When Do You Read the Instructions?

An anonymous reader asks: "I originally submitted this as a poll, but the answers I'm guessing, were way too long. However, I would like to ask the crowd at Slashdot: When do you read the instructions?" "So when do you reach for that instruction booklet? Do you:

• ...research on the internet, in magazines and also pestering friends who own one, so you're an expert before buying said item?
  
  
• ...carefully read the box and all of the instructions even before unwrapping the protective plastic?
  
  
• ...study the instructions and the quickstart guide?
• ...refer to the instructions and study the quickstart guide?
  
  
• ...lose the instructions when throwing the packaging away, but study the quickstart guide hoping for the best?
  
  
• ...look at quickstart guide when it's not obvious how to turn it on?
  
  
• ...frantically search the instruction book after letting the 'magic smoke' out of your appliance hoping you'll find somewhere saying it's suppose to do that?
  
  
• ...after it's been smashed to pieces with a hammer?"

Comments

Importance...

[megaversal]

Depends on how important it is... if it's for my servers that thousands of users at work need to access, you can be sure as hell I read the release notes.

If I'm just playing around... that's it, I play around and look at the manual if there's a problem.

Re:Importance...

[thegrassyknowl]

Do embedded help options (ls --help) count as reading the instructions?

I never

[Konster]

I never read manuals, but I'd be willing to start if they started putting pictures of naked women in them.

I also use Windows...no manuals needed! Plug and Play! USB! I never buy stuff from companies that don't have an 800 tech support number. Let THEM read the manual to me!

Re:I never

[Lamieur]

Some of us are too shy to call vibrator-vagina-maker's tech-support... I admire you.

Re:I never

[yuri benjamin]

Yes, but if you have no money, ie m=0, then no matter how confident you are, e will still be zero:

e = mc^2
e = 0 x c^2
e = 0

#define instructions

[kipple]

if you call "instructions" that small piece of paper that goes with the object, well, no I don't read them. They are usually useless - spending more pictures and pages for the dummy window (l)user, and not telling any technical detail. It's more entertaining to search for the "technical manual" on the Net, if there's any.
The only case when I -very quickly- read them it's when I'm looking for the default password of a piece of networked equipment. which usually it's not even written down.

cheers

---

open source is like poker: would you trust a deck of card that you cannot see being shuffled, but you have to trust who said it was done?

Re:#define instructions

[forkazoo]

Huzzah! I remember when "manuals" had enough information to write drivers, as a matter of course. Dot Matrix printer manuals used to come with documentation of the printer control codes, and instructions on how to make a BASIC program to do graphics, and such. Modem manuals used to come with full explanation of the AT command set and all redgisters. (And no, I'm not speaking in hyperbole, I'm citing specific examples!)

Nowadays, you are lucking if the modem manual says "User are to make under installing the device apon application to Window 97 device mangler by demanding d:\setup with perseverance." And then repeating the same thing in French, German, Korean, and Afrikaans, so the book looks thick and informative.

Old school manuals, I used to read cover to cover, excited to learn new things. New school manuals, I just don't bother, unless I don't have teh opportunity to use the device, and I am bored, I might flip trhough it while waiting at a red light on the way home, or something...

I'm confused

[MyGirlFriendsBroken]

Are there devices out there which are not operated by a hammer?

Re:I'm confused

[Stanza]

Originally posted by MyGirlFriendsBroken (599031)
Are there devices out there which are not operated by a hammer?

No wonder your girlfriend is broken.

Re:I'm confused

[Cuthalion]

It's like they say. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like your kid brother.

Instructions should not be required.

[Anonymous Coward]

If the user interface is well thought out and cleanly designed, no instructions should be needed to use the device (software or hardware) correctly.

If you require instructions, the device is too complicated and is badly designed.

The obvious exception is where the equipment is dangerous / mission critical / requires complicated user interaction. For example, cars have a pretty simple interface (at the minimum: a wheel and two pedals), but you need to know the rules of the road to use these machines safely.

Difference between boys and girls

[harikiri]

I remember reading somewhere that the reason boys and girls differ in their computer expertise (on average) is due to the following:

• Boy jumps onto the computer, plays with it till he breaks some part of it, and is forced to figure out how to fix it.
• Girl, terrified of breaking the computer, demands to be shown what to do before using it.

Note: Yes this is a broad generalisation, but this is slashdot.

Because the guys jump into using it so quickly, they learn faster through trial and error. The pace of learning with girls is a lot slower due to their desire to know how stuff works first.

This has parallels with "reading instructions". From the large sample of friends that I have, very few of them (male) ever choose to read the instructions.

Personally, I'm affronted that I even need to read the instructions (especially for consumer electronic items). In this day and age, electronic items (VCR/DVD/camcorder/digicam) should be usable by anyone who spends 60 seconds playing with it (think iPod). In short, we should not ever need to read instructions.

Re:Difference between boys and girls

[david duncan scott]

I'm not so sure that they learn faster. They may pick up particular tasks more quickly, but they may also miss (I know I have) whole areas of function simply because they haven't stumbled into them yet.

Reading the manual gives you the CD-ROM drive. Playing with things gives you the cup holder.

Re:Difference between boys and girls

[Bishop]

And those of us who read the documentation, and aren't affraid to break anything, learn the fastest.

At a minimum I will skim the docs. Even if the item is very simple. The item may use new features or have a different interface. I want to get the most out of anything I buy.

The sibling post's cd-rom or cup holder comment is true.

Re:Difference between boys and girls

[jaelle]

Actually, as a girl (more or less) I do a bit of both. Something very complex (like C++) I'll read up on it some first, then get in and break it. I break Linux distros regularly.

It did take me awhile to get over a childhood of being yelled at for messing with stuff my brother always got to play with.

Leave girls alone and give 'em tools, and they'll break stuff too!

Re:Difference between boys and girls

[nine-times]

I'm not sure about the boy/girl distinction, but it does seem to me that the trial&error break-it/fix-it cycle does seem to be a better way of learning about computers. Probably all sorts of other things, too, but I'm quite sure book-learning isn't the best way to learn to operate or repair computers.

First, because computers are so much about convention that they'll never make sense unless you just jump in and start using it. Second, because books so often tell you how a computer should work, but rarely give you much information about how it is working when it isn't working properly.

That's been my experience, anyway.

The big distinction is, I will check documentation for specific information. Like, back when there was no such thing as a jumperless motherboard, you'd check the motherboard documentation for the correct jumper configuration for the processor you're using. Beyond that sort of info, I usually figure it out myself or go for online forums.

It Depends

[Ann Elk]

• If I'm buying something I've never used before (software, home electronics, kitchen appliance, whatever), then I: a) research it to death on the Internet, b) research it to death at the library/book store, c) research it to death by pestering my friends, then d) go to a store and make an impulse buy.
• If it's something new to me, then I always read at least parts of the manual. How much of the manual (and how closely I read it) is usually determined by the complexity of the product. Did I read the manual when I bought my first USB pen drive? No way. Did I read it when I bought my first DVD player? Somewhat. Did I read it when I bought my first wireless access point? You bet.
• If I'm upgrading something, then I may or may not read anything. Did I read the release notes when upgrading from Mozilla 1.7.3 to 1.7.5? No. Did I read them when upgrading from Fedora Core 2 to Fedora Core 3? Of course.

Study the instructions and the quickstart guide

[u-238]

When you first get it, you're usually too excited to be bothered by a thick manual. The quickstart suffices for a while, while you fiddle around with it.

But for complex gadgets with more than an on/off switch, and I'm talking things such as digital cameras, mp3 players and the like, there are typically more options than you could manage to figure out on your own, even if given the time. A lot of the extras in gadgets like these are harder to do than a street fighter combo.

Take the time to read through the entire manual, usually while sitting on the pot, and aquaint yourself with all the tricks and extras it has to offer. There's no other way.

problems

[PerlDudeXL]

If I have problems with some specific hardware I look into the manual or if I need some tech-specs
like horizonal or vertical frequencies of a monitor. Most of the time those QuickStart guides
are useless for be because they focus on setting up the hardware in windows environments.

I bought a new TFT Flatscreen and the manual was provided on a CD. My luck was that the screen
accepted my XOrg settings and worked right out of the box. The manual itself was a set of html pages
that didn't work under linux using firefox due to some hardcoded uppercase filenames (probably javascript)
that couldn't be found. If instruction manuals are provided only on CD - please as a PDF.

Magic Smoke (no not that kind)

[AdiBean]

I read the directions once I've let the magic smoke out of the device in question. You see, all electronics works on magic smoke. This is easily proved by the fact that if you let the magic smoke out of your electronic device, it generally no longer functions.

Depends on the thing...

[Howie]

If I'm looking for something for a very specific purpose, and there's a particular feature I want ot be really sure is going to work how I want, then I won't buy without being able to download the manual beforehand. I recently bought a Pioneer AV amp, and wanted to be clear on whether it *really* had 3 digital ins, or 1 and 1 you could switch from optical to electrical, for example.

Other things only get the manuals read when I'm either really bored or really stuck. I've never read the manual for my original ipod (it was a mac-only CD, and I didn't have a mac, from memory, so I couldn't even if I wanted to).

It's worth pointing out that I do suffer from a case of 'I wish I'd known it could do that' every few months as a result.

My VW Golf has a wierd hidden feature that I don't think you'd ever be able to find without reading the manual - you can change the period of the intermittent wipe, but there's not explicit control for it. You turn it on, wait, then off, then back on again. The length of the wait becomes the delay between wipes. It's kind of clever when you know about it, but it's pretty poor UI that you would never guess it. Then again, the Mercedes-style wall-o-buttons isn't so great either.

Safety

[c]

If there's a potential safety issue (beyond just using electricity), I definitely read the instructions. You don't assemble and use something involving exposed chunks of metal spinning at thousands of RPMs without reading unless you've got a deathwish. That means power tools, small engines, etc. Ignore the safety sections of the manuals, though. That's always generic boilerplate drivel like turn off the engine and let it cool before filling with gas and don't touch the blade when saw is operating. The important stuff is in the assembly, operation and maintenance sections.

I might read the instructions for expensive/irreplacable items, as well. Unless I don't own them.

c.

on the throne

[kcornwell]

I read instructions for nearly everything I buy while I'm on the can. The time required is usually enough to scan for anything important or interesting. The technical specs are almost always interesting, and sometimes I miss a feature that is not obvious in the product (think cell phones).

I know it is time to read the instructions

[notcreative]

when the object has caught fire.

Re:Not for common tasks

[david duncan scott]

In the case of the Beetle, aside from the common response that "They put the engine in the wrong place, so what'd you expect?", my theory is that there was a copper shortage at some point that made VW engineers allergic to wiring. How else can you explain the windshield washer, which was a tank hooked up to the over-inflated spare tire with a regulator valve preventing you from flattening the spare on dusty roads? It was elegant, in a way, but bizarre.

Then again, for years the gas cap was in the trunk...

two reasons why I do it

[bagofcrap]

When stuff is broken, attitude being why should I spend my time figuring something out, if its written, in big red letters, "Don't press the big red button."

The other reason is for non-consumer level gear. A Linksys router I would fully expect to be plug and play. A high-end Cisco router? perhaps not.
A 3rd party microcontroller dev-kit? I had to look up the datasheet for the power regulator they used to find out what kind of power it wanted. At which point there aren't as many manuals written at which point its not really an answer.

take that, /.!

As my sig always used to say....

[Verne]

Instructions should be read first, or not at all. Anything else is admitting defeat.

Depends on risk to life and limb

[74Carlton]

My new table saw? yeah, I read the directions. A portable radio? no.

My 1/50th $

[Fubar420]

Figured I'd share this one, since it's relevant to the topic at hand.

I just bought myself a new digital camcorder, all the bells and whistles, natch. So I record a few friends and I outing to buy an XMas tree, and a few other things. So often, especially with complex equipment, how to do something is not always immediately clear;

Want to turn on night-mode or light assist? Oh, you need to switch the camera to program mode, go into the menu and select the moon icon.

Want to take still pictures? Move the dongle to the top, and press the record button. Cant do that? Oh yeah, we ship you a card full of sample images so you have to erase it first.

You want to erase it? Just flip the dongle back to the bottom, choose picture review, and then format card.

Now, its time to transfer the video off. Well, the camera has USB2.0 and FireWire (dv) output, but only includes the USB cable. Well, no matter, my mac's in the shop anyhow. So I plug in the USB cable to a windows box I found collecting dust, since I couldnt find USB drivers for the camera in linux.

So when I plug the camera in, windows just stares at me. I read through the quick start manual, and it says flip to "picture" mode instead of "movie" mode. Seems odd to me, but whatever.

So I flip it, and the software comes up, and says pick some pictures to download. Sure enough, lots of sample images, but no mention of getting my movie off.

So I go back to the manual.

And then, several hours of reading it later (could they have cut the esperanto section and included an index PLEASE???) I find a small one line comment hidden at the bottom of the page that discusses hooking my camera up to ANOTHER CAMERA.

That note?

"You will need to purchase a seperate DV cable to transfer video from the camera"

So yeah, I play first, and then read the manual, and then post on slashdot how shitty the manuals are :-)

Computers, et al, come with instructions?

[Mikito]

Instructions, as in a manual of some kind? I would gladly read them if I could, but the manual always seems to be missing. I think David Pogue might have something to do with that.