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Manuals and Their Strange Language
Aug 14, 2017 14:31:55 #
This can be a problem even when the writer is an English-speaking engineer who is too familiar with the product. I once encountered a young English major who told me that she had written the first Apple Macintosh manual in language aimed at ordinary nontechnical users.
Aug 14, 2017 14:40:14 #
Aug 14, 2017 15:36:54 #
That's why the 'Dummies' books sell so well. I have read through the Dummies guide to my Canon T6i camera several times, I'm still finding stuff I didn't know and can't find in the camera manual. (I have decided not to use back button autofocus, in part because I keep forgetting it is set and it makes explaining to my wife how to take a photo with my camera too complicated.)
The manual for my Yongnuo 600 flash is also pretty minimalist, so I've ordered the Peterson book on using a flash. I'm not sure I'll ever feel the need to take a photo where I use rear curtain sync mode, but I at least want to know what to expect if I do use it.
The manual for my Yongnuo 600 flash is also pretty minimalist, so I've ordered the Peterson book on using a flash. I'm not sure I'll ever feel the need to take a photo where I use rear curtain sync mode, but I at least want to know what to expect if I do use it.
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Aug 14, 2017 15:47:04 #
The running joke among long-time Apple users is that their books are circular, you need to read them cover-to-cover before you can read them. (Back in the 60's, IBM manuals were worse, though, you needed to read the entire SET of manuals before any one of them made sense!)
Aug 14, 2017 15:56:56 #
Hal81 wrote:
Someone could make a lot of money if they wrote a manual on how to understand manuals.
Thankfully we have Google!
Aug 14, 2017 16:26:23 #
I thought Nikon was bad then I read the Yongnuo manual for the light that flashes. OMG
Aug 14, 2017 16:57:20 #
jerryc41 wrote:
As someone recently reminded me, it is the Japanese who have trouble with R and L.
R-L confusion is a feature of a number of spoken languages in Asia, even languages which differentiate in their written forms. My wife (a Thai women who has lived in the US for more than a quarter of a century) just yesterday came to me to double-check her English spelling of my granddaughter's name: "Is Cora spelled Cola or Cora?"
It works both ways, of course: My own mispronunciations and/or overly-confident misuse of words and phrases in Thai and Khmer have often produced reactions that ranged from laughter through stunned incomprehension to occasional flashes of anger.
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Aug 14, 2017 18:19:46 #
Aug 14, 2017 18:32:48 #
sirlensalot wrote:
So it fires every other time? So it's really a "half-flash"?
No, it strobes once every two times. Big difference!
Aug 14, 2017 18:48:31 #
Solomon wrote:
... snip... I is not found in any other language in the world.
I'm interested in this.
I - as the word for first person singular?
I - as capital letter at the beginning of a word?
I - as the roman numeral 1 ?
something else?
Yes, there are some letters that occur in various languages and not in others.
The Dutch 25th letter of the alphabet is now mostly formed by typing in an i followed by a j: ij.
When I learned to type, many moons ago, the typewriter did not have a y, the key we use for a y now, actually produced ij.
The business where I worked later, had some dealings with businesses in England. By that time we used and IBM Selectric typewriter, where it was easy to switch the typing element and I had one at my desk with a y, and one with ij. I haven't seen a Selectric for 50+ years now :-)
Aug 14, 2017 20:17:35 #
glblanchard wrote:
I got a flat tire, and couldn't for the life of me figure out where to place the jack, so I pulled out the manual. It said "Do not use the jack provided with this automobile."
People tell me where to put the jack all the time.
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Aug 14, 2017 22:21:08 #
Jacksonville
Loc: Australia
I have often resorted to the Spanish part of a manual because a part of the English translation was unclear. I am a native English speaker. French helps sometimes as well.
Aug 15, 2017 03:27:52 #
When Nikon USA had a US distributor (Ehrenreich) the US manuals , after a few awful years, were first translated in Japan in to some kind of English, and then retranslated into comprehensible English. I don't know who does he English manuals now, but they are remotely comprehensible if you take the time to try to understand what the author was trying to say. Fortunately, quite a few authors make a good income in writing and getting pubeished easy to undestand manuals on many cameras . some authors are Darrel Young, Simon Stafford, Busch, others.
Aug 15, 2017 13:53:18 #
Indecipherable manuals are what keep photography authors in business. I treasure my copy of David Busch's bigger book about the Canon 5d MkIII.
Aug 15, 2017 20:44:56 #
I wrote several technical manuals for a company regarding the operation of a management software program. Quite often, I got the draft back with a note to the effect, "This is too simple; our managers are smarter than you think. Write on their level." So I'd rewrite the manuals - and receive dozens of calls from managers. I'd send them a copy of the "unapproved" draft; no more calls!
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