creating a user manual template

creating a user manual template

Most time and money needs to be spent on product development and setting up the sales channels. He knows that there are some legal requirements for the content of the manual and he wants a well designed and user-friendly instructional manual that contributes to a good customer experience. I decided to walk him through the entire process and developed an instruction manual template for him. Here’s what happened. The results are as follows: Although Philip used one of our paid templates, I have made a free template that you can use to achieve exactly the same results. There is only one difference. We have developed user manual templates for machinery, toys, medical devices and electronics that contain all legal content. I provided him with some general information about user instructions and with some good examples of existing user manuals. A good user manual assists users on how to use a product safely, healthily and effectively. A well-drafted user manual only provides that information that is relevant for the intended user of the product. A good user manual should answer HOW and WHAT questions. They should contain information about what happens if a task is not done correctly. Typical user types are the end-user, installer, maintenance engineer and operator. Each user type needs a different approach in terms of language to be used, the tone of voice and provided conceptual information. A product can be a system, tool, device, an instrument, a piece of software or an app. Depending on the type of product, a user manual might include things as: The template contains all the information and more from the list above. It complies with the requirements for his product. The user manual template is an MS Word document that can be printed or placed online. Each tool has its own advantages and disadvantages. I will mention the most common tools below: Through the following links you can download a user manual sample for documentation: Let’s dive into the details and actions.http://www.gabident.pl/local/userfiles/canon-st-e2-manual-portugues.xml

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This can be done by creating a user profile, also named a persona. This is not only useful for creating your user instructions, but it is an essential element at the start of the development of any product. As an educated industrial design engineer, this is how we started all our design assignments. That’s why I asked Philip to define his users and answer questions like: What describes the user? I asked Philip to fill out the template. Please note that the second tab also contains Philip’s answers, so you have an example of how the sheet could be used. So if you want to take defining your user one step further, I would suggest you visualise your user in the form of a persona. When creating a persona you are giving your user a name, age et cetera, so it becomes a real person that represents your user. This is the result: Typical problems might include: installing the product, using the product, using the product safely, maintaining the product and disposing of the product. In order to do so, I created another template for Philip. In the left column of the Lifecycle tab, the stages of a product’s lifecycle are mentioned. These are derived from the international standard for user instructions, the IEC 82079. Our user manual templates are compliant with this standard. In other words: Philip has defined the topics for his user manual. Each topic can only be about one specific subject, has an identifiable purpose, and must be able to stand alone. A user wants to solve one problem at a time.It can be a chapter or a (sub-)paragraph. As soon as a user is looking for an answer to his problem, he will use the table of contents to find out how to navigate to that answer. Start numbering PREPARATION PRODUCT FOR USE with number 4. We will add some more chapters in the next step. The ToC is the outline of your user manual.The headings are the (sub-)titles that precede the actual text. They appear in the ToC, so the user can navigate to the needed information.http://www.lev-interier.cz/data/canon-speedlite-transmitter-st-e2-user-manual.xml

A third-level heading uses noun-phrases (e.g. Packaging contents and Tools to be used ). The heading Making Pancakes is much more user-oriented than Using the MagicCook5000. If the section covers the maintenance and repair of a product, the heading Maintenance would be incomplete. Pro tip: when there is a Declaration of Conformity available already, you can find the applicable directives in there. If the product is too small this can be placed in the user manual. If the product is too small this can be placed in the user manual. Safety information shall be provided in order to inform the user of measures to be taken. This standard has been harmonised in the EU. Compliance with harmonised standards provides a presumption of conformity with the corresponding legislation! Without removing and mandatory elements of course. Notice! Do not adjust the Table of Contents. The table of contents can be updated automatically once you have adjusted the section headings. 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. 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. 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. 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. The ISO 12100 also gives a method for taking mitigation measures: the Three-Step Method.

According to this method, there is the following hierarchy of risk-reducing measures: This is done with safety warnings. The ANSI Z535.6 standard describes the following locations in the user manual where this could be: General text general text general text. 3. Do this. This may also be describing special tools or space for maintenance and repair. These templates contain all legal texts, mandatory disposal information, copyright statements and comply with the IEC 82079 standard on user instructions. Finding the right information that solves the user’s problem should take as little time as possible. 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. This means that any images can now be created and added to the content. As images should support, replace, or augment text, you want to wait to create them until the texts are final. Often, photos are not as informative because they contain too much information. Besides that, photos can make a user manual look messy. The content needs to be put into the InDesign template. This is called Desktop Publishing. If you decided not to use the InDesign template but stuck to the Word file, then you can skip this step. This could be a translator who is experienced in translating technical content, with similar products or with translating user manuals. Alternatively, you can do this yourself, of course. That can be printed, or used online or on-device.

However, as of April 2016, the instructions of many product groups may be delivered in a different format rather than in print. There is one exception, however. Besides that, upon request from a consumer, a paper user manual should be made available to the consumer. Here he can add videos as well. And by optimizing the HTML version for search engines he makes it easier for his user to find information for his user That’s how Philip created a compliant user manual with help from the User Manuals Template and the other available tools that I provided. We have developed user manual templates for machinery, toys, medical devices and electronics that contain all legal content. This is important as it will help the consumers learn how to use the product correctly. An operation manual template will contain relevant guidelines. Those which you would need to work with a product you’ve purchased. Usually, this manual template comes in the form of the booklet. Then the manufacturers would include it in the packaging of the product. Contents 1 Instruction Manual Templates 2 Types of instruction manual templates 3 Uses of instruction manual templates 4 Operation Manual Templates 5 User Manual Templates 6 How to make an instruction manual template 6.1 Choose appropriate content for your manual template 7 Design a manual that’s readable and interesting It’s a technical document which provides the required explanations. There are different types of instruction manuals out there. They can be for products or for other purposes too. The important thing is that it would provide explanations for the reader.

Such a document would contain the following information: The product’s name The product’s model number The features of the product The functions and capabilities of the product The installation instructions written in detail Safety guidelines, precautions, and health-related issues if any Frequently asked questions A troubleshooting section which includes technical instructions A table of contents along with the references of materials Warranty statements These are important parts of an instruction manual template. However, manufacturers can add other information as needed. You can create a template on your own or download one from here. Either way, you need to learn more about them. There are different kinds of templates you can create. Include them with your products to help your customers learn more about them. Some templates are fairly simple while others are very detailed. The template you will create must depend on what you need. You can make templates for: Digital cameras Financial procedures HR policy and procedures Operations and maintenance Software Technical instructions Training Users Work instructions Instruction manuals will give the user information he needs about your product. You can create your own template with your team in the organization. You can even download a template from here and work with it. This will make things a lot easier for you. Then all you have to do is focus on the content of your manual. In doing this, you’ll be able to put more effort in the content which is actually more important. This manual would contain information on how to best use the product. There are different operation manual template formats. All these would depend on the nature of the product. Manufacturers put a lot of effort into designing the manual template. They need to make sure it compliments their product. It’s very beneficial for products to come with user manuals.

Here are some benefits of user manual template: The manual would help the user understand the product’s functionality. It would contain a lot of details pertaining to the product’s functions. Manuals are usually created by a technical team, those who have extensive knowledge about the product. This also applies to machinery, procedures, and more. Therefore, the manual would help the users comprehend the product just by reading it. The template would also contain instructions on how the user would do certain tasks. This is especially true for manuals means for training programs. Such manuals would contain everything the company would like its employees to know. It would clearly explain details about their job responsibilities in different ways. Such documents can also help explain steps users need to take clearly. This applies to when there’s a need for troubleshooting. Then all the user needs to do is look at the manual to solve any problem. Instruction manuals are very helpful even for our daily life. It includes all the instructions needed to handle and operate products and appliances. These manuals enable the users to operate the equipment, system or item. They do this while using the proper functions and settings. Manuals are also very convenient because of their familiarity. When a person purchases a product, he would immediately look at the manual to learn more about it. With a manual, users can properly maintain their products and equipment. With it, they can even perform preventive maintenance on their gadgets and devices. Instruction manuals also provide technical information about the product, item or system. This is very useful especially for those who want to know everything they can about what they bought. Sometimes without a manual, users can’t even start using their product. This is especially true for complicated machines, tools or equipment. As you can see, manuals are really useful and beneficial.

They contain all the information you would need to learn about what you’ve purchased. Of course, making such a document requires a lot of thought and careful consideration. You need to include all the relevant information without making it too long and boring. This would usually be a hard-copy document or an electronic one. The important thing is it’s included with the product. Great manuals should be able to educate the users adequately. It should teach them how to use the features and functionalities effectively. So it’s very important to create the manual with a lot of thought. Here are some tips to guide you: Choose appropriate content for your manual template The most important part of an operation manual template is the content. You have to think about everything you include in it. Leaving out any important detail out might cause problems for you. This is especially true if your users don’t have any experience dealing with your product. First off, you must define your user. If you want to create a successful manual, develop your user’s profile. You can do this formally or informally. Make some reasonable assumptions about the characteristics of your users. This profile is very useful when you’re at the beginning of your development process. When your customers read through the manual, they should be able to use your product well. You should think about how you want to present your manual. What you intend your users to do with it. Do you want the users to consult your manual only when problems arise. Or do you want your users to have to read through it before they start using the product. If so, you also need to include a “Getting Started” portion. This will be very helpful for the user. It would contain instructions on how the customer will start using the product. Also, you need to consider how much experience users may have with your product. Is it a new type of product or are there similar products out there.

This would determine how much information you will include about your product. It will also determine whether you have to include explanations on what your product is. Once you’ve considered all this, it’s time to think of how you will write the content. The users need to understand your manual well enough. Don’t assume that all your users have technical backgrounds. Because of this, try to stay away from technical jargon which may be quite hard to understand. Instead, use clear, concise, and simple explanations. Also, organize your text in such a way that it flows the way users normally think. Of course, there are times when you have to use technical terms in explanations. In such cases, it’s helpful to give a definition of the terms as well, along with some background. You also have to include any and all information related to troubleshooting. Provide an explanation of the problems which may come up. Keep in mind that when a customer purchases a product, he may encounter problems. So you need to include any information which may help the user solve these problems. Also, consider the complex problems and issues. In such cases, break down the solution to the problems. Do this so your users won’t get overwhelmed by all the steps. List all the parts of the solutions and make sure they’re sequential. Design a manual that’s readable and interesting Aside from the content, it’s also important to think about your manual’s design. You don’t want your user to take one look at your manual and just throw it aside. It has to look compelling so your user will have enough interest to read through it. Choose fonts which are easy to read. When it comes to instruction manuals, it’s never a good idea to use cursive fonts. No matter how much you want to make your manual look fancy, restrain yourself. It’s more important to make your document readable so users can understand it. Serif fonts look good but they may not be right for smaller text.

This is because the letters have small embellishment lines at the end of each letter. So it’s best to use them for larger texts on your user manual. On the other hand, sans-serif fonts don’t have any embellishments. Because of this, you can use them on a smaller-sized text. Even with such sizes, the reader will still be able to understand the text. Actually, these fonts are suitable for small and bigger-sized text. So you can use them for titles as well as footnotes. When you’ve chosen the fonts for your manual, make a sample page first. Print out the page to see how the fonts will look on paper. Also, show this sample page to your team so they can also approve the fonts. Do these before you start entering all the content of your manual. Aside from the fonts, consider the layout of your manual too. This will also play a role in how interesting and readable your manual will be. Think about everything you want to include in your template. When creating a new template, you need to think about everything. To make the first page of your manual distinct, make sure it differs from the other pages. Make the layout of this page different from the rest. You can use different fonts and colors on the first page of the manual. Do this to make it more interesting for your readers. Match the colors to your own company or brand to make it more distinctive. When designing your layout, make sure all the pages have appropriate margins. Do this so that the text won’t get compromised when you bind the pages together. Speaking of the binding, also consider the type of binding for your manual. If your manual has a lot of pages, you need to bind them together correctly. Otherwise your manual might fall apart when your user reads through it. There are different types of binding you can use for instruction manuals. The side-stapling type is inexpensive. It’s also ideal for manuals which have a lot of pages. The saddle-stitching type is ideal for third-party reference guides.

It’s also ideal for manuals which don’t have many pages. The spiral-binding type is ideal for more rugged manuals. Some of these manuals may contain laminated pages to keep them intact. It’s important to create a template for your manual. You can use any software you’re comfortable with to do it. You can create your own template from scratch or download one from here. No matter how you want to make your template, create it to suit your own needs. Finally, make sure you save your template. You don’t want to have to create a template over and over again. This is especially true if you have different products or equipment. If you need to make a new manual, just modify the template you’ve created. Enter the information needed for the new manual then save it with a different file name. TemplateLab is not a law firm or a substitute for an attorney or law firm. Use of TemplateLab is subject to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This includes users who either use the tool you’re writing a guide for or who encounter particular problems with your tool. On the one hand, you can aim to create a user guide for an average user, as a rule, for the one using your program for the first time. In this case, you need to use specific terms or explain them in detail for the user who doesn’t know a thing about your software yet. On the contrary, your user instruction manual can be designed especially for those who have already had experience using your software but still may encounter unexpected issues. For example, for those who have been using your program for a year but now do not know how to export a file in the updated version, you can use already established terms of your interface to create a user guide. Overall, you need to know how to create a how-to guide which will not only share knowledge but will also be presented in a smooth and coherent style and format. As usual, you can use a formal or semi-formal style of writing.

Make an instruction manual template also easy to follow: make sure to structure and align the formatting of all elements, create sections and subsections, highlight essential issues, and use text formatting to emphasize the important parts. In this case, the user instruction manual will be easy to look through and find the needed information. In addition, do not forget to align your instruction manual template with the corporate branding approved in your organization. In other words, you should figure out how to make an instruction manual to achieve the aim of your user guide built for your target audience (see step 1). You need to define where the procedure or a set of procedures starts and finishes and what issues a user may encounter during its accomplishment. Undoubtedly, it will be great to discuss these questions with your actual users or consult use cases for this purpose. This way, you’re less likely to miss out an important part of the procedure you are writing about. It’s better to create a title page in a minimalistic style and not to spend too much time on creative design. Far more important is to provide all the necessary info on the title page so that everyone can tell this is an instruction manual, its scope, audience, mission, version, publication date, reference, author, and so on. Actually, the title should say everything about your user guide while all other text labels should just contain additional info pointing at its applicability and relevance to an issue a user is trying to tackle.You need to reference your user instruction manual to other user documentation so that your colleagues and customers know where to search for related information.In other cases, you should include a table of contents to make your user guide easier to research and follow. A thorough scan of a good table of contents shows readers where they can find answers to their questions and if the current user guide suits their needs at all.

Frankly, this procedure is quite dull, and time and effort consuming. Fortunately, the latest special-purpose tools let you save your work time significantly. StepShot Guides, for example, saves you up to 90% of the time spent on documenting a procedure, isn’t it impressive. Instead of using several tools like screenshotting software, image editor, and word processor, you can use StepShot Guides combining the functions of all these tools. Otherwise, you should manually copy, paste, and edit each screenshot and text field into different apps. Luckily, the introduced all-in-one solution allows the creation of a 20 step guide in about 15 minutes instead of 150 minutes, that is 10x times faster. At this step, you’ll have a document with text including the description of each step and screenshots. If you’ve chosen an o?u?t?d?a?t?e?d? traditional way and use several apps, you need first to edit each screenshot in an image editor and then insert it into the doc. Then you need to type manually or copypaste the text. Afterward, you have to format your doc to make it look nice and easy to follow. So, now you can either leave screenshots as they are or use additional arrows, lines, shapes, text blocks, sequence numbering, blurring, or image cropping directly within the StepShot Guides. Make use of OCR technology to recognize the text on an image and paste it wherever you need. Owing to AI-powered features, the process of editing and improvement here requires much less time than a traditional approach. Think of the table of contents, heading formatting, font, colors, margins, graphic elements, line spacing, and so on. If you prefer a Word format, just download an existing instruction manual template, format the same three pages the way you like, and import it to StepShot Guides. Still, you can always use one of the available templates and simply omit the step of instruction manual template designing.

If it has been created with a word processor, as a rule, you can export it to some text formats or PDF. The good news is StepShot Guides has A LOT of exporting and sharing options. Thus, you can export your user instructions manual to: I’ve already told you some features of this software that are useful in writing a user instruction manual and now I’d like to elaborate more on the process of user guide creation in StepShot Guides. After finishing the procedure, your guide opens in the app window and looks like a set of screenshots (taken on each mouse click or other clicks chosen beforehand) and step titles and descriptions, many of which are already recorded automatically by a Keylogger. Next, choose a format for export and make further editions to an instruction manual template you choose if you want. Define variables which will display repetitive data on your guides. If you choose to export to StepShot Cloud, you can further work on the guide in a private or public mode. Take advantage of numerous sharing options and send or embed your user manuals whenever needed. Correspondingly, people use MO Word as a traditional tool for creating any texts and documents. No wonder, many of us make use of this software once we think of how to write an instruction manual. Basically, the procedure of user guide creation looks like the following: create a title page, write a preface, describe each step, insert already edited screenshots, add other necessary text, and format the user instruction manual. This software manages templates and can save a doc as a PDF file, Open XML, XPS, RTF, OpenDocument, or a web page. It also shares Word files via email, publishes at a blog, or presents online. You can customize the capturing area so that it grabs either a whole screen or a certain region on it. There are a few editing instruments built-in, namely capturing timer, freestyle pen, highlighter, and eraser.

But just imagine that you have to take 100 screenshots for a 100 step user instruction manual, what then. Does this Snipping Tool have sufficient functionality for screenshot enhancement. Even if yes, you have to take each screenshot manually, edit, save it, and insert into a doc. What’s more, an inbuilt image editor lacks functions, that’s why users have to use another software program to edit and improve screenshots. As for screenshots, which are usually used in user instruction manuals, you can crop them, add highlighting, add various arrows, shapes, numbers, text, and so on. This does require professional skills and a lot of time, effort, and patience. Such a guide can be converted to PDF or just saved for further editing. The former has been designed to take screenshots and has evolved to have bit wider functionality. It can capture screen or record video, create and edit images, and makes it possible to embed images and videos to your email, documents, blog, or social media. Similarly, you can get a link to share your materials created with Snagit with other people. Still, you can not create a document in this app, thus, if you want to know how to make an instruction manual with SnagIt, be sure to prepare other tool(s) like a word processor at least and copypaste a lot. If we talk about Google Docs, they have almost the same functionality as Microsoft Office Word but online. It’s a convenient web-based platform for creating and sharing documents, smart editing, and team collaboration. It allows inserting images and using templates to format a set of documents faster. In turn, Google Drive offers to store and share the files of any formats. The combo of these tools provides many opportunities for a user, however, they cannot capture screen or automatically record step descriptions. After a recent rebranding, the platform introduces itself as a workspace for team collaboration on any file format.