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If someone gave you a clean slate for creating documentation to support
IT, would you position the design of the documents toward totally online
documentation (WWW, HTML, SGML etc. and LAN access with ability to
print) or stick with a design that is conducive to hard copy and can be
converted to on-line? Why or why not?
What issues come to mind on both sides of the fence?
------------------------------------------------
Of the options given above, I'd do neither and both.
People look to online and paper documents for different things. I hate
reading background or conceptual
information on line, and tend to print it out and keep the paper
version. I've got a couple of wonderful .HLP
files that various people have created, chock full of fantastically
useful information about using WinHelp...
and I've printed them out, every one, and stuck the pages in a
notebook... with copious little yellow postit
notes marking frequently used pages.
I think my option would be to do both online and paper documents, but
plan the projects carefully so that
they contain different types of information. Help would be just that -
help. Strongly procedural, aimed at
helping the user perform specific tasks. The paper document would go
into background, concepts, maybe a
tutorial if it's a difficult application or concept to understand. Not
much in the way of specific procedures,
but maybe would contain meta-procedures... how to perform a task that
may take up several screens, for
instance, or require different options, or was made up of several
smaller procedures... stuff like that.
YMMV, and I expect this will be a *fascinating* thread!
-becca
rp51 -at- chrysler -dot- com
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