RE: Making software manuals available for purchase

["Bulloch, Scott" <scott -dot- bulloch -at- sap -dot- com>]

Jill,

I used to work on a military contract where we delivered both a printed
manual and an online help version of the same that was included with the
hardware (a battlefield information system). After two stages of the
contract, they decided to do away with the printed manual for the following
reasons:

1. Too costly to produce.
2. It sat on shelves, rarely accessed.
3. The online help version was immediately available on the system,
context-sensitive, with an index. 

The soldiers took to the online version very quickly. On the third stage of
the contract, the only thing that was delivered was the online help. We also
made it available on CD-ROM for the trainers and officers who didn't have
the battlefield system available. The trainers told us that they felt the
online version had a greater penetration than the printed manual ever did. 

Of course, the fact that the printed manual was over 900 pages might have
had something to do with it, too... :)

Hope this is helpful. 

Scott Bulloch
SAP Labs, Simplification Group
Technical Editor

-----Original Message-----
From: Jill Tiefel [mailto:jtiefel -at- vetconnect -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 11:28 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Making software manuals available for purchase


Greetings...
    I write the technical documentation for a Windows-based software
application. Currently, we have ~3000 users. I produce printed
documentation/help files using Doc-to-Help and have had much trouble due
to the large size of our files. We only produce Winhelp, but want to
move to HTML help. I have been scouring the archives for information
from writers in a similar environment. If my predicament sounds
familiar, please let me know what tool you use and why you made the
decision to use it.
    Management wants to do away with our large, professionally printed
reference manual. The idea is that users would rely on our help system.
In theory, this sounds good, but I have the feeling that our users
(generally not technologically savvy) are not going to like this. Using
a survey, I am collecting data from our clients to assess their needs
and make a decision. I would love to hear from people who have been/are
in a similar situation. Was it practical for you to discontinue sending
a book with your software releases? Did you make manuals available for
purchase? Did many users actually purchase the manual?
(Please respond directly because I only receive the digest. If many
replies are received, I will summarize and post to the list.)
Thanks in advance!
~Jill

Jill Tiefel
jtiefel -at- vetconnect -dot- com
Technical communications specialist
VetConnect Systems, Inc.

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