[AccessD] Microsoft Office Support - animated GIFs

[Gustav Brock]

Hi Rocky

I don't think so. It quickly becomes a lot of pictures, and you constantly need to compare each picture with the one before to find out the action taken.

/gustav

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] På vegne af RockySmolin at bchacc.com
Sendt: 12. april 2018 14:50
Til: Access Developers discussion and problem solving <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Emne: Re: [AccessD] Microsoft Office Support - animated GIFs


 You can always hit the pause button to see what’s going on better.
But wouldn’t a series of pictures showing the progression as it is in the video of the steps especially separating the sequel, wouldn’t that be easier to digest? 

R

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Microsoft Office Support - animated GIFs
From: Gustav Brock <gustav at cactus.dk>
Date: Thu, April 12, 2018 4:47 am
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>

Hi Jim

Yes, speed is difficult. If too slow, some will quickly run out of patience.

The trick with the arrows in the video, that directs to the next action, is a great help. The original GIF ran at nearly the same speed as the video if the arrows were excluded.

/gustav

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] På vegne af Jim Dettman
Sendt: 12. april 2018 13:24
Til: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Emne: Re: [AccessD] Microsoft Office Support - animated GIFs

Gustav,

 Video is far better.

 As you said, the animated GIFs are hard to work with in a learning situation, mainly in that you cannot pause them.

 The GIF in the article you pointed to was too fast for me to follow.

Jim.

-----Original Message-----
From: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2018 5:12 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: [AccessD] Microsoft Office Support - animated GIFs

Hi all

Microsoft is currently busy with improving the support and help pages, focusing on those with a poor feedback.
Recently, I worked with Jeff Conrad to improve a topic I recall - in my early Access days - to be difficult to get hold on, due to the total lack of visual help: Union queries.

The old article was lengthy and with much text, and for many - from the feedback to read - simply uncomprehensive.
So, I brought in the collapsible view used widely by Microsoft and some animated GIFs to make it more appealing.

While animated GIFs is a quick method to visualise things, they aren't easy to edit, and they are not that user friendly - you cannot stop the animation, and it isn't easy to start over, and - in general - users are more familiar with videos.
Thus, Jeff decided to remake them as videos. Only the first has been replaced, so the second GIF is still on-line:

 Use a union query to combine multiple queries into a single result
 
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-a-union-query-to-combine-multip
le-queries-into-a-single-result-1F772EC0-CC73-474D-AB10-AD0A75541C6E

What do you think of this format?

I'm not asking for "likes" (= This page was helpful). Rather, you should not, as you are not in the target group.

/gustav