Are Printed Manuals Dead?

Bantik asks: "I work for a software publisher, and there's a raging debate going on upstairs about whether or not we should continue providing printed manuals. I think that between a program's Help menu, documentation in PDF form on the program CD, and the online documentation on our Web site (HTML and PDF), we're fine. What do /.'ers think? Are printed manuals a thing of the past? And what major software vendors are going down the Paperless Path?" While some of my peers would just love to declare paper dead and a thing of the past, I feel that physical manuals are still very necessary. There's nothing like having a reference you can flip to and computers aren't common enough that there's one at every place you might find the time (or desire) to read. Thoughts?

Comments

debate, shembate

[hatless]

Tell those cheap marketing folks "upstairs" that at the very least installation and quickstart guides must be provided in print, and that they must at least sell printed versions of all documnetation, especially that boring, repetitive and bulky "reference" stuff.

PDF documentation is nice to have, especially if it's searchable, indexed, and linked. It's good to be able to print a book yourself if the prnted copy has walked away. But a stack of 8.5"x11" or A4 printouts in a binder or held together with a big paperclip is a horrible substitute for a bound book. And reading docs onscreen is nice unless you're trrying to get work done and read the docs at the same time. Clicking back and forth gets tedious quickly.

HTML docs and context-sensitive help are nice for some things. But again, they are used differently from a nice book. Sometimes you just need a book. This will change when large-format high-resolution (>200 dpi) e-book readers become available, but until then the rule should be: if you have enough documentation to make a 200-page book, you must offer it as a 200-page book.

Marketing folks will argue that since you've made the sale, it doesn't matter what format the docs are in, because you've already won the customer. But that's not true. Software with awkward, inaccessible documentation makes for unhappy, frustrated users, and when the product comes up for re-evaluation 18 months later, that frustration gets expressed in a desire to work with something "less awkward".

You can have the best product on the market, but if your documentation is frustrating to work with, then your product is frustrating to work with.

Ask your company's inside-sales people, who deal with current customers. Customers tell them what they think of CD-only documnentation. And it's not nice.

Missing the obvious

[warpeightbot]

The one most excellent reason for having the treeware that heretofore no one has mentioned:

YOU CAN SCRIBBLE ON IT.

You can highlight, you can underline, you can make notes in the margins, you can note where the tech pubs dudes fscked up... you can put those little flourescent sticky tabs on the critical sections and scribble what they are on the tabs, thus producing over time a crude but bloody effective search engine...

As long as you can still print the HTML/PDF/Word doc/whatever, geeks will continue to do so, for this very reason... and, of course, the fact that it's portable and not power-dependent, and just plain easier to read. But the scribble factor is quite large... and often overlooked.

--
Nuts on modding up the AC's. Make them login.

Re:Paperless is the way to go.

[dbarclay10]

1) Microsoft, after supplying only the BARE minimals worth of documentation, sold the "Resource Kit"(which was really a good manual) for $60+.

2) You much has a really nice novel, and a really nice seat. When I've got to learn a programming language from on-line/on-screen docs, it takes me about three times as long as if I had a printed book. Mostly because it's harder on the eyes, I can't bring it with me when I go to pick somebody up at the airport(that's a good 2 hours of wasted time), etc., etc..

Printed manuals and books, I feel, will become a precious commodity. I have no problem with that - so long as I can get them. :)

Dave

Some manuals must be on paper

[LordNimon]

The following documentation must be provided on paper:

• Installation Guide - until the software is installed, online docs don't work. And no, HTML or PDF documentaion is not enough - it requires the user to have other software installed. Besides, most installation programs can't share the screen with other windows, so the user won't be able to see the online docs anyway.
• Troubleshooting - if something is wrong with the software or computer, online docs will again not work.
• Getting Started and Tutorials - people who read these documents, by definition, need some hand-holding, so they need to be able to read the documentation and run the software at the same time, and it's usually difficult to fit both on the screen at the same time.

Basically, there are three advantages for paper documentation:

• Ability to read the documentation when you're not at the computer. However, I'm not sure if this has any real value, since I personally have had little success in understanding the documentation without the software right there to show me what's going on.
• Ability to read the documentation when administering software remotely. Unless your documentation is available in cross-platform text, PDF, or HTML format, it's usually impossible to read it online from a different computer. Imagine setting up a Samba server remotely? If the docs weren't in text format, most people wouldn't be able to read them!
• When you need to read the docs and use the software at the same time. Unless the user is running at 1600x1200, the screen is usually too small to display the application and the online documentation at the same time.

Advantages of online documentation include:

• Frequent updates. Online documentation is typically more correct than printed documentation. If you discover an error in the documentation, you can simply provide a new PDF (or whatever) for download.
• Total electronic delivery. A user can purchase and download the entire application in one shot. If the documentation were available only on paper, you couldn't download it.
• Cost reduction.
• Environmental savings.

Giant reference manuals, which are seldomly used, are a good example of documentation that can be placed online only.

One thing you should always do is provide all of your documentation electronically. A user should be able to view all the documentation online if he chooses. Never provide any documentation in paper format only. You may also want to sell two versions of the application: one with and the other without paper manuals. The version without paper manuals should be cheaper.