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What's especially frustrating is that the documentation/help files provided generally gets it backwards: it will explain stuff that's so basic its easy for people to figure out on their own; but important common functions that you can't possibly intuit or determine by trial and error are NOT explained.
Yeah, I'm looking at YOU, iTunes!!!
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=tiburoninc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=tiburoninc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Mike Starr
Sent: January-14-15 2:00 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: "INSTRUCTIONS NOT INCLUDED"
I'm not going to single out the iPhone or Apple... I don't own any Apple products. However, many companies are skimping on the official documentation and relying on outsiders to do their job for them and I feel they're doing their customers a disservice. IMHO, the cost of quality documentation should be borne by the manufacturer. If you look at the retail price of certain products, there's no doubt that the profit margin is substantial enough that the manufacture could have provided top-quality documentation and still made a great profit. It's the cost accountants who are telling them to cut down the cost of documentation in order to maximize profit.
When we're documenting products that have, let's say, 150 tasks that can be done with the product and we only provide documentation for the 15 most common tasks, we're telling the customers that we don't care how they learn to do those other 135 things or even if they learn how to do them.
Best Regards,
Mike
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Mike Starr, Writer
Technical Writer - Online Help Developer - WordPress Websites
Graphic Designer - Desktop Publisher - Custom Microsoft Word templates
(262) 694-1028 - mike -at- writestarr -dot- com - http://www.writestarr.com
President - Working Writers of Wisconsin http://www.workingwriters.org/
On 1/13/2015 11:34 AM, Rick Quatro wrote:
> The iPhone may come with brief instructions, but there are a bunch of
> iPhone "manuals" (third-party books) on Amazon.com. Plus, as you
> mentioned, there are tons of videos on YouTube. Whatever your learning
> style, there are plenty of resources available, even if they are no
> longer provided by the manufacturer.
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