Sanyo 8100 & Little Dude

"Joe Gill" <joegill@[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

>
> "Mark E. Daniel" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> RexYBlue <[email protected]> wrote:
>> > The "manuals" that Sprint is packaging with their phones these days
>> > leave a great deal to be desired. And it isn't just with the
>> > Sanyos. More accurately, they are basic user guides. You can
>> > download and print the full manual from the Sprint PCS website.
>> > It's worth the effort.
>>
>> The manuals are nothing more then cute little welcome to Sprint idiot
>> meterial. I take offense to paying $229 for a phone and not
>> receiving a manual. Sadly enough, the days of well-written and
>> informative manuals that aren't written from the beginner prospective
>> are seeming to go away......Now, what I fail to understand is why was
>> the real manual placed online in PDF? It would be fine if they sent
>> those manuals in printed form as well as made them available online,
>> but I'm not about to burn my ink and paper to print the manual for
>> the phone I paid $229 for. Sigh...... Sorry. Ranty of me.
>>
>> The manual for my vzw cam phone was of the small information variety
>> as well. But what Sprint sends is just well-packaged welcome
>> meterial.
>
> I can make a stab at some of the reason (for not including the full
> manuals)....
>
> 1) If they did many people would scream..."Why are you killing so many
> trees?" or words to that effect?
>
> 2) What language should they publish in? English? French? Spanish? A
> '3-in1' would be BIG!
>
> 3) Maybe the assumption is made that many of the users have a PC and
> can download...
>
> 4) Sadly many of the manuals are produced after production has
> started! I would rather have updatable manuals online where they can
> be changed/corrected!

Howdy Guys;

I did a stint for a short while as a technical writer. The truth is more
likely that it was a numbers decision to go that route.

It's not cheap to put out hefty "quality" tech manuals and the sad truth is
even when given to consumers most eschew the manuals in favor of calling
customer service.

---

› See More: Sanyo 8100 & Little Dude

RexYBlue <[email protected]> wrote:
> You are so correct, and I share your lament about well-written and
> well-organized manuals. You sort of answered your own question--they
> want YOU to pay for the manual. That's why it's placed online in PDF.

Well, I only have to pay for it if I happen to want it printed.... I
can lug my heavy laptop, take it out, wait for it to boot, and load the
pdf reader and blow up the text.... only like 98 easy steps.....lol
But when I get something like a cell phone, or anything that might have
hidden features, I used read every manual cover to cover multiple times
just to be sure I didn't miss anything. But what they put out today and
call manuals just makes me sigh. Rather like the Microsoft prospective
of Operating Systems... But every manual is like that anymore. The
manual for my 5300 in in the box it was sent in... I've learned most
of what I need to know from the phone's help menus...Sprint did a good
thing with those. Of course there is also this newsgroup which has been
helpful aside from the overflow on trolls....Anyway. I feel kinda dumb
for asking about Thanksgiving after seeing the same blurb posted about
every holiday since.... lol
> Your printer, your ink, your paper, your binder... and so on. I guess
> one could download it, save it and reference it on the computer
> screen, but that's a hassle. I wonder how many customers want, need or
> would even read the full manual. I bet not even half.

Probably true. But that's just a sad commentary on taking control away
from the user and softening our brains.

"Mark E. Daniel" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> RexYBlue <[email protected]> wrote:
> > You are so correct, and I share your lament about well-written and
> > well-organized manuals. You sort of answered your own question--they
> > want YOU to pay for the manual. That's why it's placed online in PDF.
>
> Well, I only have to pay for it if I happen to want it printed.... I
> can lug my heavy laptop, take it out, wait for it to boot, and load the
> pdf reader and blow up the text.... only like 98 easy steps.....lol
> But when I get something like a cell phone, or anything that might have
> hidden features, I used read every manual cover to cover multiple times
> just to be sure I didn't miss anything. But what they put out today and
> call manuals just makes me sigh. Rather like the Microsoft prospective
> of Operating Systems... But every manual is like that anymore. The
> manual for my 5300 in in the box it was sent in... I've learned most
> of what I need to know from the phone's help menus...Sprint did a good
> thing with those. Of course there is also this newsgroup which has been
> helpful aside from the overflow on trolls....Anyway. I feel kinda dumb
> for asking about Thanksgiving after seeing the same blurb posted about
> every holiday since.... lol
> > Your printer, your ink, your paper, your binder... and so on. I guess
> > one could download it, save it and reference it on the computer
> > screen, but that's a hassle. I wonder how many customers want, need or
> > would even read the full manual. I bet not even half.
>
> Probably true. But that's just a sad commentary on taking control away
> from the user and softening our brains.

Or you can do what I did with my camera 'reference' manual. Printed it
(2-sided), and took it to Kinko for that cheap spiral binding and plastic
cover and back.
Oh, also I enlarged it to fill 8.5x11,