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Claudia's experience reminds my of my own. I wanted into a document
design class that required the participants to have experience with Word
Perfect. At the time, I had no real computer experience. I borrowed a
manual from a friend and in two weeks learned enough to persuade the
instructor to let me in. That was two years ago and today I am quite
proficient on close to a dozen word processing, desktop publishing, and
graphics programs. I am, in fact, now teaching such skills to others. And
most of my expertise comes from a combination of reading the manuals and
experimenting with the concepts.
On Wed, 21 Sep 1994, Claudia Allen wrote:
> Richard Mateosian <srm -at- C2 -dot- ORG> writes:
> "The paper software manual is dead...
> "Nobody has ever learned FrameMaker4 or Word6 or Photoshop3 or any other
> major package by reading the paper documentation supplied with it...
> "Paper manuals will continue to appeal to users' nostalgia but won't
> satisfy their expectations..."
> Some of the very literate computer users in my office pull out a book to
> problem solve rather than use online help. Me? I'd much rather use the book
> unless it's a quickie thing or a reminder of what I already know but have
> temporarily forgotten. I don't think it has anything to do with nostalgia.
> It's easier to open a book to the right page and work through step-by-step
> directions rather than read the help, maybe take notes (on paper!), and then
> try to perform the task.
> And PS, I learned pagemaker with just the manual. I had to promise I could
> do DTP to get a job I wanted, so I opened the book and worked my way through
> it. The first day on the job my boss had me do some dtp. I was relieved to
> find out that what I had self-taught worked in the real world. Online help,
> in that case, would have been of little or no use...
> Claudia Allen
> claudia -at- cpc -dot- org
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* RoMay Sitze rositze -at- nmsu -dot- edu *
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* Only the curious wil learn and only the resolute overcome the *
* obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited *
* me more than the intelligence quotient. -Eugene S. Wilson_ *
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