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Re: Preference: One Big Manual or a Bunch of Smaller Ones?
Subject:Re: Preference: One Big Manual or a Bunch of Smaller Ones? From:Sella Rush <sellar -at- APPTECHSYS -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 30 Apr 1999 11:56:55 -0700
Also keep in mind that content in multiple documents need to be very clearly
divided in a way that users can easily anticipate.
In a past life I worked at an insurance company where each processor had a
huge rack of manuals (thousands of pages, taking up nearly two feet of desk
space) as well as several bound reference books. One of the toughest parts
of the training was to learn where in those 20 or more documents you should
look for the information you need.
In my current job I inherited a 2-part SDK doc: SDK Guide and Programmers
Reference. For the life of me I can't figure out why the chapters were
divided as they were--and no one can remember which document to look in.
Alternatively, provide a comprehensive contents and/or index that tells
people where to look for what they need.
Sella Rush mailto:sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
Applied Technical Systems (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington
Developers of the CCM Database