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RE: A Good Response to "No One Reads the Help Anyway"
Subject:RE: A Good Response to "No One Reads the Help Anyway" From:"McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> To:"Yves JEAUROND" <jingting -at- rogers -dot- com>, "Techwr-l" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:25:04 -0500
Yves JEAUROND suggested:
> One could add that Google's greatest disadvantage
> in comparison to Help is that [good] Help tells you
> where to start and when something is finished.
> Google can go on and on and on and ...
Yet it's where so many people start. So it only makes sense to have our
docs as part of the Google search results.
> Help is a tool for limiting information about a topic; Google expands
> the scope of information. That's just the opposite of what a user
needs
> from documentation. Research is not what a user is doing.
> In _About Face_, Al Cooper sums it up: "A user would rather be
succesful
> than knowledgeable."
As we all know....
wait for it....
wait for it... Good Help is hard to find.
<rimshot>
Thank you, thank you. I'm here 'til Tuesday. Try the knishes.
Kevin
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