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Subject:Re[2]: Help or User Manual First? From:Kathleen Padova <kpadova -at- ASICENTRAL -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 6 May 1997 09:28:00 -0500
<< Hardly anyone reads paper anymore... >>
<My audiences prefer paper doc and think online Help is difficult to use.
<How about the rest of you?
******
My audience varies widely in its familiarity with PCs. I have to
accommodate people who like to do their business the old fashioned way
- with paper and pencil - to high tech "Manual? We don' need no
stinkin' manual!" whizzes. So I give them a paper manual, paper quick
start tutorial, paper installation guide, online tutorial and online
help. Something for everyone (would you like fries with that?).
I used to write one document in Word and convert it into help and a
manual. I found that I had to do alot to each document to make it
appropriate for each medium. Eventually I wrote both separately (with
lotsa cutting and pasting). I do the manual first because it has to
get to the printer before the help has to get to the programmers.
--Kathleen
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