UN-friendly Prius User Manuals

[bedrock8x]

I also worked for a multi-national American company, everything is written in English and then translated to foreign languages as needed. Toyota is a Japanese company and all the cars are engineered in Japan, it is natural that the documentations are written in Japanese originally.

added: Even if the manual is translated by a native tongue person, but then the original language is foreign to the translator, this is the reason for the lost in translation.

Originally Posted by TonyPSchaefer

I'm not a TechWriter but I interact with my company's TechComm group alot. I know that the policy in our company is the Docs are written in English and then translated. You would be tempted to wonder if the other languages read as bad as some pseudo-English manuals. But it's corporate policy that the translators are native speakers of the destination country and they translate TECHNICAL data verbatim. When it comes to the language, they are supposed to translate it - not as it is written - but as they would speak it. Of course, I for one wouldn't know how well they do their jobs.

[radiocycle]

Yes, UN-friendly is frustrating, but what about the instances where what is written is either incomplete or worse; totally INCORRECT!?
...could drive a normally rational individual to insanity!

[qbee42]

Poor organization is also an issue. For example, in the Gen II manual, radio instructions are grouped by operation, not by radio model. If you want to set the station presets, you find that section of the manual, then you sift through all of the different types of radios until you find yours. Now you want to load a CD. You find the CD section, and once again sift through all of the different radio models. This doesn't make any sense. Each car only has one radio model, so you group the instructions by model. That way you find your model, and all of the instructions are right there - no more hunting about.

Tom

[LeadingEdgeBoomer]

Priius Chat is a great manual!

[Boo]

Originally Posted by qbee42

Poor organization is also an issue. For example, in the Gen II manual, radio instructions are grouped by operation, not by radio model. If you want to set the station presets, you find that section of the manual, then you sift through all of the different types of radios until you find yours. Now you want to load a CD. You find the CD section, and once again sift through all of the different radio models. This doesn't make any sense. Each car only has one radio model, so you group the instructions by model. That way you find your model, and all of the instructions are right there - no more hunting about.

Tom

+1

Poor organization, plus poor indexing and unwieldy size (the 2010 Prius Owner's Manual is over 600 pages and the 2010 Prius Navigation Manual is over 300 pages) are the reasons why I like to have PDFs of the manuals available.

With PDFs, I can do word and phrase searches of the entire manual and find what I'm looking for in seconds (or at most, a minute or two).

Anyone interested in getting the 2010 Prius OWNER'S Manual on PDF should go to Posts #19 and 20 of the following thread where there are instructions for downloading a PDF of the Owner's Manual yourself:

2010 Prius Owner's Manual Available on PDF

Anyone interested in getting the 2010 Prius NAVIGATION Manual on PDF can PM (Private Message) me with your email address, and I will email you a copy when I can.

[jburns]

Understand not talking many are doing. No trouble manual with have I.

[lamontcranston]

Really they should start by writing a heavily hyperlinked electronic manual and then make it available in print form, instead of starting with the print version.

[downeastah]

They're written by the same folks who write some of the things you'll find hereEngrish Funny: Engrish Pictures That Is Your Funny Engrish

[yadax3]

Originally Posted by bedrock8x

I also worked for a multi-national American company, everything is written in English and then translated to foreign languages as needed. Toyota is a Japanese company and all the cars are engineered in Japan, it is natural that the documentations are written in Japanese originally.

added: Even if the manual is translated by a native tongue person, but then the original language is foreign to the translator, this is the reason for the lost in translation.

I understand what you are saying and, in fact, we do the same thing where I work. But then I wish Toyota do whatever Honda does to make their manuals more usable.

[jburns]

Originally Posted by yadax3

I understand what you are saying and, in fact, we do the same thing where I work. But then I wish Toyota (would) do whatever Honda does to make their manuals more usable.

See, its not so easy.