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. The User Guide (aka User Manual) provides the information and instructions needed to set up and use a product. A User Guide includes written and visual information (such as diagrams or screen shots) to assist the user in completing tasks associated with the product (or.

In your day-to-day work, you might find that there are times when you need to provide a client with documentation that walks them through a process or teaches them how to do something they may be unfamiliar with.

I’ve mentioned before that I view writing skills as vitally important for everyone, in every business, and this is a prime example of why being able to write effectively is so important. If you can’t get the steps and details down on paper in an easy to understand and intuitive way, you will probably spend a great amount of time and frustration handling support requests and fixing things done incorrectly.

Here are seven tips to help you create a comprehensive yet coherent instruction manual.

  1. Get out of your own head: When you begin to prepare instructions for processes you know inside and out, you will need to consciously take a step back and approach the material from a new angle. Start at square one by assuming the audience will have zero knowledge of the subject matter.
  2. Know the objective: Make sure you know exactly what your manual needs to cover in order to avoid information overload or confusion that can come from too many details. This is especially important when the process is complex or has a lot of different parts.
  3. Outline it first: Before jumping in and creating steps, create a high-level outline of what the document will cover, including main and subsections. This will help you make sure your process makes sense and that each section of the manual is consistently structured.
  4. Make it easy to understand: Lists are a great way to outline steps for doing something because they can help people move item by item in the way you intend. It’s also a good idea to use a table of contents and make your document searchable, if possible, to further support your step-by-step approach.
  5. Be brief: It’s tempting to want to explain everything in fine detail since it’s material you know so well, but stick with only what the recipient needs to know. Focus on using only as many words as necessary to get your point across.
  6. Use visual aids: Screenshots, diagrams and even videos are a great way to beef up your manual and make it easier to understand. Keep the formatting of these supporting materials consistent and to the point to avoid overwhelming the reader.
  7. Give it a test drive: Or better yet, have someone else who has never seen the material before run through the instructions. Take their feedback and use it to fine tune your manual.

Keep in mind that you may need to review and update the manual periodically, especially if it’s something that focuses on a third-party application or other system you do not control. Plus, with some material, it may also make sense to offer the client a hands-on walk through to ensure your instructions accomplish what they need to accomplish. And keep in mind that learning styles vary, so one client may be able to run with the same instructions that confuse a different client. Being flexible in your format and delivery can help make sure the instructions work for the recipient.

Do you ever provide clients with written instructions? What advice do you have?

Image credit: svilen001

Training manuals come in all shapes and sizes. And with today’s daily emergence of new technologies and workflows, being able to create a training manual quickly is important.

When you need to create a training manual to empower your coworkers to use the tools they need to do their jobs effectively, then the following workflow is the best strategy to get it done.

Define your content

You can’t make a quick training manual about how to fly a helicopter. As you select your topic, choose one that would be appropriate to address. Typically one where you could teach someone everything they need to know in a few steps.

You can, however, quickly create training manuals for numerous office, technology, work, and other tasks. Manuals for these purposes are incredibly useful as they save you and other knowledgeable employees from having to repeat yourselves. They also aide workers and colleagues learning tasks that are part of new systems or only done a few times a year.

The ideal length for short manuals like this is about 10 steps or less. Consider the task or process you are training on and whether that is enough content to convey what you need. It might be possible to break a process into a couple of parts and create a few small manuals that make one larger one.

Plan and design visuals

Once you know the process or task you will teach, start collecting visuals. This is the key to your manual’s success.

If you do any eLearning work, you’re probably familiar with the importance and effectiveness of visuals in learning. This is true of training manuals, too. Having great visuals helps users and learners complete the process more quickly and remember more of it. Great visuals emphasize what a user needs to know without presenting distracting or confusing elements. Often the best visuals are simple and don’t overload the viewer. Achieving this may mean removing unnecessary aspects of an image, which auto-fill is particularly helpful with.

Collect screenshots and other images

How To Design A Software User Manual

If your manual covers a process that is computer-based, capture screenshots of each step. Alternatively, for a real-world process, photos demonstrating the process or graphical illustrations are ideal.

How To Design A User Manual Pdf

For images not captured with Snagit, open each by going to File > Open or dragging them into the tray in Snagit.

Annotate images for clarity

Screenshots and images often need a couple tweaks to truly get their point across. Usually this means adding annotations like arrows, shapes, and other callouts. Another nice touch is to remove or hide sensitive or unnecessary information.

Use the drawing and editing tools in Snagit to edit your images so they convey the right message and have unnecessary or sensitive information blurred or removed.

Edit all of your images to prepare them for inclusion in your training manual.

Assemble and deliver your manual

Now is when creating a training manual usually becomes tedious. The process of adding images to a template, document, or another source involves formatting frustrations, image sizing issues, and other similar, unforeseen challenges.

In this case, an easy solution is to Combine Images using Snagit. This feature lets you select the images you want to include in your manual, add text, arrange the order, and make selections about the appearance in one quick process.

First, select images in the tray for the manual. Use Shift-Click to select a range or Control-Click (Command-Click on Mac) to select individual images. Then right click one of the selected images and choose Combine Images.

Use the Combine Images menu to arrange the images in the right order by clicking and dragging.

How To Design A User Manual

Then complete each of the following steps as necessary.

  1. Add instructional or descriptive text to each image.
  2. Enter a title that will display at the top of the manual and choose portrait or landscape orientation.
  3. Select…
    • A font and color combination.
    • A color for the canvas (this is the background, white is usually ideal).
    • Whether you want the steps numbered and a color for the step markers.
  4. Click Combine to finish.

How To Design A User Manual Free

Snagit will take your images and text and lay them out in order in a single piece, your training manual.

Manual

Technical User Manual Template

Save a version of your manual as a PDF. This is ideal for sharing, placing on Sharepoint, a company intranet, or printing and posting around the office.

I like to save a PDF, because it is a good filetype for sharing and consumption by others.

I then save a second version as a SNAG (or SNAGPROJ for Mac). This makes it easy to update later on. The SNAG (Win) or SNAGPROJ (Mac) filetypes keep your file editable so you can change text and other elements in the future.

Not every training issue is going to be a quick production. It’s important to be able to determine when the speed of production is an important element.

Sample User Manual Layout

In some cases, a quick manual may even be a necessary stopgap while an in-depth piece is in the works. In these cases, it’s ideal to have something like Snagit and Combine Images in your back pocket.

How To Design A User Manual

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