Provide detail
Link to extra information. This works much better with a computer document than a paper one.
Last modified: 4/9/98
Computer documents have lots of room
While parts of a document should be concise, provide detail whenever it may help the reader. Computer documents often have less total space constraints than paper documents, so the cost of providing extra details may be small. In fact, sometimes providing details can cut the cost of writing the document by saving time from writing summaries.
Not for everybody
The details can be kept out of the way of the reader by linking to them. That way only those readers who feel a need for the details will have to read them, and then only when they want to.
Having both short summary and full detail saves writing time
It is often much easier for the writer to write a short summary of the details, and then insert the details as raw data, than to try to make a more comprehensive summary. For example, rather than extensively summarizing an interview and deciding which excerpts to print, the writer can give a general impression, a supporting quote or two, and then link to the entire transcript. The writer would not be forced to guess how much to cover and err on the side of providing too little information (cheating the reader) or too much (wasting the writer and reader's time). This lets the same document serve a wider range of readers.
The combination of concise summaries and great detail is one of the ways that a web document can be much better than a paper document.