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About a year ago I asked the question of how people were approaching
the distribution of information between online and print documentation.
Responses were split almost evenly -- about half felt all information
should be in both topics, and about half felt that the better approach
was to present certain topics online and certain topics in print.
I'd like to know now, a year later, what the current situation is for tech
writers. Within my own company, we're beginning to move away from
maintaining everything in both versions, and I'm curious as to whether
there is a subsequent movement towards this in the industry as users
get more comfortable with online retrieval of information.
My questions for the list are these:
1. Do you currently maintain all topics in both online help and print
documentation, or do you split information between the two mediums?
2. If you do split, what information do you maintain online and what
information do you maintain in print?
3. How have your users reacted to your approach?
Please email me responses and any other comments, and I'll post
a summary to the list.