Deciding on printed vs online media

[Trevor Grayling <trevor -at- MDLI -dot- COM>]

Every now and again, I see messages along the lines of "When to supply
Printed rather than On-line manuals."  If you are having such a debate, you
might be interested in obtaining our Word 97 file, MEDCOMP1.DOC, which we
here at MDL have found useful.

It contains a table with a long list of over 40 "attributes," such as:

context-sensitive
good porting tools available
ease of distribution to user
index (keyword search)
responsiveness/speed
annotation by user
one compiled/compressed file
good for procedures (do)
good for ref. (read + study)


When we have to decide on the best medium for a particular set of
information, we try to determine which are the most important attributes to
the user (and also to us as authors).  We mark these attributes as "1" and
then sort the table.  You can then easily see which medium (paper, WinHelp,
PDF, etc.) supports the most important attributes.

The table is useful when trying to push back a technology-centric solution
("HTML is cool; so shouldn't we be using it?") and champion a user-centric
solution instead ("For this information set, users will need a lengthy
keyword index.")

You can obtain this document from our FTP site:

1. ftp gateway.mdli.com
2. login as anonymous with your own email name as the password.
3. cd incoming
4. get medcomp1.doc

Your comments, improvements, and corrections to this document would be
gratefully received.

Notes: (1) Instructions are included in the document. (2) Your evaluations
of the attributes for each medium may differ. (3) The table is nearly 2
years old; so some of the info may be out of date. (4) Other corporate
disclaimers go here.

------------------------------------
Trevor Grayling
Manager, Technical Communications
MDL Information Systems, Inc.
14600 Catalina St.,
San Leandro, CA 94577

trevor -at- mdli -dot- com
Fax: (510) 352-2870

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