Re: Why not do it ourselves? (Was: using 3rd-party books)

[Peter <pnewman1 -at- home -dot- com>]

"Carey Jennifer (Cry)" wrote:

>  It's true that popular software products provide a manual with the product.
> Some of these manuals are quite good and some are rather difficult to use.
> With many popular products, the good manuals are often supplemented by 3rd
> party manuals that are available on the market, and the bad manuals are
> often practically redone.  With the recent bombardment of
> "fill-in-the-blank- for dummies" books (though most dummies I know don't
> bother to read books about their area of interest!) it's made me wonder why
> we don't write manuals in such a way that these books don't need to be
> written?
> 
> For example, what would happen if we wrote both a basics (for new users)
> manual, an intermediate-advanced use manual and included those with our
> product in the first place? Third-party books are often infused with
> "light-hearted" and quippy personality, including silliness and fun. What
> would happen if we did this in ours?

The third party books are written because someone believes that the
manuals don't fill all needs. Usually, they are right. Many consumer
software publishers regard documentation as a necessary evil (overhead,
rather than profit center.)
In order to be truly objective, the bugs, (er, features,) would have to
be documented together with workarounds. Marketing gets upset when this
happens. 
As for writing in a light and quippy style, there are endless threads
here on that issue. 


-- 
Peter
Mailto:peternew -at- optonline -dot- net

Adapting old programs to fit new machines
usually means adapting new machines to
behave like old ones.

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