Re. Balancing online vs. printed

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

     Mike Starr asked about an appropriate balance of
     online vs. printed documentation. Here are a few
     guidelines:

     1. Getting started and tutorial info. should be on
     paper, since online info. won't help those who
     can't launch the software and start working with
     it. (Yes, I've seen an installation guide that
     runs only from diskette... not much use to a true
     beginner, or someone with problems running the
     installation software, which has happened to me
     frequently.) If you can supplement this with an
     online, interactive tutorial (e.g., Apple Guide),
     do so, but only once the printed docs. get people
     up and running.

     2. Info. on the possible or recommended settings
     for various fields within a dialog box, as well as
     the meaning of the fields themselves, should be
     online, available immediately with a single
     keypress.

     3. Stuff that readers will want to browse with the
     manual in one hand while the screen display glares
     imperturbably down upon them should be printed; if
     you put this sort of stuff online, make sure that
     the viewer can move it aside so that the info.
     doesn't obscure the display to which it refers;
     similarly, the info. must remain visible ("always
     on top") while the person types or mouses to
     follow the instructions. If you can't meet these
     criteria, put it on paper.

     4. Online information is useless if users can't
     find what they want to find. Thus, make it as
     context sensitive as possible. Furthermore, hire a
     good indexer to provide a good lookup list; with
     printed info., you can always flip pages until you
     see something familiar, but with online info.
     you're limited to one very small screen at a time.
     Search functions I find more annoying than helpful
     in most cases; I generally have more luck with a
     well-designed table of contents and topic index.

     5. If your information depends on specific layout,
     with specific line breaks, either rework the info.
     or move it to paper: with adjustable windows,
     users can ruin the display and make the info.
     useless or at least more difficult to use. Fine
     details may also work poorly online because of the
     relatively low resolution of monitors.

     This will guide you towards the optimum division
     of info. for your purposes. I'm unaware of any
     single rule of thumb that will tell you how much
     to put online; it's pretty much a matter of
     analysis of user needs. Hope this helps!

     --Geoff Hart    @8^{)}
     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

     Disclaimer: If I didn't commit it in print in one
     of our reports, it don't represent FERIC's
     opinion.