There's a bind for the manufacturer in this. I've received items where the
manual was larger and heavier than the product, featuring 12 or so languages.
The manufacturer knows that most people will never read the manual like a novel
- they'll dip into it when they have a problem or can't nut something out - or
hear of a feature they didn't know about. So having a manual on disc or online
makes sense. Further they know that many customers will never look at the
manual at all in any circumstances. It seems like good practice to produce a
manual with the camera but it can be wasteful in resources and add a
significant cost to the product. I wanted to check the shutter actuations on a
body the other day. No way is that in the manual but it took me about 2-3
minutes to find it on Google and do it. Anyone likely to do that task knows how
to find out how.
Then, what do you say? Your customers range from the very experienced (quick
exposure compensation here) to the total dummy (the battery goes in here).How
to approach that one? Well the Quickstart guide approach is quite good. Ten in
the main manual,everything you say, absolutely everything, is open to
misinterpretation and misunderstanding. As we used to say about printers, if
there's any way to misunderstand your instructions, they'll find it (that's
people who print, not inkjets!)
Then when you get it right, you have to translate it into about 25 other
languages and they all have to be right too.
It's a bloody task, you'll never get it perfec and no-one who should read it
actually will read it.
No wonder they're trying to get rid of them.
Andrew Fildes (who could prolly do it better
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 30/12/2010, at 7:13 AM, Bill Pearce wrote:
> And yes, Jim, a PRINTED manual is an imperative.
--
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