On 10/25/00 5:14 PM, "Michael Allbritton" wisely said:
> The lack of a printed manual for Office '01
> is no big deal to me. The Office Assistant has, so far, been able to answer
> any questions I have, and the Help in Entourage, Word, and Excel are very
> good. It's even searchable.
I also have found the online help able to answer most of my questions.
> I find the idea of getting a big, thick printed
> manual with a piece of software I buy to be living in the past. I think the
> MBU did a great job incorporating help into this product. Let's save some
> trees folks, and don't get a printed manual.
I cannot complain that there is no printed manual but I do think there
should be a PDF one. Two major thoughts here:
1) probably most of us here are long time users of email clients, word
processors, and spreadsheets. But not everyone is. MS is really aiming this
product toward the home user and these people are more likely to need the
type of hand holding that a well written manual, printed or otherwise, can
provide. Online help assumes that you know enough to be able to ask the
question in an intelligent fashion. Newbies often can't do that.
2) at this stage in my computer life, I may not need a manual to tell me how
to do something. But manuals are also useful in telling the user what is new
and different. Also, a well written manual can tell the user about things he
didn't know existed or provide uses he hadn't thought about.
Save the paper, but don't save the electrons. Microsoft dropped the ball
here. Any company that doesn't provide a manual, at least a detailed getting
started and what's new document, just isn't doing right by its customers.
Sure, I can go out and buy a third party book, but after spending $500 for a
new office suite, I shouldn't have to spend another $100 to learn how to use
it.
Cheers
david
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