Documentation & Books

[Judy Perry]

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004, Richard Gaskin wrote:

> As with their paper-based counterparts, you may need to check out a few
> different entries before you find the one that answers your question
> most fully. But with more than twice as much documentation as included
> with Director, ToolBook, and other more expensive tools, the answer
> you're looking for is very likely covered sufficiently to get you moving
> forward so long as you're willing to invest almost as much effort as you
> would expect to employ with a paper-based index (the electronic version
> is arguably a bit easier since going to an entry is just one click as
> opposed to thumbing through pages).

--Predictably, I disagree. There is research that indicates that paper
products produce more of the phenomenon termed "incidental learning" or
"bonus information" in which, as your eye is scanning, say, a paper index,
let's say you are looking for something in the S's but there are Q and R
entries on the page as well.  Even if you are not concentrating on Q's and
R's, your brain almost subliminally notices them and can later recall
critical or interesting information in them.  Ironically, the one bit of
research that I came across in which electronic searches produced the
same or slightly more bonus learning was the HyperHolmes stack, made in
HC, but the authors concluded that it might have been a coincidental
finding in terms of the question posed to the pool and the stack layout
presentation.

Judy