Service Manuals -- Paper or Plastic?

i like my paper manuals, but it seems like the CD is easier / cheaper to get. so, who likes what format and why? when has your favored format let you down?

i don't have a decent printer at home, so that influences my opinion somewhat.

I like both. Mostly because I don't like getting my laptop greasy when i need to find something ASAP and the car is already in pieces.

I have lots of paper manuals that I printed out from a CD. I can fold paper, I can write on it. I can stick it under the wiper blade and look at it. The batteries never die and I don't have to run an extension cord for it. I don't get worried about dropping paper and breaking it. Greasy pages in my manual don't trouble me the way a greasy keyboard or screen does. Paper doesn't glare in the sun.

I'm a big fan of the paper manuals for all the reasons Foxtrapper said, plus I can flip back and forth quickly.

But I did somehow stick the two pages together that has all the torgue settings on a Spitfire. Drat!

I prefer paper, even if printed off from alldata or a manufacturer site. Most of the time for me the screen is too small to fit everything I want to look at one time. So, I end up scrolling all over multiple times to find what I am looking for in the first place.

All of that, plus thumbing through a book is easier than having to open up 30 different poorly indexed pdf's.

Pro's for the file version are they are keyword searchable, that is helpful at times. I know you mentioned the lack of a printer, but when I'm working on a project I often go through ahead of time and print out the pages that I need, make my notes and scribbles on them. The original is still safe and ready to be reprinted after my prints get greased/spilled/folded/torn/burnt.

Paper is easier to browse, but digital is much easier to search ("find" feature) and handy if it has clickable links to jump between sections. Paper degrades over time and can get ruined fairly easily, electronic can be easily lost all together. Also, when looking at wiring diagrams it's nice to zoom and pan around instead of squinting. They both have their place, but if I could only pick one I'd go digital.

Bryce

I like paper manuals, because I tend to get dirty when working on cars. Plus the whole annotating and sticking under wiper blades aspect really works for me. I've got some manuals from the 60's that I still use, so they don't necessarily get ruined that quickly.

I like paper too. What do you do if you don't have a computer on the side of the road? hum.......

Although i did just get the factory ford manual for my f350 on cd but that was purely price driven @$10 when factory printed set is $100+

But the above being said same week i bought the cd for the truck i got a paper one for the Cobalt and well its junk..I have lost my liking for Haynes manuals. This part of the car is to complicated for the home mechanic and should be brought to the dealer...WTF is that! They tell you how to rebuild the engine but nothing on the standard trans! WTF Less then one page and they didn't even have one picture on the page. ERRRRR...

44Dwarf wrote: Although i did just get the factory ford manual for my f350 on cd but that was purely price driven @$10 when factory printed set is $100+

I also prefer paper but have gotten the manual on CD for my last two vehicles for the above reason.

One nice feature about CD's is that I can cut and paste stuff from different pages/sections into a document and then print that for reference when I amd working on the vehicle.

I like my cd. I can print the pages I need...& usually a few the just might come in handy. Then if I get those pages greasy, I can toss 'em.

Although, for my ACVW, I have two copies of the "idiot" book, one for the shop, one for reference.

I always end up with a PDF copies of manuals. I like them, but I also have a nice printer at home and will print out the specific pages I need for a job. If they get greasy or lost, no biggie, I just print them again.

I find if I use the "Draft" setting on my printer my ink lasts a very long time.

44Dwarf wrote: But the above being said same week i bought the cd for the truck i got a paper one for the Cobalt and well its junk..I have lost my liking for Haynes manuals.

You can get factory service manuals for Cobalts (and a lot of other makes and models) at http://www.helminc.com

Paper, without a doubt. Especially since I got laid off. Can't justify taking something as expensive as a laptop into something (to it) as dangerous as the garage.

I've actually been thinking about starting a small home business taking the various .pdf versions of manuals, printing them out, punching the holes & putting them into 3-ring binders-and then selling them. I don't think I'd have to pay much in the way of rights/royalties, since I'd be doing it for a manufacturer's older cars. Perhaps I could phrase my request as a way for the company to preserve owner loyalty?

When you said plastic, I thought you meant laminated like my dad used to have from a few years of the F Body wiring diagrams.

There's something to be said for old-school shop manuals.

True story: I have a Ford factory De Tomaso Pantera shop manual. My friend was a service manager at a Ford/Mercury dealer and brought by one day: "Here, you like these cars! We'll never see one!"