How To Create User Manual For Application
Systems on Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) devices. Following User Manual provides a comprehensive, step-by-step guide for using the Antibiogram App. NOTE: This User Manual applies to the Web version of the Antibiogram App intended to be used on a computer. The mobile app version differs slightly in layout and functionality. May 10, 2011 Standardizing spelling, word choice, and phrasing will make the user manual more user-friendly. The Chicago Manual of Style and the Microsoft Manual of Style might also be useful style guides when writing your user manual; consult both to see if one will work for your manual.
- Application User Manual Example
- Create A How To Manual
- How To Create A New User
- Create User Manual Online
- How To Create User Form
- and user manual
- in a couple of hours
Create online help manual with Dr.Explain.
It’s easy, fast & cost-effective.
Creating user manuals is an important part of your software development process.
Dr.Explain saves hours of time during the documentation writing work as it automates the most time consuming and tedious tasks.
Create online manuals: Make web help from scratch in minutes
The shortest learning curve ever!
Application User Manual Example
Create your first professional online manual in two minutes. Easily create and update help topics in WYSIWYG editor with lots of functions.
Automatically capture and annotate screenshots of your application or web system to create screencasts or step-by-step manuals.
Add full text search function into your online manual without programming, scripting, or database engine on web server.
Make web help from documents: Convert various formats into online help
Make online help files from various documents!
Import existing HLP, CHM, TXT, XML, HTML, or MS Word documents formats and create a single online manual.
Automatically make table of contents, keyword indexes, and navigational menu.
Embed online help into your product web site design by customizing headers, footers and sidebars and adding your logos, menus, copyrights, and other corporate style elements.
Online manuals and help files at once: Single source for all documentaion
One tool for your entire help documentation!
Create standalone CHM help files, printable PDF, and MS Word documents from the same project source and in the same tool!
Easily change the appearance of help pages with by applying various preset templates.
Deliver professional help documentation to your customers in various formats and for different platforms.
How to create online help manual (webhelp) with Dr.Explain
More samples of online help manuals created with Dr.Explain
Use Dr.Explain to create and publish an online manual and to easily plug it into your web site design
Uniquely Dr.Explain captures application screens or web pages and documents them automatically!
Dr.Explain is based on a unique interface analysis and screen capture system. Thanks to this system, Dr.Explain can automatically analyze an application’s user interface, take screenshots of all controls and elements, and then add explanatory callouts to all images in the draft help system.
After that, all one needs to do is add descriptions to the callouts, and save the result in the HTML (online manual), CHM (help file), RTF, or PDF format.
Why to create online help manual?
Online help usually consists of many HTML pages with common table of contents, navigation menus, keyword index, and search functions. Building online help is strongly recommended for cross-platform projects, web systems, and software that are frequently updated.
Keeping your software help online offers numerous benefits:
- Decrease the size of your installation package by excluding standalone help files and uploading software documentation onto your web server.
- Update your online help easily as there is no need to resend an updated help file to all users. Just upload a new version of your manual to your website.
- Easily refer users to specific topics of your online help. Just provide a URL of a certain help topic by e-mail or in chat application.
- No need to create help files in different formats for various operating systems and platforms. Your online help will be accessible in any web browser on any OS.
Your online manual is an important part of your software business model Online help makes your web-site attractive for search engine crawlers and brings you targeted traffic from Google, Bing, and other search engines. A good online manual presents your product as serious and credible. You may easily resolve users’ issue by referring that user to a certain page of your online help. Make your help system a part of your web sites and attract more prospects and generate more sales of your software.
Thousands of excitedsatisfiedhappyeffective customers all over the world use Dr.Explain to create online manuals, user guides and help documentation for their products.
Here are just a dozen of them …
Think about the last time that you consulted a manual. Did you start at the beginning and read the whole manual? Probably not. You probably looked first at the index or the table of contents. Once you found the right page or topic, you probably scanned the page first to see if it contained the information you needed. This is how most people read manuals.
No one wants to read your user manual. No one will read your user manual from front to back savoring every word and phrase. Technical documents are not novels. Readers want user manuals to answer their questions quickly so that they can get back to whatever they were doing.
A successful user manual provides users with quick answers to the questions that they might have about a particular product. Users searching for information don’t want to know about the latest and greatest features of a product. Users want to know how to complete tasks. Technical writing focuses on user tasks and the concepts that support the tasks.
Below are some practical tips on writing user manuals that will help you to write content that adapts to the needs of users.
Think like a user
When writing a manual, you need to put on a “user’s hat” and think like a user. You should have a good understanding of your users so you can understand the information they need to know, their background, and their knowledge of the product. Once you think like a user, you can write content that the users need to know.
If you have the opportunity, you will find it very useful to watch users actually using the product. When you watch users interacting with the product, you will get a better idea of what the users need to do, how they approach each task, and when they might use approaches to tasks that are unexpected.
Use active voice
Active voice emphasizes the user and is easier to read and understand. In most cases, especially in user manuals, you should use active voice. In active voice, the subject and verb in the sentence are clear. In passive voice, the subject is unknown and is acted upon by something that is not known or not stated. Passive voice uses verbs that include a form of “to be”.
Compare the two sentences below.
Passive voice: Supplies that will be needed to complete this project include a hammer, a screwdriver, and a rubber mallet.
Active voice: To complete this project, you will need a hammer, a screwdriver, and a rubber mallet.
The sentence that uses active voice makes it clear that the reader is the person who will complete the action. By using the active voice, you will make your writing more clear, concise, and direct.
Focus on the reader
User manuals should always focus on the reader. When writing information that involves the reader, such as instructions, use “you” and the active voice. Speaking directly to the reader will:
- Reinforce the message that the information is intended for the reader
- Pull readers into the document and make it relevant to them
- Help to avoid passive voice by focusing on the reader
Create A How To Manual
Compare the two sentences below.
Lack of reader focus: There are three options for viewing content in the editor.
Reader focus: You can choose from one of three options for viewing content in the editor.
The sentence that uses “you” focuses on the reader and makes it clear that the reader is the person doing the action. You should aim to use “you” in your writing to make the content more relevant to the reader.
Write clear instructions
The primary objective of user manuals is to help users complete tasks. Below are some guidelines to help you write clear and concise instructions.
- Use numbered lists for instructions unless the instruction includes a single step.
- Use parallel construction for each step. Usually, you should start each step with an imperative word, such as “Enter”, “Click”, “Select”, etc. When you start each step with an imperative word, you are providing the user with clear cues on the required action for each step.
- Avoid using a system response as a step. For example, don’t say, “The Info dialog window opens” as a step. You can incorporate system responses (when necessary) in the step that initiated the system response or you can mention the system response at the beginning of the following step, e.g. “In the Info dialog window, …”.
- Provide just enough information so that the user can complete a task or understand a concept. Omit any extraneous information that the user does not need to know. Concise content makes it easier to understand concepts and tasks.
How To Create A New User
Establish standards
Create User Manual Online
When creating documentation, there will be areas where there may be more than one way to spell a word, refer to an object, caption graphics, punctuate sentences, lay out a page, and organize information. These are just a few of the decisions that writers must make when they create documents. By establishing standards, the writer’s job becomes much easier since most of those decisions will have been already made.
The Chicago Manual of Style and Microsoft Manual of Style are two popular style guides. If you use an established style guide, you may still need to establish some specific guidelines for your writing project. As you encounter any issues with styles, you can create your own additional style rules that address the specific needs of your project.
How To Create User Form
If you would like to become a technical writer, you may want to consider registering for our Professional Technical Writing Course. It is an online course where you will learn how to write and revise instructions, technical reports, and software manuals (key technical writing documents).
