RE: Recent User Assistance Studies on Printed Books?

["Lauren" <lt34 -at- csus -dot- edu>]

Isn't the current choice of the technical managers, the 8.5 x 11, option
more conducive to electronic and printable copies of the documents?  For
example, a customer could have a CD with pdfs of the support documents and
print chapters as necessary on a standard printer.  With the chapter number
in the page number, the customer could know where a particular document
stack belongs without having to organize the entire document.  Besides, it's
easier for me to deal with page numbers like 4-11, rather than page 91, or
whatever, because I like smaller page numbers for documentation.  I want to
feel like I'm reading a support document and not a novel.

Lauren
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com 
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On 
> Behalf Of Lorraine Kiewiet
> Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 4:03 PM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Recent User Assistance Studies on Printed Books?
> 
> Hi Wr-lers.  To make a long story short.
> 
> Background: I recently joined a company with little 
> experience in creating user documentation. They are a rapidly 
> growing software firm. There are two tech writers and a 
> manager, and there has been a lot of turnover. Before the 
> three people who are here today arrived, the technical 
> managers made the switch from a 7.5 x 9 inch printed book 
> with consecutive page numbering in favor of an 8.5 x 11 
> printed manual with the 'chapter-level' page numbering. Also, 
> paragraph leading and font choices make the long, gray blocks 
> of text difficult to read.
> 
> Today's question: Given that they think this looks good, are 
> there any studies out there to support the more standard 
> practices that we three on the doc team want to move to? 
> Examples: for internationalization, we believe that the book 
> should be 7.5 x 9. For readability, the body font should be 
> serif, and more than 3 points of line leading are needed 
> between paragraphs. 
> 
> Thanks for any pointers to studies, journal articles, wiki's. 
> --Lorraine
> 
> 
> 
> Lorraine Kiewiet\r\nTechnical Writing & Consulting\r\nOnline 
> & Print Documentation
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printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007 
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com

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