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Subject:Re: online vs. paper From:Lori Lathrop <76620 -dot- 456 -at- COMPUSERVE -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 5 Oct 1994 19:34:31 EDT
Michael Priestley (INTERNET:mpriestley -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM) said:
> [stuff deleted]
> I'm inclined to throw everything online to be on the safe side, and then
> make sure user-guide type stuff is available hardcopy too.
I haven't been following all of this thread, but I agree that user guides
are necessary even if there is online help or online documentation
available.
In my experience (more years than I want to admit), I've never seen online
documentation that surpasses printed documentation in readability and
"ease of use." Because the resolution of information displayed on a
computer screen is, at best, a small fraction of the resolution of 10,000
dots per sq. mm. for information in a typeset document, fatigue sets in
more quickly when reading online documentation.
Also, readers' attention spans are shorter when reading static displays.
Most computer screens display approximately one-third of the information
contained on a printed page. I seriously doubt that most readers would
prefer reading screen after screen of online documentation to reading
a few pages of printed documentation.
I received some promotional stuff from a software developer this week;
it said, "I don't do manuals," claiming that most users said they wanted
everything to be online and they did *not* want printed documentation.
Well ... I couldn't help myself .... I put their marketing stuff in the
postage-paid envelope they provided, along with a note of my own that
said, "I don't do software that requires huge chunks of my hard drive
for documentation, and I don't do software that doesn't do manuals!"
Lori Lathrop P.O. Box 808
Lathrop Media Services Georgetown, CO 80444
INTERNET:76620 -dot- 456 -at- compuserve -dot- com Phone: 303-567-4011
(Author of _An Indexer's Guide to the Internet_ published by the
American Society of Indexers)
