Re: Manuals on CD-ROM

Subject: Re: Manuals on CD-ROM
From: "Matthew B. Hicks" <matt -at- UNIDATA -dot- UCAR -dot- EDU>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 13:15:53 -0700

On Wed, 24 Jan 1996, Kent Newton wrote:

> Our company is investigating the possibility of distributing our manuals
> on CD-ROM, possibly as an adjunct to paper distribution or possibly (to
> my dismay) as a replacement for the paper distribution.

> Anyway, I was wondering if anyone on the list has had experience with
> this. Is it practical? What are the drawbacks? What should we look for
> in regards to technology? Should we approach it like on-line help with
> hyperlinks, or should we simply set it up like a manual and use a keyword
> search engine? And so on and so on and so on. In other words, I know
> nothing about it and could use all the collective advice and suggestions
> you have.

One thing you should bear in mind -- especially if plan to replace your
paper docs -- is that the user will have to have the CD in the drive in
order to access your docs. This is a nuisance. Especially if your product
is something that is likely to require something else in the drive (like
a PhotoCD) with any frequency. You would hear a lot of cussing coming from
my office if I had to load up a CD everytime I had a question about one
of my applications.

-Matt Hicks
matt -at- unidata -dot- ucar -dot- edu
Owner of the Dal-l Web pages:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/matt/dal-l.html


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