That would be considered passive aggressive messaging. People easily see through the intent. Just copy paste the content from the manual and link to source.

Tried that approach and got told I was condescending.

Thats cause it is. its snarky. solving someones problem and telling them they could be doing something better are two different things. its often offensive to mix the two. it also shows an incredible lack of empathy—sometimes someone is asking you something because theyre swamped and you seemed helpful, if you respond like that theyll go from thinking youre helpful to thinking you’re a know it all jerk.

heres a better way to communicate the same thing without being snarky:

“here it is! <link> its a pretty good resource, the docs are fairly extensive, theyve saved me a couple times in the past” that gives the person the hint without simultenousely saying “i think you’re a dope for not knowingg how to look up this doc” In fact the “next time you can just <x> :)” pattern in general is nearly always snarky—the smily face is clearly not genuine and is belittling.

> “here it is! <link> its a pretty good resource, the docs are fairly extensive, theyve saved me a couple times in the past”

that's in the same vein as what I meant. The smiley face was not literal and of course I would encourage anyone to find their own words.

I'm less sure that works when I'm the one that wrote most of the docs. But thanks, yeah, I understand how it can come off.

I’m very sorry to hear that. Some people will go to any length to avoid work, even by putting it on us.