RE: Do manuals have to be boring?

["Dan Goldstein" <DGoldstein -at- riverainmedical -dot- com>]

Kerschbaum writes: "If you've got a user guide or help system that you
want a reader to keep coming back to, making it entertaining could be a
smart move."

Actually, a smarter move would be to make a user guide or help system
that they don't *have* to keep coming back to. Good documentation
minimizes the user's reliance upon it.

My documentation isn't up on a stage, looking for attention; my
documentation is guiding the audience to their seats, and keeping the
dancers from falling into the orchestra pit.


-----Original Message-----
From: Craig Haiss
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 10:15 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Do manuals have to be boring?

I found the following article inspiring, and it would be great with a
Friday morning cup of coffee.

"How a mouth-watering user guide got me thinking about technical
communication"

http://www.dmncommunications.com/weblog/?p=2069

It made me long for the kind of computer manuals I read as a kid, when
computing was just a hobby and the authors of manuals were perfectly
willing to goof off in print.




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