No Dummies, They Saw Need for Help Books

It should be no surprise to the computer industry that many of its customers prefer everyday language to technical jargon. Evidence includes the popularity of a series of yellow and black paperbacks for beginners, “Computer Series for Dummies,” from IDG Books Worldwide in San Mateo.

“We’ve been throwing out lifelines to ordinary people and we get thousands of letters thanking us,” says IDG marketing specialist Katherine Day.

The first in the series was Dan Gookin’s “DOS for Dummies” published in 1989.

“I figured there were a lot of people not getting it,” says Gookin, an Idaho-based writer who has been writing about computers since 1984.

“These gurus were tossing the terms out there: Power up your PC. That just means turn it on. Warm boot your PC. That means re-set it. “

Based on his own experience as a non-technical computer user, he wrote “DOS for Dummies,” with the opening chapter titled, “Your Computer Will Not Explode: (Basic Stuff You Should Know).” It has sold 2 million copies to become the best-selling computer book of all times.

The breezy combination of practical advice and humor has been the trademark for the series, which includes “WordPerfect for Dummies,” “Windows for Dummies” and “Macs for Dummies.”

The series has also become noted for its cartoons by Rich Tennant, who started drawing computer-phobia cartoons in 1984 and sees the growth of his own career as a benchmark for the popularization of the PC.

“Ten years ago, most people hated their computers,” he says. “I only got cartoon requests from computer magazines. Now I get requests coming in from all sorts of people all over the world.”

His first gallery show will open at the Computer Museum in Boston late this month.

“The industry has been predicting the coming of age of computers to the general public for years,” he says, “but now it actually seems to be happening.”