Re: saving trees (printing)

[John Garison <john -at- garisons -dot- com>]

Bill,

I haven't changed horses mid-stream exactly, but ... A few years ago I 
started at a new company which was developing a new product. I proposed 
that all documentation be done online in HTML for use in a browser 
alongside our browser-based application, and of course the sales and 
marketing guys were up in arms at the idea. I made some good arguments 
(mostly about the cost of doing print documents) and they eventually 
said I could proceed as long as people had a way of printing out some 
stuff.

Our audience was professional and executive level users. They never 
complained about not having a book. When we did get some requests for 
help that was accessible separate from the product itself, we produced 
it on a CD-ROM which allowed users to search the Help system and read to 
their heart's content. End of complaints. We even got some kudos along 
the lines of "I can actually find stuff in the online version!"

My 2¢,

John




Bill Swallow wrote: