Festool Manuals - Surely they can be improved?

[TelcoRandy]

Thanks Shane!

 

[stphnlwlsh]

Thanks, Shane!

 

[Custard]

This is a very common complaint with any manual that is translated from a foreign language.

I bet they're still pretty awful in German!

It's more like Festool has taken a conscious, corporate decision not to get involved in educating their customers on how to get the very best from their equipment. So you get the safety blurb and a quick tour of the knobs and buttons in the manuals, but that's your lot!

I sometimes wonder if Festool USA are really against this approach, and they also have the corporate heft to push back against the party line, which is why you get Christopherson and other great initiatives in the USA, but no where else?

 

[TelcoRandy]

Custard, it appears as though you're right. Here's an excerpt from the manual:

Festool is convinced that it is not the quantity of individual parts and assembly instructions several pages long that make a good product, but rather the combination of really necessary components to form a perfect system.

 

[peter halle]

Festool USA is definitely on the forefront of additional information, training, and interactivity with their end users.  This place is just one of the many examples.

 

[gkaiseril]

Manuals are always behind the learning curve and they take time to update and distribute. Electronic media has helped reduce this time for many but for field workers, there is still a delay. We also have to realize that technical writing is different from writing short stories or letters and there are very few good technical writers out there.

 

[Peter Durand]

Hundreds of thousands of $$ to develop a tool and they skimp on a manual? I guess it is my pre-retirment job as an airline pilot, but I really insist on a good operating manual for the tool I am operating. Including all the ways of operating it. In the great scheme of things it is a minor expense compared to development and production.  And translation of technical manuals is not that expensive. Ask Boeing. And Airbus.

End of rant.