OT: Writing/editing style

[Tammy.VanBoening at jeppesen.com]

Again, since there are so many veteran writers on this and who have 
learned through the years to maneuver their way through the editing 
process:

I am writing to a major application, that when launched, results in three 
other applications being launched and running continuously in the 
background. Icons for these three applications are present in the user's 
System Tray.   If a user double-clicks on one of these icons, the main 
window for the background application opens. The first time that a user 
opens the main window for one of these background applications, they open 
to a default tab. Then, let's say the user opens another tab on the main 
window, completes the actions that he/she needs to on the tab, then 
minimizes the main window, (remember, these applications cannot be closed 
while the main application is running. The user must always just minimize 
the main window for the background application), then re-opens the main 
window. Well, the last tab that user had open is now the tab that the user 
sees. This may or may not be the tab that the user needs, so in my 
instructions for procedures that are written for after the first time the 
user opens the window, I have this:

1.) In your system tray, double-click the [background application] icon.
        The [background application] window opens. 
2.) If necessary, open the [tab].

I have added the if necessary because the tab may or may not be the right 
one that is open for the user.

My editor has removed the "if necessary" phrase saying that they are extra 
words and that the user will eventually figure out that sometimes they 
don't need to open the tab - that it is already open. This seems 
counter-productive to me. We don't want the user to "eventually figure 
something out" in a User's guide - isn't the whole purpose of the guide to 
figure stuff out for the user?

Believe me, there are some things worth falling on your sword for and 
others, not so much or not all, and I have let the not so much/not all go, 
but his statement that "the user will eventually figure it out" really 
irked me as it seems to be so very against the basic purpose of a User's 
Guide.

Any thoughts, comments, etc. are appreciated. I will summarize the 
responses and go with the majority to make my decision as to whether I let 
this go or leave it in.

Thanks so much, 

Tammy Van Boening
Senior Technical Writer
Jeppesen Sanderson, Inc.
303-328-4420
tammy.vanboening at jeppesen.com