Re: insert pages for updating manuals

[Randall Raemon <rlr -at- HAL -dot- COM>]

In message <9412140031 -dot- AA29019 -at- hal -dot- com>
Jan Boomsliter writes:

> What I see is that companies are putting docs on line and continually
> updating them.  It's up to the reader to print, or not, so the format
> has to do double-duty.  Change packages are
> definitely out.  Print books are updated and published when the service
> reps. can no longer stand the questions.

> You're not going to like hearing this, but my experience is that change
> packages pile up in the corner and collect dust.  Those who do open
> them glance through, but don't swap out their familiar, annotated
> pages.  Inserting correctly is not the problem.  The only people I've
> dealt with who actually have updated docs are those who keep the
> library, and/or hand them off to someone else to do the actual inserts
> (usually secretaries, who have no problem with the instructions).


What you say is generally true, unfortunately. In an older job, I was one
of a very few (counted on one hand) people who kept their manuals collection
up to date. What would happen, is that most other people would come by and
either borrow, or look up on the spot, what they needed to know. Despite
being a software grunt, my bookcase became something of the local library.
For a little while I had to resort to using a checkin/checkout list to keep
track of who had what, so I could go look up the stuff that I needed to get
my job done.

Since the various job redirctions and changes, I haven't seen a change
packet in some years. Instead, I've seen whole new manuals.

--
Randall Raemon
rlr -at- hal -dot- com
delta1 -at- netcom -dot- com
0005650778 -at- mcimail -dot- com