This manual documents the BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) command line applications developed at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). BLAST ® Command Line Applications User Manual. Bethesda (MD): National Center for Biotechnology Information (US); 2008. The online user manual will form new valuable content that can be added to a range of online platforms (website, Facebook, etc.). Your online user manual will constantly be accessible, when your customers need it. Having an online user manual means that your customers will always have access to the most 'up to date' information available. User Manual Template Case Study: Startup Creates a Compliant Manual (in Less Than 3 Weeks) Ferry Vermeulen Tools & Efficiency Read this article if you need to create a user manual for your machinery, electrical product, toy or medical device yourself, download one of our templates and follow the steps as described in this case study. Professional manual Use this template to create a user's manual or employee handbook. This template contains a title page, copyright page, table of contents, chapter pages, and an index. Scrappy Dew is a master of Make The Cut. He has been with us since the beginning and has dedicated a lot of his time putting together helpful manuals and videos (for free) to help everyone out who is new to Make The Cut. Here are some links to his content: Scrappy.
“As my company’s sole technical writer, I maintain and update over 2,000 pages of user guides for about twenty software applications. Since at least 1998, all help and tutorials at our company were published using Doc-to-Help, a Word-based system that didn’t support embedded videos or PDFs. In early 2018, I spent two months researching alternatives, and knew Manula was “the one” about five minutes into the free trial. My instincts were right. Everybody in the company loves our new user guides, and so do our customers.
Our Word-based documents were more technical than most: almost 100% tables-embedded-into-other-tables and complex layers of numbered and bulleted lists. It has been time-consuming (but fun) to convert our first thousand pages of help into Manula’s Textile-based format. The effort has been well worth it! Our documentation is getting far more views and longer visits than it ever did in the old format. We don’t have numbers yet, but I suspect it is also leading to fewer support tickets, freeing up time for our sales staff. It takes an IT staff member approximately one minute to set up our website for each new Manula help document. Manula seamlessly integrates into our website, using our custom colors and logos to give a consistent user experience. The layout, table of contents, fonts and tables are inviting and easy on the eyes. We can even hide minor topics from the table of contents, thus keeping our extensive help from appearing too intimidating. I love the ease of updating, the change control system, and ability to support multiple versions. Users who haven’t updated their software see the applicable user guide, while on-plan users see additional topics about the latest features. And because the help is online, I can fix a typo or add a new topic any day of the year. This means there is no longer a rush to get the help finished weeks before an upcoming release. The context help is extremely easy to implement on both my end and the developer end. We are super happy Manula customers and would recommend it to anyone! An example of our help can be seen here.”
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. https://afznws.weebly.com/blog/safety-first-guide-65-user-manual. 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.
How To Create User Guide
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.
Digitech rp70 manual download. 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:
https://afznws.weebly.com/blog/moto-g5-manual-pdf-download. 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. Canon g10 manual download pdf.
Create User ManualEstablish standards
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 Write A User Manual
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).
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