We have all been there, the manual has gone missing, its new year and your finally getting the chance to assemble the Hurdy-Gurdy which a relative has gotten for your wonderful wife which is to be assembled over the course of several days and is really quite intricate and of course your wife is a musician and is determined to give a short but beautiful performance of the instrument for your New Years party!
The Manual is missing! Nowhere to be seen, you’ve searched online and found visual manuals, and of course as this is a very European instrument there are multilingual manuals, this is the world we live in, its all online. However getting the authentic manual is very very important and having the trust that this is the best manual for this device is easily determined by focusing on the manufacturers symbols that accompany what is very often a PDF version so really good quality and clear enough to be printed or even available in an audio version! Nothing could be simpler!
Unfortunately this ease of understanding the manual can sometimes be a little less than one expected, and getting to grips with the terminology, and even understanding the symbols used to notify groups of the same items that have been supplied, such as screws, panels, wheels, handles, plugs. The best manuals also clearly have a list of tools required to assemble the item and the best producers even supply the tools that will be needed and even as disposable items that can be discarded after the item is made.
the size of the print type used is extremely important! Not everyone has perfect vision and even with the discovery and manufacture of Glasses in Italy in the Renaisance if the writing is tool small it is so confusing, whilst one is attempting to focus on what to do but also struggling to actually understand the ink writing. the intructsions are best when they are bigger than they need to be. then assemblers are not struggling to understand the instructions and at the same time to read the print.
On the whole manuals are in my experience perfectly reasonably put together and are usable, and once I put aside the initial mental frustration of having in a sense to learn the instructions and how they are working I am always prepared for almost always at some point reading the instructions from back to front or some such silly error! Walking away for a few minutes is sometimes best! then after getting through several sets of adjustable spectacles a few gin & tonics as it is Christmas Week i usually eventually emerge from our extensive workshop with the newly built item to be presented to the delighted child or relative and of course i will say “it was really no trouble at all, just delighted to have made it for you, please enjoy it, you’re so welcome”.
So, no matter what time of the year it is, if you find you have lost the instructions, do not panic! Take a quick look online, you might be surprised as this is now becoming standard for companies to have their manuals online!
