A Good Response to "No One Reads the Help Anyway"

[Combs, Richard]

Bill Swallow wrote:
 
> There are three primary reasons for accessing Help:
> 
> 1) new user
> 2) use of new feature or need to perform a new operation
> 3) received unexpected result more than once

There's also (4) there is no manual. 
 
> There's nothing short-sighted about wanting a quick answer to 
> a problem. There's nothing correct about wanting to learn 
> more about what you're doing, either. There are specific 
> tools for each.

I said Cooper was correct for an "immediate need or problem," didn't I? 

But often, there _aren't_ specific tools for each -- the online help (or
the PDF that's a word-for-word duplicate of it) is all you've got. 

Besides, I was really commenting more on a personal characteristic of
mine (sometimes it's an asset, sometimes a liability): I find it very
difficult to suppress the urge to ask, "But _why_?" 

Cut me some slack, Bill, it's Friday afternoon. Shouldn't you be kicking
back with a beer by now? ;-)
 
Richard


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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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