Re: online vs. paper

[mpriestley -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM]

I wrote:
>>    If the explanation has anything to do with what the user can or cannot do
>>    with the product, I'd be in favor of having it online.

Arlen P. Walker replied:
>If it's online only, it means I can't check it without having the computer
>handy. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm the habit of taking manuals
>for new software with me, either home or on trips, so I can read it in my spar

Where the heck did I say "only"???  I even explicitly said that user's guide
type stuff should be available hardcopy (though of course you deleted that
part of my post when you replied).

I'm not quoting the rest of your reply because it has nothing to do with
what I wrote.

However, I will respond to your last point, where you say that having hardcopy
at your desk is just as good as having online docs with your software:

Perhaps your working habits are entirely different from mine, Arlen.  But I
personally get _royally_ P.O.'ed if I have to hunt down a paper manual in
the jungle that is my office (me? messy?), when there could be a hypertext
jump right there in my help screen that would take me to what I want to know
(this is explicitly what I suggested in my previous note).  If you make _any_
docs available as hardcopy only, I guarantee you will make at least _some_
users unhappy. Your mileage may vary; my docs ship to a pretty technical
audience, and we'd get quite the few complaints if we shipped something
hardcopy only (it's happened in the past), just as we would if we didn't
ship any hardcopy at all (they don't mind some stuff being online only,
eg reference materials).

So to reiterate _one_ _more_ _time_: All the docs associated with the
software should be online.  Any docs that make sense isolated from the
software (ie user's guide stuff) should also be available in hardcopy.
I will change my opinion on this when online docs solve problems of
portability and readability (which is, IMO, only a matter of time).

I hope I've clarified my position,

Michael Priestley
mpriestley -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com
Disclaimer: speaking on my own behalf, not IBM's.