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Subject:Re: Quick-start guides? From:Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Tue, 1 Jun 1999 08:00:18 +0100
I agree with Jane that it's very problematic to leave things out of the
documentation unless you know your audience VERY well indeed. I can see that it
is sometimes a question of what goes in versus time and effort available but I
think as much as is possible should be documented. All in favour of quick start
guides, basic user guides etc. On one product we had the User manual was a
large A4 folder - scared the hell out of some users just looking at it. We did
a basic user guide covering the main day to day features and re-names the User
Manual to User Reference Manual. Talking to users it made a big difference -
they liked the little A5 user booklet and weren't at all put off by a large
REFERENCE manual that they might occasionally have to dip into. Feeling was
that the User Manual was something they felt they should know but a Reference
Manual...