A blogger (www.peterme.com) recently purchased an original Macintosh 128K User Manual from 1984 and published some pictures from it and wrote a great post. He says, “I recently purchased an original Macintosh User Manual (thanks eBay!). I had seen one at a garage sale and was struck by how it had to explain a total paradigm shift in interacting with computers. I figured I could learn something about helping make innovation happen. It’s been an intriguing read. It’s a remarkably handsome manual, beautifully typeset, which, considering par for the course at the time was probably Courier with few illustrations, is saying something. Also, even back in 1984, there was no definite article. You get phrases like “With Macintosh, you’re in charge.” No “the”s or “a”s. One of the more striking things was how every Chapter is introduced with a full-color photo of the Macintosh being used. (See the pictures at www.peterme.com).
Given my own interest in Users’ Manuals, their availability, and utility, I figured out two things from the post: First, old users’ manuals are getting scarce and may not be available anywhere if not saved online. Second, there is nowhere one can go and buy a user’s manual before buying a product. Where do you go when you need to buy a manual for Nokia E71 or Samsung i900 Omnia? Where will their manuals be available after the launch of their newer versions? This is why it makes a lot of sense to make users’ manuals available online.
He says, “I recently purchased an original Macintosh User Manual (thanks eBay!). I had seen one at a garage sale and was struck by how it had to explain a total paradigm shift in interacting with computers. I figured I could learn something about helping make innovation happen. It’s been an intriguing read. It’s a remarkably handsome manual, beautifully typeset, which, considering par for the course at the time was probably Courier with few illustrations, is saying something. Also, even back in 1984, there was no definite article. You get phrases like “With Macintosh, you’re in charge.” No “the”s or “a”s. One of the more striking things was how every Chapter is introduced with a full-color photo of the Macintosh being used. (See the pictures at www.peterme.com).
Given my own interest in Users’ Manuals, their availability, and utility, I figured out two things from the post: First, old users’ manuals are getting scarce and may not be available anywhere if not saved online. Second, there is nowhere one can go and buy a user’s manual before buying a product. Where do you go when you need to buy a manual for a Nokia E71 or Samsung i900 Omnia? Where will their manuals be available after the launch of their newer versions? This is why it makes a lot of sense to make users’ manuals available online.
