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How to create a personal user manual for work | Atlassian. User manual
Make your documentation interactive by adding relevant images, diagrams and videos for your users to engage with. Make it clear which step of the instructions your visuals are referring to so users can make sense of them.
Your users need to be able to search through your user manual using a predefined sense of structure to guide them. Your contents should have a logical hierarchical structure that makes sense to users when they are looking for information. Ideally you need to make your content searchable for users by delivering it as an online knowledge base with a clear and prominent search bar. Your search bar should predict the terms that your users are typing in and search both the title and body content of your articles.
You should organize your content into clear topics that make sense for the articles contained within them. Actively seek feedback from your users on your user manual and take their suggested improvements into account. Find out whether your users are actually being successful with your manual and whether it is enabling them to solve their problems. The first thing you need to do when writing your user manuals is to identify exactly who your users are — demographics, their needs, problems, and requirements to start with.
Finding out who your audience is tells you how much detail you need to include in your user manual and the way that you should present your content.
All user manuals are aimed at solving a problem for users. You need to find out what these problems are in order to create a truly helpful manual, and solve the problem with your instructions. Of course, if there is a deeply entrenched problem with the product itself then that should be fixed rather than simply providing workarounds in the documentation. Your instructions should be broken down into sequential steps that are presented in order as a numbered list.
Try organizing it so the easiest task to accomplish is presented first. Keep just one point per step to make it easy for your users to follow the instructions. Tell your users what the completed task will look like before they move on to the next step. This team gathers to share their user manuals in person and on video chat. What you'll need. Video conferencing with screen sharing. User manuals see templates.
Meeting space. Large screen projector. Optional templates. Atlassian Templates. On the cover of this device are passages of text which describe the features and operation of the mechanism. As the software industry was developing, the question of how to best document software programs was undecided.
This was a unique problem for software developers, since users often became frustrated with current help documents. User manuals and user guides for most non-trivial software applications are book-like documents with contents similar to the above list.
They may be distributed either in print or electronically. Some documents have a more fluid structure with many internal links. You can use Snagit to help maintain consistency in your user guides by accessing the free templates it offers! Grab your free trial here to test it out. You may get some intel that seems very obvious but the opportunity is much greater for you to gain significant insight into the needs of the consumers you are striving to serve.
If your user manual is beng written for digital distribution you can add these links in through tutorials, FAQ sections, and user forums, among other options. With physical copies of user documentation, these links can look like web addresses or phone numbers that readers can use to access more information.
Creating a user manual is an important undertaking and can make a significant impact in your business and for the users you are looking to serve.
Like any piece of communication you create, a crucial first step is identifying the person who will be on the receiving end. Identifying the user for your user manual will help you make good decisions about things like the tone, the amount of detail to include, and how to present the content. Identifying your audience is a make-it-or-break-it step. User manuals are created to assist in solving a problem, or teaching someone to do something new. It is necessary to identify exactly what your user manual is meant to accomplish and ensure that you keep your focus there.
It can become tempting to expand the subject matter and cover many aspects of or potential uses for your product. This can cloud the actual solution that the user is in need of and cause frustration or calls to your customer service line.
Focus on the specific solution your customer will need to have, whether they are an individual learning to use the product or a technician needing to repair it. The instructions in your user guide should be presented in the sequential order required to complete the task at hand.
Begin by listing each step in order. Then, attempt to complete the task while following the specific steps you have laid out in the order presented. It is possible, likely even, that you will identify missing steps as you work through your initial list. You may also discover that something you thought was one task actually needs to be broken down into a few tasks for the sake of clarity.
Before you check this step off in your journey to write a user guide, make sure that you have provided a clear end result for each sequential step you have assigned. The readers should know exactly what they are looking to have completed and what it should look like the before moving on to the next step. The goal in writing a user guide is to understand how your customers intend to use your product and creating a way for them to easily do just that.
You need to put in the work to understand the problem the user has or the goal they hope to reach in using your product as well as how they interact with your brand. Developing a set of templates can make the job of writing and designing user guides significantly easier than you might think!
It can streamline your process and make consistency a much more achievable goal. The content of your user manual should be as simple and easy to follow as possible. Through the following links you can download a user manual sample for documentation: IKEA installation instructions Jura user manual Step 2 Identify the User s of Your User Manual Template Ok, so now Philip has some basic knowledge about user manuals. Is the product used professionally or mainly privately? What other technical experiences do they have?
What describes the user? I have created a template that contains the questions. I asked Philip to fill out the template. I did this for Philip. If the problem is too complex, you could break it down into chunks. Action: To define the structure of your user manual: Copy the content from the Lifecycle [product name] tab to the ToC [product name] tab.
On the ToC [product name] tab , replace product name with your own product name. Add a column to the left. If applicable, organize your sections logically.
Determine what topics will become chapters by adding chapter numbers. We will add some more chapters in the next step. Determine what topics will become paragraphs by adding the section numbers. Determine what topics will become sub-paragraphs by adding the subsection numbers. So, Philip has just created the sub- titles for his topics. I asked Philip to redirect his headings and to take notice of the following general guidelines: Use the structure as shown above for the first, second and third level heading.
Make sure the headings are self-explanatory. Make sure that the heading covers the full topic. If the section covers the maintenance and repair of a product, the heading Maintenance would be incomplete. If possible, try to omit articles at the beginning of headings Action: Write new headings for your ToC entries.
Step 6 Determine the Legal Content Dependent on the market where your product is placed in or put into service, and dependent on the product group your product belongs to, specific legislation applies to your product. How to Create Compliant Manuals for the EU How to Create Compliant Manuals for the US Philip didn't need to conduct these steps, as the template he used already contained the legal content as required by the relevant directives.
The user manual should describe the intended use of the product. The user manual should describe the reasonably foreseen unintended use of the product.
If applicable, non-compliance in residential areas should be mentioned. If the product is too small this can be placed in the user manual. The name, registered trade name or registered trademark and the postal address should be mentioned on the product. A risk analysis should be conducted to determine the residual risks related to the use of the product. Safety information shall be provided in order to inform the user of measures to be taken. WEEE information shall be included Information on packaging waste shall be included.
Study the IEC checklist to ensure your manual complies with the standard. Action: To adjust the user manual template: If you want to work with the free template: Download the free user manual template for MS Word. Change the section headings according to your own ToC. The table of contents can be updated automatically once you have adjusted the section headings.
Add the mandatory content as determined in step 6 of your manual. If applicable, modify sections and the appendices according to your own needs. Or use one of our paid templates that contain all mandatory content, like Philip did. Step 8 Create the Content for Your User Manual Template Write the Intended Use The purpose of your product, or better: the intended use, is the heart of a user manual and forms the basis of ensuring the safe and healthy use of the product.
The international standard for user instructions, the IEC , provides the following definition for the intended use: An exhaustive range of functions or foreseen applications defined and designed by the supplier of the product By describing the intended use you determine the safe envelope of the product.
Action: write the intended use and the reasonably foreseeable misuse of your product. Write the safety warnings based on the risk analysis Even though the intended use has now been clearly defined, this does not mean that using a product is completely without any risks.
According to this method, there is the following hierarchy of risk-reducing measures: Inherently safe design measures Safeguarding and complementary protective measures Information for use This means that the user guide should warn of any residual risks related to the use of the product. BUY NOW A good safety warning describes the nature of a hazardous situation, the consequences of not avoiding a hazardous situation and the method s for avoiding it.
In the first part of the specific section: Embedded in a procedure: 1. In the Preface any supplemental directives can be placed, such as Read all instructions before use or Keep these instructions for future reference can be placed in the introduction of a user manual.
In order to help Philip create and place a safety message, I have created another template. Create all other content Now I asked Philip to create all other content, such as the procedures, technical specs and legal information. I gave the following tips: Exclude unnecessary material to avoid information overload for example sales promotion, extensive repetition etc.
Make sure terms are familiar to the user, technical features and terms are well explained and use terms consistently. Describe any prerequisites that should be met before the actual instructions start. This may also be describing special tools or space for maintenance and repair. Provide conceptual information when information is necessary for adequate understanding and execution of tasks.
❿User manual.User Manual Guide: How to Create Online, Tools & Best Practices
A third-level heading uses noun-phrases e. Packaging contents and Tools to be used. Meaningful Headings tab. Dependent on the market where your product is placed in or put into service, and dependent on the product group your product belongs to, specific legislation applies to your product.
These requirements also include requirements on the content of your user manual and safety instructions. In order to sell your product in a specific market, you should make sure that your user manual complies with these requirements. These two articles below will tell you how you can find out exactly which legislation applies to your product for the European and U. Pro tip: when there is a Declaration of Conformity available already, you can find the applicable directives in there.
Philip didn't need to conduct these steps, as the template he used already contained the legal content as required by the relevant directives. For his product, it means that the following information is required for the user manual for his product:. This standard has been harmonised in the EU. Compliance with harmonised standards provides a presumption of conformity with the corresponding legislation! I have also created an IEC checklist that can be used to double check that your user manual complies with this standard.
In order to create an internationally compliant user manual, you should always make sure your manual meets the EU, US and requirements.
I asked him to adjust the table of contents of the template according to his own table of contents. Without removing and mandatory elements of course Do you remember from step 4 that I asked to start the numbering of the sections with chapter 4?
Once you download the user manual template doc yourself, you will see that a few standard chapters have been added, as well as some appendices. The purpose of your product, or better: the intended use, is the heart of a user manual and forms the basis of ensuring the safe and healthy use of the product. The way the intended use is described also determines your liability and affects the further contents of the user manual.
The most legislation requires you to include a description of the intended use in the user instructions. The international standard for user instructions, the IEC , provides the following definition for the intended use:. An exhaustive range of functions or foreseen applications defined and designed by the supplier of the product.
By describing the intended use you determine the safe envelope of the product. And once you have determined the intended use, you can focus on providing only those safety and user instructions for how to use the product within the given envelope. Additionally, to the intended use, many more standards, directives and regulations also require you to include a description of the reasonably foreseeable misuse. For example, the reasonably foreseeable misuse of an aggressive detergent could be the use of it in a food processing environment.
Paying too little attention to describing the reasonably foreseeable misuse will affect a company's liability. If the defectiveness of a product needs to be determined, all circumstances will be taken into account. That includes the reasonably foreseeable use of the product. The description of the intended use determines which instructions are given in the rest of the manual. For example, if a cooling system is only used for cooling certain medications, then only these procedures need to be described.
When it could reasonably be foreseen that the cooling system may be used as a system to cool organs, this should be described in the instructions. By doing so, you, as the manufacturer, will limit your liability and you can focus on only describing how to use the system to cool medicines.
Figure 1. Reasonably foreseeable misuse? Even though the intended use has now been clearly defined, this does not mean that using a product is completely without any risks. To identify the hazards that come with the use of a product, you can conduct a risk analysis. A risk analysis can also be mandatory for certain product groups, such as low-voltage equipment, toys, machinery and equipment for use in explosive atmospheres. Standards, like the ISO , have been developed on how to conduct a risk analysis.
According to this method, there is the following hierarchy of risk-reducing measures:. This means that the user guide should warn of any residual risks related to the use of the product. This is done with safety warnings. A good safety warning describes the nature of a hazardous situation, the consequences of not avoiding a hazardous situation and the method s for avoiding it.
Rotating parts. Risk of serious injuries. Keep hands clear. Then you want to warn the user where a hazardous situation might be encountered. Do this. Do that. This is embedded safety messages. General text general text general text. In the EU, depending on the kind of product, it might be allowed to provide only the safety information in printed form and the rest of the information online.
Action: conduct a risk analysis and craft your safety messages using this template. Now I asked Philip to create all other content, such as the procedures, technical specs and legal information. Again, for most product groups there are paid templates available which might make the work easier.
These templates contain all legal texts, mandatory disposal information, copyright statements and comply with the IEC standard on user instructions. When using the template for crafting the safety messages, I asked Philip to indicate whether a safety message is a supplemental directive, or should be placed as a grouped, section or embedded safety message. A user manual should give assistance to people by providing information about how to use a product.
The crafting of meaningful headings is one of the tools that aid users in finding information. Philip has now created the draft version of his user manual, using the user manual template. We call this version the textual content design. As Philip has a business partner and a developer with in-depth technical product knowledge, I asked Philip to let them review the work so far.
Both his business partner and the developer provided feedback. Philip used this feedback to optimize the user manual. Action: Send the draft version of the user manual to anyone within your team who might be able to deliver feedback.
Ask them to combine all feedback into one document before sending it back to you. This stimulates discussion of your team members and prevents disagreement at a later stage. Once the user manual has been reviewed and optimized, the texts are more or less definite. This means that any images can now be created and added to the content.
The reason to wait until the texts are ready is that creating or editing images can be time-consuming. As images should support, replace, or augment text, you want to wait to create them until the texts are final. Images in user manuals may include illustrations, photos, screenshots, tables, diagrams and schematics. I advised Philip not to use photos as a cheap alternative for illustrations.
Often, photos are not as informative because they contain too much information. Besides that, photos can make a user manual look messy. Before we start making it look nice and translate the content, we want to be sure that the content is complete. You can adjust the User Manual Template in MS Word by adding a company logo and adjust the font, colours et cetera, but that might have limitations.
When you know how to work with Adobe Indesign, or are willing to learn to work with it, this will offer you much greater design possibilities. Action: Adjust the User Manual Template to fit your brand identity, or download the InDesign user manual template and adjust it.
Philip now has both the content of his user manual Word file and the user manual template InDesign file. The content needs to be put into the InDesign template.
This is called Desktop Publishing. Action: place the content from your Word file into the Indesign template. If you decided not to use the InDesign template but stuck to the Word file, then you can skip this step. Depending on the market in which you are going to sell your product, you might need to translate the user manual. In general, a user manual should be available in a format that is easily accessible to the user.
That can be printed, or used online or on-device. In the European Union, for some product groups, it is still restricted to provide the user manual printed with the product. However, as of April , the instructions of many product groups may be delivered in a different format rather than in print.
Try organizing it so the easiest task to accomplish is presented first. Keep just one point per step to make it easy for your users to follow the instructions. Tell your users what the completed task will look like before they move on to the next step. Conduct research into how users actually use your product so you can produce the appropriate documentation to accompany each touchpoint on the user journey. Part of your user journey mapping is identifying exactly what problem or goal the user has when using your product.
You may have to break your users up into different segments as users may have different reasons for using your product. Your template should be clear and easy to follow, and include the vital components needed for each document.
Rigorously edit your documentation to streamline your content and make sure it includes only the most essential elements that users need to complete a task. Each step of your instructions should include just a single task so users can work through your documentation step-by-step without getting confused.
Make a note of where users get stuck in your documentation and revise your content accordingly. Users should be able to make use of your documentation without reaching out to support. You should provide everything they need to know in your manual.
When writing your user manual, make sure you include practical examples alongside your instructions to show users the results they can expect to see if they complete the task. Your instructions should clearly explain what users will see or hear and any feedback they might get from the product.
You may need to use symbols, icons and codes in your documentation to represent certain information. Also Read: How to write inclusive documentation? Document is perfect for creating user manuals for your users. You can customize your user manual with the Homepage Builder which allows you to add links, change colors, include categories from your manual, and much more. FrameMaker has good support for rich media so you can create immersive content with images and video.
You can seamlessly collaborate with subject matter experts using the Adobe Acrobat desktop and online services. It handles large documents very well that have styling complexities and uses a template-based authoring environment. Markdown is a lightweight markup language used for creating formatted text in an editor. The advantage of using Markdown is that the syntax makes it as readable as possible when writing your documentation. A Markdown-formatted document looks like it could be published without having been marked up with tags or formatting instructions.
Paligo is a Component Content Management System for teams. It provides an end-to-end platform for intelligent content and a single source of truth, so you can author your user manual with content reuse and structured authoring. Paligo delivers topic-based authoring and smart content reuse so you can release your documentation in a fraction of the time it normally takes to build a finished product. You only need to write your content once and then you can repurpose it with the click of a button.
Paligo comes with versioning designed for content authors. User manuals are an indispensable part of your product or service and you should devote appropriate amounts of time and effort to its creation. In some business software applications, where groups of users have access to only a sub-set of the application's full functionality, a user guide may be prepared for each group.
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