It is the purpose of this article to highlight some of the variants that can serve as important avenues for future exploration into the "how’s" (production methods) and "why’s" (purposes) of party manifestos (aka platforms). Beyond discussing conceptual and theoretical issues pertaining directly to the how’s and why’s, the piece also includes a section on alternative dimensions of the "what" of manifesto content (i.e. alternatives to the much more studied "salience" and "position" dimensions). While it draws heavily from literature on established, western democracies, attention is also paid to special needs for extending manifesto research to include newer, less institutionalized democracies.