It would be very helpful to make a short reference guide for people in the field. I understand the reference guide is available online, and that a pdf version has been made, but it is too long and detailed for a field guy to read through the whole thing just to take a point.
There should be something short and simple like the following:
Page One: Starting Up: This would describe how to open an existing map, making sure the GPS is Active, making sure the GPS is ready to take a point, setting editable layers, etc....
Opening an existing project should be on top. If you want to go through all the "Create New.." or "Quick Projects", put them later on or in a different PDF, for the most part it just confuses field people.
Page Two: Data Collection: Show as simply as possible how to collect data on already established shapefiles. Create Polygon, Polyline, and Point should be shown with their methods of doing each one. As in part one, don't have the directions of how to create one or do modules etc etc. Keep it short and simple, act as though the user thinks ArcPad is a thing Noah built to make the animals comfy. If you want to show the bells and whistle, make them as suppliments.
Page Three: Button Layout: Simply show a graphic of all of the buttons in ArcPad and their submenu's and what they are called. If it is not to confusing you could say what they do, maybe just the most used ones.
I wouldn't be against a 4th page for troubleshooting or correcting errors. Or something really useful to field people
What I am against is an overly complicated user guide that is complex and multiple pages long which Joe the Plummer refuses to read and calls me instead every time on a cell phone with no reception to walk him through how to just take a point.
It should also be easy to find and in multiple places on the ESRI website, not buried in a place where you find it only after multiple different searches.
