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>The only safe solution is the perfect / spiral bound manual
>with _big_ instructions:
>* Take old manual; throw in rubbish bin.
>* Open new manual. The colored pages at the front summarize
the changes.
This solution solves some problems but raises others.
The first rule reminds me of the trauma I go through each year when
the new Yellow Pages book arrives. My wife invariably makes notes in
the old one. I imagine pilots make notes in their manuals too.
The problems I see with the second rule are: If pilots don't have
the time or inclination to insert the new pages, what makes you
think they will read the summary? Furthermore, the summary must
recreate the context of each change, making it hard to write and
lengthy to read. You can try to find a balance between restating and
referring to the changed material, but all such choices involve
tradeoffs.
There is no really good automatic means of updating people's
knowledge. You can make sure they have an accurate, up-to-date
manual, but it takes a lot more than that to ensure that they know
what's in it. ...RM
Richard Mateosian <srm -at- cyberpass -dot- net> www.cyberpass.net/~srm/
Review Editor, IEEE Micro Berkeley, CA
