Re: What *is* user friendly... -My Way

[Beverly Parks <bparks -at- HUACHUCA-EMH2 -dot- ARMY -dot- MIL>]

Bill Sullivan <bsullivan -at- smtplink -dot- deltecpower -dot- com> wrote-->
> People who buy those "Dummies" books and others that take an amusing
> tack are people who want to bone up on the software and have reasons
> to.  A little deftly placed humor here may not be a bad thing for
> these folks.  It may serve a good purpose.  It gets the books noticed
> and talked about and remembered at buying time (they cost 40 bucks or
> so a pop) and with all the competition on the shelf the funny one may
> be the one a lot of people will consider if they are just buying the
> book because they have a new job or an interview for a new job and
> they want to sound like they know something.

I know we've had this "humor in technical writing" discussion
not too long ago, so I won't get too involved in it. However, I
want to stand up for the "Dummies" books. If I have to bone up
on a topic that isn't really interesting to me, I find the
humorous texts to be much more palatable than the straight-line
technical books. Plus, they are much less likely to cause a head
crash (as in, zzzzzz....).

Oh, and they are more like 20 bucks a pop. If you buy them from
a warehouse club, like Price/Costco, they costs as little as
US$12.

   =*= Beverly Parks -- bparks -at- huachuca-emh2 -dot- army -dot- mil =*=
   =*=                   Certified.                   =*=
   =*=      "I am not speaking for my employer."      =*=