Words, Pictures, and Links. The Growing Array of Deliverable Formats
Put it in Writing
Hard Copy Manuals
The user's manual is not dead yet! For plenty of products, especially non-computer related appliances and other equipment, the printed manual is still the standard deliverable. A company cannot assume that anyone who buys a toaster or a motorcycle has access to the Internet, so there are still plenty of technical writers producing hard copy manuals.
If your Company has been producing manuals for a long time, they may have established ideas about production, such as what printing outfit to work with, how long a manual should be, how it should be structured, and so on. If you're new at your Company, check with your supervisor to find out what the expectations are, if any, regarding the printing of your manual. Contact the printer early on in the project. Printers will often have guidelines about what kinds of computer files they will accept for manuscripts, what formats for images and drawings are acceptable, what fonts are acceptable, and other constraints.
The printing process also dictates the number of pages in a book, which is generally a multiple of eight. If you write 25 pages of copy and images, you may find yourself with a book with seven empty pages in it. This can make the manual look strange to the reader. You'll need to coordinate the amount of content with the number of pages available. Conversely, you'll need to make some decisions if you have 36 pages of content for your 32 page book. To some extent, situations like these can be taken care of by layout changes, such as a slight alteration in the typeface size. In other cases, you'll need to edit your information to fit the manual. Unlike virtual or online manuals, it costs more money to print, house, ship, and distribute a longer owner's manual. Your employer won't want to double the manual's size just because you feel it needs to be longer.
If you're with a new company, you may be the person who finds and hires the printer. Unlike the old days, you aren't just limited to those you can find down the street. Since documents can be sent around the World over the Web, you could work with a printer from across the country or even on another continent. This isn't necessarily the best option. It can be hard to establish trust in a company you only know virtually. Whether you choose to work with a local printer or a virtual one, try them out on a smaller project if you can. See how they handle a marketing brochure or the materials for an upcoming training presentation before you send them the 120 page owner's manual for your latest product.
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