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Chet Ensign (Chet_Ensign%LDS -at- notes -dot- worldcom -dot- com) wrote:
: My experience has been that customers still expect to receive paper manuals.
If
: you try to yank the paper and replace it with online, you risk a
: customer-relations backlash.
: On one project, we *were* able to reduce the paper to that part of the doc set
: that was most frequently used. We put all the doc online, but took the
: esoteric, rarely used portions out of the paper and only delivered it online.
: That worked out o.k.
: Have you asked your users? That's the best way to find out what they want and
: what they will find acceptable.
My experience has been that the people paying for the books far prefer
online. It is less expensive and requires no additional storage space.
Providing space for a minilibrary and books in everyone's office is a
real pain. As is having people sharing books, the critical one is always
missing.
But the people who use the documentation always seem to demand hardcopy.
The reasons include:
1) I want to take it home to read
2) I want to read it on the bus/plane/train
3) I want something that will be there when the system crashes
4) I want to read it before I install the software
5) I hate reading off the screen, I have bad eyes
6) I would just print off the screens anyway
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CIS: 76460,1466
Internet: ac436 -at- freenet -dot- toronto -dot- on -dot- ca
