Summary - Online & paper?

[Michael LaTorra <mikel -at- ACCUGRAPH -dot- COM>]

WARNING -- This is a LOOOOOONG message!

SUMMARY
Now that the thread "Online & paper?" has worn to a frazzle, it's time
for a summary.  To begin, here is the salient portion of my original
posting:

>   The central question is this: If you could have a comprehensive,
>   hypertext help on your computer -- a help window that can
>   remain open even while you are doing other things in the
>   underlying application -- would you still want a paper manual?

The overwhelming majority of respondents want some kind of paper manual,
even if it's brief.  Apparently, though online help is desirable, few
people believe it is currently sufficient.

TOTAL NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS                     = 17
RESPONDENTS IN FAVOR OF RETAINING PAPER MANUALS = 15
RESPONDENTS IN FAVOR OF GOING COMPLETELY ONLINE =  2

Following are some of the more interesting comments on this topic:

 ===========================================================
  Maybe not a comprehensive, detail-laden manual.
  Perhaps a short-and-sweet, no more than 30-page
  reference booklet.

  Ray L. Rivera
  Instructional Designer, AIG, Inc.
  5th Floor, 80 Pine Street
  NY, NY 10005

===========================================================

 I am a linguist whose research focuses on discourse/communication (not a
 technical writer).  From my perspective, I detest manuals (my aversion
 lies in the fact that they are badly written and even more badly indexed;
 ultimately I find they are a waste of time).

 When I'm working with any software, I like to work from my  intuition first.
 That usely works fine; if not, I'll go to help.  Only as a last resort
 will I consult a manual.  So I would say that a help window such as you
 suggest would make my paper manual obsolete.

 Thanks for asking.

 Best regards,
 Elyse

 Elyse K. Abraham
 Dept. of Linguistics
 University of Alberta
 Edmonton, Alberta
 Canada

 ================================================================

 I just went to our local STC presentation Wednesday.  The subject was
 On-line help.  The presenters were from SDRC in Dayton, Ohio.  They just
 spent 3 years and @ 1 million dollars creating a gorgeous help system.
 They anticipated that they would save 2 - 3 million dollars in printing
 costs.  They have discovered that the customers still want printed
 manuals in addition to the spiffy help system.

-Maria


 Domain: maria -at- msd -dot- measurex -dot- com       Maria Townsley  Technical Publications
 UUCP: ...uunet!mxmsd!maria         Measurex Management Systems Division

 ==================================================================

 Subject: Re:  Online & paper?

 Yup. This is idiosyncratic, like ediitng online vs. on paper, but I think that
 online help does some things better than paper, but not all. And even on a big
 screen, real estate issues still arise.

 Fred Wersan
 Quest Engineering Solutions
 Documentation Services
 MA30/807

 ==================================================================

 . . . I also think it'll be a while before people are comfortable with
 online-only information. (I'm a gung-ho online advocate, but I
 feel weird if I don't get a manual to look at.) . . . .

 Faith Weber
 EA Systems Inc.
 weber -at- easi -dot- enet -dot- dec -dot- com

 =================================================================

 In the discussion of on-line and/or paper documentation, I vote for
 redundancy. . . .

 Rionda Osman
 rosman-j -at- ouray -dot- denver -dot- colorado -dot- edu

 =====================================================================

 This is often treated as a marketing issue.  Some companies
 (and users) want a paper manual, for both rational (what if
 the help system fails?) and irrational reasons (security
 blanket, physical evidence of the product's perceived value,
 and lots of screwier reasons. . . .

 John Gough    Atrium Technologies   Austin TX    john -at- atrium -dot- com

 =====================================================================

 Or you could send one set of manuals plus PostScript files if the users
 find they need more.

 ** That very idea is floating around my own company, as if two of the
 much-heard refrains at our own site weren't "Who took the manual?"
 and "Who's tying up the printer?"

 Once someone does run your PostScript, of course, that presumably
 means an 8.5-x-11 one-sided printout in a ring binder, not only
 more arboricidal but also probably much clumsier to work with than
 the hardcopy your company distributes.  (Or if 8/5-x-11 in ring
 binders is what your company distributes, then tsk tsk.)
 . . .
 (A side remark regarding retail software:  When one of my Microsoft
 manuals went astray, I called the company and asked to purchase a
 replacement.  "Sure, buy another legal copy of the software and
 you'll get another manual," they sneered.  Though its programs have
 online help, Microsoft evidently still considers its manuals
 valuable enough to be denied to suspected software pirates.)

 Mark L. Levinson, SEE Technologies, Box 544, Herzlia, Israel
 mark -at- dcl-see -dot- co -dot- il | voice +972-9-584684, ext. 230 | fax +972-9-543917

 ========================================================================

 I really like a GOOD hypertext manual, but what if the system
 isn't working correctly? Many users have a real knack for "falling
 between the cracks" on the computer. Also, software errors (Come on,
 admit it! Bugs are everywhere!) could leave the user stranded.

 At the bare minimum, there should be some kind of mini-manual
 that describes how to restore the hypertext manual, in the event
 of a problem.

 Steve Gray                          sagray -at- amp -dot- com
 Corp Stds & Tech Pubs
 AMP Incorporated, Harrisburg, PA    (717) 780-4393~

 =======================================================================

 Working with online help and hypertext  over the years,  it's easy to make
 the argument for online doc.  But the reality (at least in my case) is that I
 prefer the paper manual.

 I ask myself why my preferences fall out this way.  The answers are hazy.  I
 think
 -  preference -- I've always used manuals & the switch is hard to make
 -  completeness -- online doc is so abbreviated that I'm never sure
  I am finding everything I need to know.
 -  convenience --  looking up the answer in the book on my lap & then
 trying it out on the screen just seems easier

 Some of this could be laid at the door of age -- we are all more comfortable
 with what we've been used to using over the years.  I just find the paper
 manual to be more usable.

 BTW, I work on a NeXT workstation which provides some of the finest
 online doc around.  I'm using the online resource more often in this
 environment -- but I'm keeping my manuals close at hand.

 Karen Steele
 President, Lone Star Chapter, STC

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=

 I work tech support at Lotus (yes, as in 1-2-3, Freelance, etcetera)  The
 company has been making a push towards more online doc and less printed
 information.  However, when answering the phones, I hear an overwhelming
 desire for more & better printed doc.
 Among the points in favor of printed doc:
-  You can read it at your leisure while not at the computer.
-  With online help, you often need to know what to look for in order to
        find it.  A catch 22.
-  With different help/program windows, it can be difficult to read the
        doc AND work in the program at the same times.

 Online help may be context sensitive (if you're in draw, F1 will give you draw
 help, if you're in database, you'll get database help, etcetera) but people
 still prefer paper.

 Elisabeth Riba <Elisabeth_Riba -dot- LOTUS -at- CRD -dot- LOTUS -dot- COM>

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==

 Despite our company's push--similar to many these days--to reduce printed
 documentation (for a variety of reasons), I can't see it happening anytime
 soon. Besides personal preference, I like best the way William Horton put
 it in his book "Designing and Writing Online Documentation":

 "Online documents...probably will not {replace paper documents}
  until we have online documents as efficient as this one:

  High-density, lap-top information display device. Nonvolatile
  memory with zero power consumption. Able to display text and
  graphics at 1250 dots per inch resolution in monochrome or up
  to 32,000 colors on a 100 mega-pixel display. Features simple,
  intuitive, direct-manipulation user-interface with both sequential
  and random access mechanisms. Functional at temperatures from
  -120 to +451 degrees F."

 In other words: a book. (Anyone catch the significance of the second
 temperature figure?) . . . .

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The significance of +451 degrees F. is that paper burns at this
 temperature, which is why Ray Bradbury chose it for the title of his
 novel about book-burning censorship _FAHRENHEIT 451_      -- M.L.]

 . . . I think the key is to move certain elements online, elements such
 as reference material and the stuff that often gets relegated to
 appendixes. Other elements, such as user tasks, introductory material,
 and orientational text, can be pruned and tightened to make existing
 manuals more compact. One strategy: write for your Help first. Then
 use the concise, well-written material as a basis for your book.

 Chuck Martin
 Information Developer, IBM
 techwriter -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com
 techwriter -at- aol -dot- com
 74170,2462 -at- compuserve -dot- com

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=

> -       completeness -- online doc is so abbreviated that I'm never sure
> I am finding everything I need to know.


 Considering on-line space limitations, you're probably _not_
 finding it.

 It would take a pretty fervent on-line advocate to claim that most
 online doc wouldn't need to be supplemented with paper docs that can
 act as a _reference_: to present every last detail.

 Then there's the other difficulty that Karen alluded to: it's tough
 with on-line doc to know how much else there is, and to get the sense
 of context that you can easily get with paper. I think this problem
 may be solved sooner or later, though.

  Arthur Comings

   GeoQuest
    Corte Madera, CA  atc -at- CORTE-MADERA -dot- GEOQUEST -dot- SLB -dot- COM

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=====

  I like to have paper manuals because I can put them on my lap or next
  to my computer, so I don't have to interrupt my work or clutter my
  screen space.  As someone pointed out, if I had a 1200 or even 600
  dpi screen, big enough to comfortably run software and display help
  side by side, I might change my mind.  Maybe.

           --Dean Elzinga
            elzinga -at- INFERENCE -dot- COM

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==

 I think most information will be online in the near future.  When you get
 a new application, the installation and basic troubleshooting info will
 be hardcopy; everything else will be online help, reference, or tutorial
 (these distinctions will probably blur). . . .

 I think people still want hardcopy manuals because a) it's what they're
 used to, and b) they've been put off by poor examples of online info.
 IMHO, online info blows away manuals, as far as usefulness and usability go.
 However, there are more good manuals out there than there are good online
 info sets.  So it's easy to think that manuals are more useful, inherently.
 I don't think this is the case: I think, if the online information is
 as carefully structured for online as the hardcopy is structured for paper,
 then online is inherently more useful. . . .

 Online vs. paper may be an argument already resolved in the market place.

 Michael Priestley
 mpriestley -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==

 > underlying application -- would you still want a paper manual?

 Personally, no. I've been working a lot lately in Microsoft Word, Access, and
 Excel and love being able to just click on the Help menu and find what I'm
 looking for. I esp. like the cue cards in
 Access. In my experience with Microsoft products, if I can't find it in
 on-line help, I can't find it in the paper manual, either. I do find myself
 printing some pages from on-line help that I pin up on the wall, but I'd
 probably copy those pages from the manual anyway, so I'd just be killing more
 trees.

 *However,* I know a lot of people who don't feel this way (yet), and prefer
 to have a hard-copy manual that they can look things up in. The other problem
 is the quality of on-line help - as I mentioned, I like W4W, Access & Excel
 help, and CorelDraw's, but the help for Ventura and Framemaker help is
 cumbersome and not particularly helpful (IMHO) . . . .

 Barb Philbrick   burkbrick -at- AOL -dot- COM

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=

 If help is thorough, and includes everything that used to be in the paper
 manuals, I'd get rid of everything on paper except paper tutorials, quick
 reference cards, contextual overviews (anything that requires I read more
 than five pages in a row).

 --Jonathan Price
   Communication Circle
   918 La Senda, NW
   Albuquerque, NM 87107

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==

          END OF SUMMARY FOR "Online & paper?"