It was announced this week that Sage (UK) Ltd are running trials to stop the production of paper-based manuals to accompany their products.

Sage are making this move to reduce the impact their current manual production is having on the environment. They have already stopped sending out manuals with Sage Line 50 and Payroll, on a trial basis, and no doubt the other packages will shortly follow suit.

Instead of paper-based manuals with new Sage Line 50 and Sage Payroll, the manual will be available in electronic format on the program CD. Payroll already uses this feature to automatically install the electronic manual upon program installation, and this feature will be introduced in the next release of Sage Line 50, in Autumn 2006. They can also be downloaded directly from the SageCover section of the Sage web site.

Sage hope that stopping the manuals will not only reduce the impact on the environment, but it will also make it easier for users to access information. There will be no more searching through piles of papers - everything will be available at the click of a mouse!

Sage are eager to hear customer reactions. If you are a current Sage customer and have an opinion on this, Sage encourage you to e-mail csr@sage.com with the subject "Focusing on the Environment".