Summary: Are manuals out-of-date?

[Esther Wheeler <esther -at- AZURE-TECH -dot- COM>]

Thanks to the many folks who answered my plea for help.
The "clinching reference" I was hoping for (to justify the need
that most of us still see for hard copy delivery) apparently does
not exist. At least one that'll convince my boss.

I've decided to put together a brief survey asking our users basic
questions about our hard copy, online help, and PDF manuals.
(Have you used them?  What question were you trying to answer?
Did they help?) With the usual t-shirt and mug incentives, I'm
hoping we can get some kind of handle on who's actually using the
product. If it turns out that nobody _does_ open the manuals, fine.
I can put that effort into some whiz-bang help tutorials.

To summarize:

==============================
It all depends on your customers.
     Agreed. Therefore the survey.

Check whether you're contractually obliged to provide hard
copy.  And what about liabililty warnings and so forth.
     I'm checking into this.

Several people pointed out the need for getting started (installation)
information, which is hard to get from online help.
     The software self-installs, and we were going to keep the hardware
     installation material. But I do agree.

Many people just like books for being portable, energy efficient, and
easy to use (when done right).
     I agree, but obviously not everybody does.

Get help from Tech Support on the likelihood of calls going up.
     My boss treats this as hearsay. I'm enlisting Tech Support into
     the survey idea, and will use that as an entree to getting some
     real statistics out of them.

If printing costs are the issue, point out the small incremental cost
as opposed to the total user cost of the product. Won't you look
cheap if you _don't_ ship a manual?
    I've tried this approach -- it's more a resource than a cost issue.

One person pointed out the negatives of pushing printing off onto the
user (the PDF "solution") in addition to their trying to understand
the application.
    I liked the reduced user productivity argument here.
==============================

Many people out there are also looking for "actual data on the value
of what we do."  Finding any such thing that isn't biased by the
technical writing industry (and yes, my boss actually said that) is
proving difficult. I promise I'll post anything I come across. I'd
appreciate
it if others would do the same.

Thanks again

- Esther

> Esther Wheeler, Technical Publications
> esther -at- gnnettest -dot- com
> GN Nettest
> 63 South Street
> Hopkinton, MA  01748
> U.S.A.


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