On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 01:54 PM, Chris wrote:

But more often than not users are left scratching their arse when
something that was working before shutting down and now its completely
screwed up today!

-
Chris,

The problem being that I have heard both, and plenty.

In the end, there is no solution here, there is just personal preference and
optimal design as far as how users are, or are not, prompted.

I have long ago gotten over the idea that you can please all of the people
all of the time, or that users will even bother to learn a lot of the basics
of whatever it is they happen to be using.  I've also come to the conclusion
that the computing version of, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse,"
applies.

Everything, absolutely everything, has default settings and behaviors.  If
you (the generic you) are going to use them, then it is incumbent on you to
take the time to learn what those are.  And it usually doesn't take very
long to do so.  No one is expecting anyone to RTFM from cover to cover for
something like Windows, NVDA, JAWS, MS-Word, MS-Excel, or similar.  But at
least having read and digested the quick start guides would be a very good
starting point.  And I will add, in the case of NVDA, the entire user guide
is not very long at all and huge sections of it can be skipped over if you
know you aren't using, for instance, a Braille display.  It is
comprehensible, and even if you don't (and, believe me, you don't) memorize
each and every thing just having the knowledge, in the back of your head,
that "something about how to do {insert thing you want to do at a later date
here}" was discussed is very helpful indeed when you decide you actually
want to do it.

I am just so over the idea that it's OK for users to not know how to
reference the various pieces of documentation for whatever they use.  And
I'd say I'm even more adamant about that for screen reading software in
particular.  I don't know of anyone, including myself, who knows it all and
has it all memorized.  I'd say that for well over 90% of the "more esoteric"
questions I answer on this very group the way I get the answer is opening
the NVDA Commands Quick Reference and/or NVDA User Guide and using just one
or two key words from the original question, and, voilà, there it is.

In the year 2022, it is completely unacceptable for anyone to believe that
not being able to seek out readily available information, independently, is
just A-OK.  It's not, and if you don't know how the first thing you should
set about doing is learning by asking, "How do I go about finding . . . ?,"
rather than asking for an answer.  Teach a man or woman to fish . . .

None of the above should be a surprise to anyone who's been reading me over
time, either, and is the very reason I've pretty much stopped giving direct
answers to queries along the lines of, "What's the command/keystroke for . .
.?," opting instead to give the instructions for opening the Commands Quick
Reference along with the search word or phrase that gets the questioner
straight to the answer or very, very near to it.  That gives both the
answer, and teaches a skill.
--

Brian - Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044

*The instinctive need to be the member of a closely-knit group fighting for
common ideals may grow so strong that it becomes inessential what these
ideals are.*

*~* Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)