RE: Online help and the elimination of the printed doc

[<Daniel_Hall -at- trendmicro -dot- com>]

Limited resources - it's sort of an either/or question.

Since the product is being completely revamped (even the 
underlying architecture will be completely different), 
none of the documentation will be "updated" - it will need 
to all be rewritten, mostly from scratch. Knowing that, I can:

   1. Invest most of my time in the printed manual (general 
      practice here), with help that's mostly just re-purposed 
      manual content.
   2. Invest most of my time in the help system (with all that 
      detailed, control-level, stuff) and trim down the manual.
3. I could have both of about "average quality." 

There just isn't time for both, so I thought it might be worth 
investigating if there was anyone who'd done something 
similar... and received feedback, or had experience to share.

Another factor I forgot to mention: This is mostly a "set it 
and forget it"-type product, where the user periodically 
checks on status, but interacts with it (changing settings 
through the interface) infrequently. Another reason I was thinking
of focusing more intently on the help.

Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-129804 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-129804 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Goldstein,
Dan
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 9:40 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Online help and the elimination of the printed doc



I think I understand your reasons for increasing the online help. But what
are your reasons for reducing the printed documentation?

Dan Goldstein

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Daniel_Hall -at- trendmicro -dot- com 
> Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 12:28 PM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Online help and the elimination of the printed doc
> 
> Proposal:
> I am proposing a significant reduction in the printed 
> documentation, coupled to incorporating a significant 
> increase in the volume and detail of the online help...
>