Poll: I HATE manuals on CD pdf files

Rigoletto

Banned
Aug 6, 2000
1,207
0
0
Yep, I hate manuals on CD, acrobat files especially. I'm not just talking about motherboard manuals.
Nowadays every software house is trying to sell their back catalogue without manuals in compilation.
Now, have you stopped to think how much it costs to produce a CD since you get a free internet sign up disc with each and every computer mag? Can't cost much to treat it like confetti, can it?
In other words the public is getting treated like assholes, the software companies offloading stuff that isn't selling anymore at ABSOLUTELY minimal expenditure in sets, and they expect us to pay the same kind of money for 3 or more games together even though they couldn't sell those games anymore.
I find the acrobat system very annoying. I don't want to print out a whole manual of a flight sim. In fact I don't want to connect my printer at all for the job. What about people who don't have printers?
These companies are real cheapskates.

Even if you don't agree with my reasoning, who actually PLAYS GAMES THAT ONLY HAVE ACROBAT MANUALS? Please respond to my POLL.

P.S. I am quite annoyed that it doesn't say on game boxes often when a game doesn't have a paper manual. Once I've opened it I can't usually take it back. Don't you think the companies aren't being very straight?
 

Mark R

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,513
16
81
It annoys me. While electronic help is often useful, there are some times when it really isn't good - games strikes me as a classic situation. I haven't yet seen a game come without the bulk of documentation on paper, though.

I saw a shocking use of electronic text recently though - it was a reference book for some software package. At the end, it said 'continued on the enclosed CD'. The CD didn't just contain 'bonus' material, it was actually the only copy of a substantial portion of the core text.
 

Thor_Sevan

Golden Member
Oct 14, 1999
1,182
0
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I JUST HATE ACROBAT READER !!!!! What is wrong with that stupid slow and ugly program ! PLus, files are BIG !!! :)

It would be much faster if it was ziped *.doc file or something similar. But not acrobat files... pls...

You scroll and the texte appears slowly even on my athlon 600 !! C'mon !!! ITS PLAIN TEXT DAMN IT !!!!!

hehe :)
 

4824guy

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
3,102
0
0
Yes, I hate Acrobate reader also. IT takes so long to scroll thru the manual. Why does that program seem so slow?
 

Mark R

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,513
16
81
Yeah, acrobat reader is very slow. Files don't print correctly either, which is annoying, as it is supposed to be a printable format.
 

SSP

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
17,727
0
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You forgot the "I hate Acrobat" option.

Can't stand them. I don't have it installed. I use Photo shop if I "have" to.


 
Sep 30, 2000
113
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they say it will be the "standard"
but i dont really see how it can be?!?!

PDF files are big
it needs to be downloaded
not many people know what that it

it may be popular if it is shipped with Windows
 

jadinolf

Lifer
Oct 12, 1999
20,952
3
81
Here's what I do. I print out the manual and then take the pages to my local Print Shop where they spiral bind them for me. The put a clear plastic sheet on the top and a fairly heavy card stock on the back page. Never charge over a couple of bucks for the job.
 

atom

Diamond Member
Oct 18, 1999
4,722
0
0
What annoys me the most are motherboard manuals on a CD. If i have a problem booting up the machine how the hell am I supposed to access the damn CD?!?!?!?!?!

 

AndyHui

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member<br>AT FAQ M
Oct 9, 1999
13,141
16
81
Very true....just as bad as web based help.....the time you need help is when you can't get onto the web.
 

BurntKooshie

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,204
0
0
I love PDF files....but then again, maybe its not the files themselves, but rather the information they contain *coughs* like detailed CPU information *coughs*

I still prefer paper though.
 

Rigoletto

Banned
Aug 6, 2000
1,207
0
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Thanks guys. There are more gripes I had which you have skated around.
1) acrobat reader IS very slow and heavy on the CPU. I wanted to read PDF on my old 486SLC 33MHz (I can do little else with it nowadays) and it is so painfully slow it is just useless.
2) One can't resize text for printing with the acrobat reader. So if you print out a flight sim manual you get oh, 200 a4 leaves if you don't print double sided. The lack of editing makes acrobat much less convenient for the user than Word or something.

Basically, acrobat is something that exists fundamentally for the benefit of cheapskate producers rather than consumers. That's why I don't like it.

>edit< click on the poll icon to the right of the original post to vote.
 

ColdTech

Senior member
Sep 22, 2000
225
0
0
.pdf is good.... Paper gets ruined too easy &amp; .pdf id easyer to find things in...
 

AndyHui

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member<br>AT FAQ M
Oct 9, 1999
13,141
16
81
The only advantage (and this is touted as one of the &quot;good&quot; features) of pdfs is that you do not have to mess around with page layouts and fonts. A company will produce a document and it will print exactly the same for every person, and you do not have to worry about using funny fonts that other people do not have on their machines.

Our university lecturers are putting up lecture notes in .PDF format rather than in PowerPoint .PPTs to prevent people from straight out copying stuff......now that is a REAL inconvenience....:|
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,613
11,254
136
I too HATE PDFs, and Acrobat. Most of the time when I try to look at a PDF on the web, the plugin won't work right (Even though I have the lastest version, reinstalled, etc.). I think the whole of it is just crap.

BTW: I also don't have much love for Adobe in the first place, everything they make is overpriced and is no better than other tech. for half the price (although I do really like photoshop).
 

vanderStoep

Senior member
Mar 1, 2000
333
0
0
Yes more Acrobat reader haters! I though I was the only one.
Why can`t they just put every document in say word 95 format or so, everybody can read and alter it then.
For school I happen to use the internet a lot to find online EU papers, and guess what, almost all in .pdf! Oh man what was I happy when my brother made it possible for me to copy paste everything to word.
 

ronach

Senior member
Oct 9, 1999
485
2
81
Glad I am not alone on this, finally a group has spoken out about this POS Acrobat Reader thing that we all get jammed up our a$$ on occassion. I think I read somewhere a few years back that companies adopted the AR format so it would be able to be read by the Mac crowd as well as PC people. You see people , if we all had spoken out years ago against AR it would have been dumped in favor of a more functional format way back when. Same thing applies to us sheep buying software that can't be returned if it is opened, Baaaa baaaa. Get in the face of store managers who's store policy is such and inform them that you will not buy anything from them that can't be returned if defective. Shame on us lil sheep. ronach.