Joe Geiser writes: > Oh this is funny...but it did remind me of my former employer. > Manuals would be taken and never returned - and always found > homes in cubicles... So when I re-upped the support contract, I > killed the paper manuals and had Laser-ROM replace it. > > When the CDs came in, I set up a Win95 machine with dual CD > drives.. LaserROM went in one of them and I shared the drive. > Folks could then install the client software and search from > their desktops, thus rendering the need for paper manuals > obsolete... or so I thought. > > What did these geniuses do? They printed entire chapters on a > Laserjet and made their own binders! (and now they ask why I > left...hehehe) This is one of those rare occasions that I significantly disagree with Joe. Most people aren't particularly comfortable reading information off of a screen. A paper copy is more friendly -- and enormously more convenient (and portable) than anything read off of a CRT. And it's one of the things that we've been often asked to do with our own on-line help. The overwhelmingly clear advantage of on-line help is that is immediately searchable. If you only have to retrieve something minor, such as syntax, on-line help is exceptionally helpful. But I have yet to be convinced that most people find it very easy to learn complex ideas from such a format. What we're intending to do in our next release of on-line help (after the current version is released) is rewrite all of our on-line help in HTML -- and then write small HTML-to-plain-ASCII and HTML-to-PostScript converters for the HP3000. This will allow the same help screens to (i) be printed out onto a terminal's screen, (ii) printed quite nicely as complete sections or chapters to a PostScript printer, as well as (iii) being put on-line, onto the web so that it will displayable and searchable from any browser. Wirt Atmar