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Ask Slashdot: Why Does Almost Nothing Come With a Proper Printed Manual Anymore?
OpenSourceAllTheWay writes: As someone who grew up with 1980s and 1990s computers and electronics and still has whole boxes of lovingly prepared printed computer, peripheral, game and software manuals from that era, I am continually surprised by how just many products ship without a proper printed manual these days. Case in point would be things like Android phones. Android has quite a few not-entirely-obvious functions built into it. And a lot of people aren't even aware they exist. No Android phone I've bought has ever had a printed manual included in its little product box. Not even a small one. Even expensive laptops ranging in price from 2,000 to 5,000 Dollars often come only with a few sheets of printed paper in the box -- warranty card, where to register the device, URL for downloading drivers and so on. Why is this? It can't be environmental concern -- the electronics devices themselves, when thrown away, are a hundred times (if not worse) more harmful to the environment than a little 50 to 100 page recycled paper booklet would be. So where are the manuals? Is it the cost of preparing the manuals? The cost of printing them? Is it a few grams of extra weight added to the product box? Is everyone supposed to look up everything online now, even in places where there is no internet connection? And why can't there be a print manual option -- e.g. pay 3 to 5 Dollars extra, and get a full, printed manual you can study on a couch?
Seriously, that's a fucking retarded question to ask and you don't deserve an answer.
Manufacturers are not interested in creating users who know what they are doing.
Designers tend to be of the persuasion that if it needs a manual, it isnt user friendly enough, and writing one anyway makes them look like quitters.
Users themselves just want a black box with a go button that takes them to pleasureville.
Why print it when nobody reads it anyway?
To find out why your smartphone won't connect to the internet, just connect to the internet to download the manual telling you why you can't connect.
What could be simpler?
First, most people have seen or used something similar to what they have purchased. This was not true when computers/software... was first available.
Second, the printed material was probably already outdated when it was originally printed, much more so when updates to the software/microcode have been made.
Third, the lack of enough (good) translators that can actually take the original language and make enough sense of it and carry that over to other languages.
Fourth, If something is simple enough to use without a manual, why bother printing one?
Fifth, Search engines with access to Online manuals and support group sites, combined with phone/email support can answer most questions. If you need detailed information, the answers a click away.
What costs even more than trees are the Technical Writers who make the manuals. Easier to just lay them off, and not provide any manual.
- Also manuals were mandatory in the 80s. When I turned-on my first Commodore computer, it just sat there and blinked at me. I needed the manual to teach me the BASIC commands.
And subscriptions to magazines like RUN or Compute to learn how to put those commands into useful programs. It was a whole different era that revolved around the printed word.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I prefer PDFs that I file when I can find them easily. A second advantage is that most manuals have multiple languages. I can split the PDF and make one that has only the pages I want.
I have many fond memories of installing WordPerfect 5.1 on my office computer and taking the manual home to study on my own time. The manual explained almost everything you could do at that time in WordPerfect, in plain English, step by step, and with short examples. Thanks to the manual I learned how to do many things that I never actually had to myself and was often called upon by others in the office to help them. Several of us were of the same mind and studied the manual. Oh, the amazing things that got done there because several of us knew how to do extra things. I believe that manual helped to make WordPerfect the word processor of choice at that time. What a cynical, stoopid, useless time we live in now.
I miss Byte, Compute, RUN etc. It really made it possible to start from nothing and become proficient in a compressed timeframe. Typing the listings not only increased your typing ability (duh!) but they also made you more careful, since a typo wasn't always easy to spot. Sometimes a typo could take you on an entirely different path of exploration and sometimes it would lock up the machine. It was a really great experience that shaped my life.