I had to think about how I learned how to use technology over the years. Most of the devices I learned to use I learned by example from a more skilled user. Using an AM radio, dialing a rotary phone, using a wood lathe, running and maintaining a high-speed copier were all done by way of demonstration. Very few devices have I only had a manual to use to learn it. Most of the time, the manual was used to figure out how a function I knew how to perform on one device was implemented on a different one if I could not figure it out.
But to address your manual question directly, paper is better in this case. But what would most likely exist would be a paper manual to bootstrap you until you can access the online manual. That was the trend in electronic documentation in the 1990's and is still the norm today.
|