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Re: Getting rid of the manual

Subject: Re: Getting rid of the manual
From: "Mike Starr" <mike -at- writestarr -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 01:54:17 -0500

My article "Give Them Printed Documentation Too" was published in the June 1999 edition of Intercom and republished in the December 2001 edition of TC Forum. I think there are still some valid points there. You can access a PDF of the article at http://www.writestarr.com/PrintedDocumentation.pdf

Mike
--
Mike Starr WriteStarr Information Services
Technical Writer - Online Help Developer - Website developer
Graphic Designer - Desktop Publisher - MS Office Expert
Phone: (262) 694-1028 - Tollfree: (877) 892-1028 - Fax:(262) 697-6334
Email: mike -at- writestarr -dot- com - Web: http://www.writestarr.com
----- Original Message -----

From: "David Loveless" <daveloveless -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Getting rid of the manual

Everyone,

My company is moving away from a printed user manual. We are doing
this gradually to ease our customers into it. Our previous version had
500 pages of user documentation, our current has 150, and the next
will probably have nothing more than a quick start card or guide.

Instead of a manual, we are providing vastly updated and more complete
Help files. I've noticed that many products do this. Sadly, our
previous versions have given very little emphasis to the Help, and
there is a general feeling of incompetence when it comes to the older
files. The newer versions are better, but those feelings still linger.

My Questions:

First--Has anyone out there done this, and what problems did you
encounter? Our biggest concern is the customer reaction. They are very
used to getting a nice printed manual, and they don't really trust the
Help. Even though the Help files will contain all the information from
the manual, we worry that they will "miss the forest for the tree."
How do we sell the user on the idea?

Second--We are also having problems getting buyoff from some members
of management. The rest of management and support is on board. Is
there any evidence or studies out there that compare the value of a
manual to a help file?

Thanks for the help.

Dave

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WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content delivery. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
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