Re: USA Today article demands printed documentation

[Darren Barefoot <dbarefoot -at- MPS-CANADA -dot- COM>]

I look forward, with hope and naivete, to the day when the "lowest
denominator" does not believe clicking "Help" is an admission of failure and
can be comfortable and effective with online resources and non-linear
topics. I give it about twenty-five or thirty years. By that time the first
truly online-literate generation (those, I figure, who are currently under
eighteen and have, in many cases, learned to read with a computer) will be
managing resources and making purchasing decisions. I admit, with some
disappointment, that until then documentation mediums have to indeed be
content-sensitive.

-----Original Message-----
From: John Posada [mailto:john -at- TDANDW -dot- COM]
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 1999 12:38 PM
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: Re: USA Today article demands printed documentation

>
> So if your goal is to get Aunt Martha up and running on her Windows '95
> computer, a big old bunch of paper documentation probably isn't a bad
> thing. But not everyone is Aunt Martha.

But some are, or they might be my mother (who just came online 6 months
ago), or they are my friend's mom (who 70 years old, never had a
computer, and just bought a screaming 300mhz portable and an online
account). Do you give documentation because some are or do you omitt the
stuff because some aren't? I go for the lowest denominator. I can always
disregard what I don't need, but I cannot make up what I need but don't
get.

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