Amen to that. One usually gets insulted disbelief when you tell them that you can't find things in their fact assemblage. The larger and more complete the document becomes the harder it is to find things. While as a tool, particularly for searching around on a schematic diagram, PDF search is EXTREMELY useful, for one who is just getting started, EVERYONE'S "modern" manuals suffer from the SECRET WORD SYNDROME. Try finding "load antenna" when the only term used is "antenna matching". You have to know the exact spelling of the exact term in use by the writer of the document in order to find the content you need.
And as just stated, writers seem to be completely convinced that modern search field mechanisms are a satisfactory means. A good index probably needs to be kept on line, as a specific job in a company, and needs an employee whose prime job is to expand the "term bank" to key to alternate terms, which actually does link to material on line. The keeper of the index MUST NOT under any circumstances be one of the writers. It has to be a customer facing employee, who can consult the writers, but the writers cannot do the index and must have zero "face" involved in what is in the index. But I wouldn't presume to say that much of that actually exists out there. This is an expense at a company, and it would appear that there is little inclination to spend money for anything, particularly in a deep recession. 73, Guy. On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 10:41 AM, John Ragle <tpcj1...@crocker.com> wrote: > On 12/7/2010 8:24 AM, Sam, KJ4VPI, wrote: (paraphrasing: I love books!) > > The list (nest?) of features hiding inside the K3 firmware is nearly > astonishing, and quite wonderful, but I find the Users' Manual to be > almost useless when one needs to find a specific item. > > The "finder" inside *.pdf readers is very limited. > > Instead, I rely heavily on the "Nifty Ham" accessory booklet, and it > sits alongside my K3 in a handy spot. > > As a user and author of technical articles and monographs, I have always > told my students that the key component of such is a proper index. > Unfortunately, the art of index writing has suffered considerably at the > hands of those who write "electronic" documents, though it still thrives > in the Sam's and Microsoft tomes on the Windows operating systems. > > Word processors contain excellent facilities for building proper > indices, though these tools are seldom used by "on-line" authors. I > don't believe the "finders" in Acrobat (or Microsoft Word) were ever > intended to replace indices, though there seems to be a very strong > tendency for authors to believe that once the main object (or text) has > been perfected, the task is finished. A "Table of Contents" is not > enough, and one might hope that future versions of the Users' Manual > would be more complete. > > I add that this complaint directed at the K3 Users' Manual is actually > more general...try reading the ICOM manual for one of their > transceivers, etc. ad naus. These authors deserve the digitus impudicus > as a reward for their failed efforts. They need to learn a lesson from > book authors! > / > /John Ragle -- W1ZI/ > / > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
