The printed guide was brilliant when it came to getting the back cover off to insert the battery ... havn't looked at it since!

but been on maemo.org woith plenty of questions and everyone is soo helpful.... thanks you experts!

But it's not only an option, it's been a necessity as well, considering how easy it is to end up in a situation where you're forced to reflash. Just look at all those threads ending up with reflashing being the only option to recover the device, and often it's not really because the user has done anything silly.

I had to reflash myself, even though I'm an experienced user, didn't have anything 'risky/untested' installed, and followed the right steps for the 1.1 upgrade. I ended up with an N900 with a destroyed boot loader (thus needing a cold flash, so even the "simple" reflash procedure wouldn't do).

If it's not documented in the manual, and the user isn't aware of, or familiar with this site, then the _only_ option would be to send the device to Nokia for "repair", which would be pretty bad in my opinion.

IMHO, I love to find a full manual in the box. No web and no downloadable stuff can give the feeling of reading a paper manual. And While the device is charging, or you're in the bathroom or in the bed or whenever the battery runs out, why not read the good manual of the last toy? But i look at it like I do for the CD's booklets. It enhance the experience, it make your money well spent, and often is the only feeling that you're doing right avoiding piracy or theft. Dunno. I like to find one manual big and geeky. I Still feel deluded by the shipping package... for 600Eur!!!!!
Btw I understand your pov on saving the nature. This is a dilemma.
The helps? community does it best
the quick guide? it's ok.

what do you mean ???

The inbox manual seems fine to me, as long as the digital manual is easily accessible.
The in-device manual was somehow not obvious to find (I accidentally ran into it when looking at the contents of the drive from my PC). It ought to have a link on the first view with the Get Started applet.
The in-device manual is missing a few things, such as how to edit or delete radio streams, the limitations of the video player (nothing over 848x480 gets played), a picture of the special characters map (so it's easier to find by just browsing the manual).
Info on Manage views needs to added that states that turning of a view deletes its apps/widgets contents permanently (so turning a view back on results in an empty view apart from background image).
The manual ought to have a reference section pointing to maemo.org, maemo.nokia.com, ovi.com and nokia.com for further info as appropriate. In fact on complex topics like the video coder support, links could be added in the relevant manual section to the appropriate support-subforums.
It could also do with a link to the latest version of the manual (preferably on the first page), so people can trivially get the latest if OS updates warrant any changes.
I'd also like to have the pdf version on the phone instead of just the html version.
Multi-language manuals in the same pdf are however not my thing (the American English one comes with Spanish in one file).

The above naturally all from memory from when I just got the N900.

The community doesn't seem particularly well suited to check manuals, since most members are way too advanced users to notice the obvious missing stuff that somebody who is upgrading a phone after 3-4 years without being familiar with the support forums would be scratching his head over. At any rate, it'd be a bit too late for the on-device manuals anyway.

Hi,

The short guide in the box was sufficient.

I never used the help on the device itself, because it is not easy to read and navigate.

I downloaded and read the pdf. I don't know if it was insufficient, or that I am a bad reader, but I did not pick up much extra information from it. E.g. swiping the calendar to get next or previous months was something I found out by accident, six weeks after I got the device.

The wiki is badly organized. I cannot really find what I need, although it possibly resides somewhere. Someone here suggested adding HOWTOs; that looks like a good idea.

Most information I collected from talk.maemo.org. Again, it could be better organized, especially the search function. It should point to individual posts in stead of threads.

What I miss most: howtos and information for people in between the power user and the hardcore programmer.

paai

Oh, another thing. It is not at all clear if instructions and howtos for the other Nokia devices can be followed safely on the N900.

paai

Very nice. Just enough to get started, no more, no less. Given the price premium on the N900 it was nice to see the the GS guide was in colour.

This is too hard to find. There should be an icon linking to this in the UI somewhere (maybe to a multilingual landing page).

Fine. Easy to find on the site. The manual is well laid out and comprehensive. The language is clear and easy to follow. (English manual)

This is the trend in the hi-tech industry - large manuals in digital format. I think this is fine. I suspect most of the contributors here would agree. Perhaps we are not a good representative of the general user though. We are more likely to be technically adept and motivated to find solutions. I doubt many here would actually read through a UG anyway.

The N900 packaging is very much reduced from what would have been shipped in previous years. It would not make sense to add a door stop of a manual to this.

I think for general users you really do need an integrated help mechanism. Qt has a framework http://doc.trolltech.com/4.6/qthelp-framework.html - I don't know if it is any good though...

Since you are authoring in a structured format you would probably want to single source your help and doc.

The community is good at helping motivated individuals to find solutions to complex problems and to share knowledge with those willing to learn. General support questions are probably better handled in a Nokia forum. Use the community as a font of knowledge and source of information. Wiki's are a great way for the community to come together and present this knowledge.

I am not sure you are going to get more than high level feedback on the UGs here. Most of the forum contributors are unlikely to have read the Guide exhaustively. Really the target audience is totally different.

have STK support (SIM Toolkit)

hi i got my n900 abt 2 weeks ago and i want to update it...after i go to app manager i click on maemo 5 to start updating...then it says update failed...the update is 3.2010.02-8.003 and it is 92.7 MB...furthermore i cant open any pages on the WLAN someone plz plz helpp