Re: Shipping a product with only the online help

Subject: Re: Shipping a product with only the online help
From: Steven Jong <SteveFJong -at- AOL -dot- COM>
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 12:54:18 EDT

I would like to caution people not to read too much into Netscape (and others)
providing no hard-copy documentation. It sounds like Netscape offers hard-copy
documentation as an *incentive* to those who buy the package, as opposed to
simply downloading it.

Similarly, we may tend to read too much into Microsoft's minimalist Windows 95
Help. I have read from one of the Microsoft writers (on this list) that
Microsoft was simply trying to make the whole Help file fit on a single
diskette. that's an external factor, unrelated to usability.

In my opinion, having, and reading, the documentation is not just professional
courtesy: it's a competitive advantage! I see lots of "tips" floating around
the Internet from commercial sources, and I know darn well that 95%+ come
straight from the manuals.

-- Steve

Steven Jong, Documentation Team Manager ("Typo? What tpyo?")
Lightbridge, Inc, 67 S. Bedford St., Burlington, MA 01803 USA
mailto:Jong -at- lightbridge -dot- com 781.359.4902[V], 781.359.4500[F]
Home Sweet Homepage: http://members.aol.com/SteveFJong

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