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Subject:Re: Japanese tech communicators From:Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 9 Mar 1995 06:44:25 PST
>Wow. Robert. Way to slam all technical communicators in an entire nation.
>Maybe you should think twice before hitting the Send key.
Oh, there's some good stuff coming out of Japan. I've seen, in my
lifetime, perhaps two or three good user's manuals for Japanese products.
On the other hand, many technical BOOKS from Japan are extremely clear
and well-written, even after mediocre translation.
But the low quality of the owner's manual for my Isuzu Trooper verges
on the criminal, and, after a false start, I hooked up my Panasonic VCR
by ignoring the manual, because it didn't work out the other way. At
work, our ultra-fancy, ultra-expensive Canon FAX machine has what may
be the worst user's manual ever written, along with a non-intuitive
user interface and a frightening number of buttons to push.
The only improvement I've seen in the last twenty years is a greater
reliance on pictures, so you don't have to rely on the useless words.
