RE: Future of documentation in Web-based apps

[Jim Shaeffer <jims -at- spsi -dot- com>]

Sorry, in a Web-based application there is often no opportunity 
to deliver printed manuals to users. Once the users have a password
or online account code, they are ready to roll. If they are asked 
to wait for UPS to deliver a thick paper manual, they will take 
their business elsewhere. 

Also, one future of documentation in Web-based apps is snippets and 
fragments designed for the three line, text-only display on your 
cell phone and served up via XML enabled wireless protocols. In that 
scenario, discussions of Web page design and percentages of screen 
real estate are a joke. 

Jim Shaeffer (jims -at- spsi -dot- com)


-----Snip of Original Message-----
From: Scott Turner 

I refuse to purchase software that does not have a manual. Call me 
old fashioned, but even a PDF file, while better than nothing, still 
does not completely fill the void. On-line documentation appears to 
me to be more and more a buzz word. A vaguely defined item that 
promises to fill every expectation, accomplishes much less than that, 
and produces its own problems, which appear to be ignored by most 
manufacturers.


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