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[W]hat happens when the book is a reference guide that will be used by two
audiences?
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Have any of you done this? If so, how did you do it[?]
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If there are certain parts of certain tasks that only apply to one group,
you can add a note in the procedure or in the margin. ("Note: Only
administrators may delete files.")
If there are certain tasks that are only performed by one group or the
other, you could definitely consider breaking your manual into sections for
each group.
Finally, if the size of the manual is a concern, and there is a portion of
the manual for which one group would have no use, consider separate manuals.
I did this with a manufacturing application that had options for engineers
only and other options for operators only. The operators did not need to be
wading through the entire manual to get to the information they needed. The
two manuals create a little more of a maintenance issue, but more often than
not, when there is a new release of the application, it only affects one
manual or the other.
