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Karen wrote:
> A printed manual will look pretty, and will probably
> make for a nice door stop for a team leader on the floor.
> But I can't see that it would be of much practical use
> except perhaps in training situations.
Well, isn't your company going to make money from training? Do
you want the the trainers to develop their own printed
documentation without benefit of your skills?
Suggestion: The sales and marketing folks are probably just
desparate to have some high-quality printed material to hand
over to prospects. Don't debate the nonexistent documents with
them. Hold them off as long as possible, while you write a
helpful and attractive user guide according to your standards.
Give it to them as soon as you have a reasonable draft. A nice
user guide will also serve as sales material and as a training
resource.
Don't try to display help on a small screen. Instead, your
contribution should be to help design a usable product that
doesn't need online help (good luck with getting buy-in on
that!!)
The laminated reference cards are a good idea. But they will get
lost almost immediately, so make sure the source files are on
the installation disks or downloadable from your web site (the
user manual too).
Mike O.
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