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Mike Bradley asked:
What would a professional mechanic, who had probably completed some factory training, have done? Should the manual have told him to keep track of the bolts?
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I think that would fall under the "don't teach them their job" clause of technical writing. If they're professionals, they have their own methods of handling such cases. The manual should, however, note that the screw are of different sizes to give the mechanic a heads up.
That said, I just got done doing server install instructions that _did_ do a little on the job training, but that's mostly because the audience was assumed to have little to no experience.
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"And in the morning, I'm makin waffles." ~ Donkey
Sean Hower - tech writer http://hokum.freehomepage.com
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