Re: Fun fact

[Janet Valade <janetv -at- MAIL -dot- SYSTECH -dot- COM>]

> I don't get blank stares, I get "so those $%* books are YOUR FAULT! No,
> I'm
> sure yours are clear and easy to read, not like the ones that come with
> VCRs
> (you don't do VCR manuals, do you?) ..."
>
I have to mention that I just bought a new VCR.  The registration card I
filled out included a question: Was the manual: easy to use, neither easy or
hard, or hard to use?  It was nice to know that someone cares.  However, I
had to answer hard to use.

The problem was one I think we have discussed before.  The lead-in to the
procedures were task oriented, but not tasks that had any meaning to me. For
example, a section that starts:

    To re-load the channels into memory:  (followed by steps)

I spent a long time trying to figure out if I wanted to reload channels into
memory.  I reread the entire manual and found no explanation of why I had
come to this step.  Why might I want to reload channels into memory?  Why
reload?  How did they get unloaded? Etc.

I was so annoyed.  With lines between the sections, I didn't know if I was
supposed to do all the sections in order, regardless.  Or only do those that
needed doing.  Which were those?  RRRRrrrrr.

Janet

----
Janet Valade,
Technical Writer, Systech Corporation, San Diego, CA
mailto:janetv -at- systech -dot- com
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For every complex situation, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and
wrong.

Henry Louis Mencken