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> What can we do, as Technical Writers, to encourage that our users read
> the manuals we create? Is it just a helpless situation? Or is it really
> a "nice test of the software" to "not have to Read The Manual"?
>
Absolutely the latter (IMO).
I'm not sure it's possible to design software so well that *everyone* who
looks at it understands how to use it intuitively, but I think that in
software, at least, that should be a (if not *the*) goal. That this guy
didn't have to look for instructions seems to me like high praise for the
interface designers.
$.02 from a grouchy writer on a Monday morning... take with salt. :-)
Rebecca Stevenson
Technical Writer
Hub Data, Inc.
617-300-6041