Hi Tom,
Other bits of tech that you may want to consider to solve your problem: tablets and cloud.
1)
Give your field staff tablet computers: You do away completely with the thick, difficult to update, paper manuals. You provide current, updated manuals available at their points of use and when they need them -- when doing the work.
2)
Place your docs on a server. Cloud software such as Dropbox allows everyone to access the exact same copy of the document. And wiki software would allow everyone in your company to collaborate in improving your documentation.
The combination of these two tools would make your documentation much more useful, and you'd free yourself from contradictory footers to boot.
Good luck!
Pancho