Re: doc on the web

[Will Kelly <willk -at- TIAC -dot- NET>]

Doreen--

I had the opportunity to take this step with two clients. For the first
client, it came down to a couple of more customer issues:

1. Frequent updates just as you guessed.
2. Accessibility. The doc was for a high-end engineering product that was
never accurately documented for a couple of years of its life. They liked
the fact that the TOC linked them to just the topics they needed.
3. Distribution. There was a worldwide userbase that had never had
documentation and may have only had infrequent need for it.
4. My client is a small company where even the president answers user
support calls. Some clients found the tech support resources less then
adequate.

The second client had a strictly user support focus for the docs being
converted to HTML.

I hope this helps.

Will Kelly

At 10:57 AM 10/9/97 -0400, DoreenM520 wrote:
>My co. is going to soon start making product and related doc available via
our
> web site. My question concerns customer expectations. I would guess that
> customers are going to expect the doc to be more up to date than they
> currently expect in the hard copy. While we plan customer surveys and site
> visits, I'd like to hear from anyone who has taken this step and has info on
> what the customer expectations were. BTW, we currently only update the doc
> when we restock or when we move to another release; we do NOT issue doc
update
> pages.
>
> TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
>to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
>   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
>  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
>browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html
>
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Will Kelly * Contract and Freelance Technical Writer *
* Technical Editor * Consultant *
mailto:willk -at- tiac -dot- net * http://www.tiac.net/users/willk
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html