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Subject:Lousy vs. good writing, good vs. bad manuals From:"Gutierrez, Diane" <Diane -dot- Gutierrez -at- WESTGROUP -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 8 Dec 1998 17:13:54 -0600
The posting about manuals making sense in the original Japanese touched a
nerve with me. Let's get away from boring, three-pound, uninformative
manuals, and also from unhelpful, obscure and explanation-deficient
pamphlets that leave too many questions unanswered (and gives help numbers
that are disconnected or don't answer outside West Coast business hours).
Let's have friendly, chatty, background-information-giving,
differential-describing USER INFORMATION that is good for a relaxing read
before tangling with the hardware. The people who put out the "for dummies"
books have a good thing going. Minimalist stuff is fine, but nothing is
wrong with engaging, helpful information as well.
