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Q&A How to work on a new software feature that affects different topics

How do your users read and use the manual? If they use it as a textbook, where 95% of the readers start at the beginning and progress through to the end in linear fashion, then put all the new inf...

posted 9y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:31Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/19096
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:39:05Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/19096
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T04:39:05Z (almost 5 years ago)
 **How do your users read and use the manual?**

If they use it as a **textbook** , where 95% of the readers start at the beginning and progress through to the end in linear fashion, then put all the new information into one chapter at the end.

If they use it as a **reference book** , so chapters are read out of order, individually, or not even in total because the person is looking up a feature, then you need the disparate method.

To use SaberWriter's example, if all I need to do is look up how to create menus in HTML, it would be useful to have at the very least a note saying that I could do the same thing with CSS or even more easily with JavaScript, a quick summary of the process, and then a reference to a longer explanation in the CSS and JavaScript chapters.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-09-23T13:45:43Z (about 9 years ago)
Original score: 1