Re: Manual vs. Guide

Subject: Re: Manual vs. Guide
From: Stephanie Gibson <sgibson -at- QWIZ -dot- COM>
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:38:47 -0400

Michael,

In the last couple of years, the trend seems to be that a User's Guide
is a handy-dandy, concise, easy-to-use manual that has useful
information, above and beyond what's offered in the Quick
Reference/Quick Start Guide. The User's Manual has become a voluminous
book that sits on the shelf and is referred to infrequently.

I actually did a survey of 375 people at my old company and asked
whether they'd prefer 'Guide' or 'Manual' as the name for the book. 95%
of the respondants preferred 'Guide' and offered the same analogy as in
paragraph 1 above.

stef
--------------------------------------
Michael Clark wrote:
>
> Greetings folks,
>
> Other than spelling :-) what are your thoughts on the difference (or lack
> thereof)
> between the use of the term "user guide" and "user manual"?
>
> Miark
>
> TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
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TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html


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