William Sommerwerck wrote:
Try extracting the small pages, pasting them together and
then reimporting them to (another?) PDF. If the manufacturers
had competent people doing their manuals for them... :

AHEM I'm a techwriter, and they won't listen to me.

grin Sorry, it wasn't intended as a slam on "individuals".
Rather, the entire *process*.

Documentation is considered an afterthought in many firms.
Years ago, I adopted the approach of writing the *manual* for any
product that I designed *before* designing the product (!).
This serves several purposes:
- it becomes a concrete "specification" that will serve
to referee the products design (i.e., "What does the
manual say the product *should* do in this case?")
- it ensures the manual that is ultimately available to
the user *can* be very comprehensive (it is much easier
to take stuff out of an existing document than it is
to justify the time/expense of putting stuff *in*)
- it lets people "evaluate" a product before the product
exists
- it forces the designers to *think* about how they are
going to solve problems *before* they encounter them.
If the manual starts to read like a kludge, it is a sure
indication that the design is a kludge (and should be
rethought)

Years (decades) ago, manuals were very detailed. And,
products (especially the expensive ones) were designed to
facilitate troubleshooting, etc.

Nowadays, everything is viewed as disposable. :

I just updated the firmware for my Sony BD player. The Website did not
explain how to access the new features. I had to call and have the question
escalated to level 2 before getting an answer.


I'm surprised they even *supported* the firmware upgrade!
I think they count on consumers replacing kit every couple of years
so why bother adding any cost if a new model will be out...

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