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User friendly manual

The supplements to the manual are driving me mad. I read them and file them with the manual religiously but when I actually need to find a snippet of information it can take hours to find it .

 I have a suggestion:

In a previous lifetime working with tax law any updates to the legislation I used came as an "interfiled looseleaf".

The basic premis of this concept allows paper updates to be filed into its relevant place in a loose leaf folder. All updates would come with a sheet of instructions saying something along the lines of " remove pages 5/21 through 5/26 and replace with pages 5/21 through 5/30". Where the 5 in this example would be the chapter number and the second numbers would the page numbers of that chapter.

This kind of system would allow people to print just the pages that have changes and additions to the manual and slot them into their relevant chapters. The other pages that might change would be the contents pages and also the index pages.

I'm sure it's not a simple implementation but it would make the manual user friendly.

Cheers

Bannon

  • I too have asked for this a few times as well as including the manual in the consoles like the Congo. It would be right there handy, every time there is a change it is made electronically, thus eliminating all the old stuff AND users can make notes that can be searched as well as searching the manual itself. I have put that at the back of the list of things expected by now. I know the bugs are a greater need to fix because they interfere with console use, however it sure is still a great thing to have.
  • in reply to Jeff Toussieng
    I do like the proposed solution for the printed manual, but it would also be helpful to have all documentation in one file in an electronic form (pdf) in order to make searching a lot easier.
  • in reply to Theatermachine
    The beauty of having an "interfiled looseleaf system" is that the digital file (PDF) of the manual is updated every time there are changes made. The extra work for ETC involves producing instructions for removing and replacing the printed sheets so that, for those of us who rely on a hardcopy, we don't have to fell a whole forest to print a new user manual. It would mean that the page numbering system for the file would need a total rethink and overhaul. In the digital age not too difficult. I'm sure there is software out there that is specifically designed for looseleaf interfiling that can be readily adapted for our purposes.

    Bannon
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