just plain don't
expect to find what they're after. Imagine thinking that you had to read a
two-inch book to find an answer. Also, they might not realize that the Help
(specifically Office) is pretty clearly explained. For Office it is, but for
Windows there is a lot of computer terminology that people are just plain
afraid of.

I personally have great luck finding things in Help, the MSDN Library, the
Web, etc. because I just seem to know what keywords to use and what order to
put them in. My husband, on the other hand, is a left hander who thinks
differently than other people. So many times he can't find things on a web
page/site that I can find right away. It seems that my mind works just like
the site designer's does, and his is so different that he's just plain lost.
And by the way, he's a network/desktop support person so he's not a computer
troglodyte.

Some people are not "researchers" like you and I are. They're learning
styles are such that they feel they need a human to explain things to them.
Of course, behind all the documentation are humans!

One thing no one has really hit on in this thread is the sense of
"community" Microsoft is seeking to foster in the newsgroups/forums. They
want the friendly, human touch so people feel comfortable and safe. For
example, in many of my answers I add a few extra tidbits that I would have
wanted to know when I was newly working in the same area of my product or
going from a newbie to a Windows and Office "power user."

I think the important thing is, after you've answered the question you can
say, "By the way, if you click on Office Help, and type your question in the
search box, you will often find just what you're looking for."


--
Cindy Winegarden MCSD, Microsoft Visual FoxPro MVP
cindy_winegarden@xxxxxxx www.cindywinegarden.com


"Doug Kanter" <ancientangler@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:3k3Hf.14023$qg.4552@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Some of the questions answered here require pretty involved answers, so a
human response is appropriate. But, many simpler answers can be easily
found in the Windows or Office help systems. For instance, in the Excel
group, someone asked "how do I add a pattern to a cell?" I directed him to
the help system, where typing his exact words produced an instantaneous
answer. Someone else gave him the method in another message, though.

Are we really serving the best interests of users by spoon-feeding them
answers to the simpler questions? I mean, if your kid says "I don't
remember whether to use 'principal' or 'principle' in this essay I'm
writing", and the dictionary's 3 feet away on the shelf, do you give the
kid the answer, or say "Open the dictionary"? You know: Teach them to fish
(learn) instead of just giving them a fish.



.

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