Re: Can Online Documentation be Used to Increase the Usability

["Bob Lord, DTN 522-6614," <lord -at- CXCAD -dot- ENET -dot- DEC -dot- COM>]

Bill Amos and a couple of others responded to my question with similar concerns:

>I might be missing the point, but it seems to me that including installation
>and configuration information online in the very hardware you're setting up
>is like including instructions on opening a safe within the locked safe. You
>can't use it until you're already there; and by that time, who needs it?


>Bill Amos
>Objective Systems Integrators
>Folsom, CA


Bill et al,

Thanks for your inputs.  Your concern is valid in situations where the
documentation is addressed to an individual who's setting up his/her own
computer, and has no others around.  The environment I'm in serves larger users
or field service personnel--folks with dedicated laptops or PCs laying around on
which the online docs can be displayed.

My question is more directed at the concept of using online docs in a hardware
environment.  That there is some way to display them is a given.  What think ye?
Are they more usable than hardcopy?

Bob

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Bob Lord
Contract Information Designer
Digital Equipment Corporation           "Over the LAN, through the WAN,
LORD -at- CXCAD -dot- ENET -dot- DEC -dot- COM                      nothin' but Net!"
719.548.6614
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