Re: "Notes" column in the manual?!?

[Caryn Rizell <caryn -at- HPPTC95 -dot- ROSE -dot- HP -dot- COM>]

Yes, I have had this request before for a 'notes' page.

What we did was have a 'notes' page at the end of the
chapter.  That avoided having to mess with the page formatting
to accomodate training.

I would agree with your comment that 'the manuals ought to be
complete as is', but the reality exists that people like to
take notes.  You should consider it a compliment that the trainers
want to use your documentation for training!  It is common for
trainers to think that they have to rewrite docs.

What you could do is see if you could attend some training
and get an idea of what people do write on their training
materials.  Then you might be able to incorporate their
comments into the text.

Caryn Rizell
caryn -at- hpptc95 -dot- rose -dot- hp -dot- com


> Gentle people,

> My company's training department wants our manuals to include a column
> on every page for notes.  They claim that our customers have regularly
> asked for this, so they can write notes during class.

> Training uses our manuals as teaching tools.  They actually teach *from* some
> manuals -- it is a corporate goal to free trainers from writing "student
> guides", and to have our manuals serve as course written material.

> My tactic so far has been to ask, "The manuals ought to be complete as
> is.  What notes are they writing?  Those notes might show a deficiency
> that we can fix."  Still, the trainers persist.