To follow up on the manuals opinions: yeah, we hear you. No decisions at the moment. Don't be surprised if we test a couple of different approaches.
However, I can say that anything involving video, longer form manuals, reformatting for different sizes (print or screen), options to select a manual at checkout, or anything else that increases the workload or complexity is automatically out. The goal here is to have more accurate, more maintainable manuals that are more closely coupled to the product, not to add a new department to the company.
For those who are curious, this is how I use manuals:
1. Get new product in box.
2. Open box.
3. Take out product.
4. Throw the rest away without looking at any of it--warranty cards, manuals, safety screeds, free sweepstakes, whatever. Usually stickers too, unless they are interesting. And yes, this includes the box, unless it's a $13-33k Audio Precision machine that I know will need to go back for recalibration from time to time.
5. Look up anything I need to look up online.
#5 used to be limited to surround processors and Jura superautomatic coffee machines (cleaning, argh), and only after initial setup. A new jobsite table saw I bought made me look something up before I used it, because it had a whole bunch of integrated widgets and safety stuff I'd never seen before.