Re: Post current product user docs to company website?

["V. Camgros" <camgros -at- mindspring -dot- com>]

Kevin McLauchlan wants to know why he should or shouldn't pursue putting his product documentation on the corporate web site.

One of my developers continues to push for this (I agree with him) because he says he uses Google search to find information about everything he uses. If our product documentation isn't on the web, he can't find it that way.

He claims many/most(?) developer search this way.

You'd have to look at your user base, of course, to see whether they have this quality in common with developers, or to prove him wrong.

regards,
Vickie

-----Original Message-----
>From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
>Sent: Dec 6, 2007 12:38 PM
>To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>Subject: Post current product user docs to company website?
>
>Our products include a software component, so the products docs have
>their place on the software CD (or tar file, when we don't bother with
>an actual CD).
>
>Our Customer Release Notes (CRN) were always completed too late for
>inclusion, so they'd go on a non-browseable section of our company
>website, accessible via a link that I would include on the CD.
>
>Recently, we decided to move the CRNs over to a more public, browseable
>area of the website. No more "security by obscurity" - we'd be publicly
>'proud' of our faults and of how quickly we fix them.
>
>I've been arguing, unsuccessfully, that we should put the rest of the
>docs there, too.
>
>In my plan, they'd go onto the CD as they do now, and would also be
>posted to the website as a convenience. Later, if I found reason to
>update the docs between product releases, the web version of the docs
>would get updated. Thus the user would have a base set of working docs
>as long as they had the CD (or tar file), but they might be able to
>download a fresher set with minor fixes and upgrades (fixed minor goofs
>and typos, describing something more clearly, etc.).
>
>What I hope to get from y'all is a bit more argumentive ammunition to
>help make my case.
>
>Or, gimme some good arguments for NOT pursuing it.
>
>The docs would still be subject to QA approval before release (posting)
>but they could be updated between product releases if I found the time
>and motivation. A strong motivator is when a particularly helpful
>Sales-Eng guy gets a chance to review my docs and offers his comments.
>They're always cogent and helpful, and I'd love to reward that by
>nearly-instant publication of the revisions.... instead of waiting half
>a year for the next product release.
>
> 
>
>One argument AGAINST website publication of the product Help is that I
>could find myself roped into constant updates.
>
>I think I can say "no", especially when I've got priority schedule items
>to point to. 
>
>Just about any doodad that I've purchased over the past few years, I've
>been able to go to the producer's website and download newer firmware,
>newer software and release notes, and the latest version of
>documentation. The last one was my Garmin HCx
>
>I can't see that there's much overhead involved in posting and
>maintaining - it's just WebHelp, a mess of html and jpg files in a
>particular directory structure.
>
> 
>
>Your thoughts and imaginings?
>
> 
>
>Kevin 
>
>
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Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007 
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
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True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
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