How to Write Software User Manuals

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Good manuals are a scarce commodity - expensive to produce, difficult to maintain, the province of experts. Not any more. With this new step-by-step guide you can produce successful manuals at a fraction of the normal cost. And the bonus is that they will satisfy the AS 3563 and ISO 9001 standards.

How to Write User Manuals is a complete step-by-step guide designed for people in your organisation with average literacy skills and no prior technical writing experience. By simply following the steps, a person can produce manuals that really work. The result - happy users and big savings on consultants and/or training course fees.

The Guide comes complete with templates for WordPerfect and Word for Windows which allow the writer to produce professional-looking manuals from the start.

S O W H A T M A K E S A N E F F E C T I V E M A N U A L ?

Organisation - Good manuals are well-structured with comprehensive table of contents and index.
Content - The material focuses on user tasks, provides clear instructions and is concise.
Appearance - The presentation is attractive with plenty of white space, and are packaged in booklets that are easy to use.
Language - The text is easy to read and aimed specifically at the users.
What to Avoid - Users dislike manuals that are: inaccurate, contain too much detail, talks down to people, is too formal, is poorly presented and/or organised.

How to Write User Manuals was written by David Tuffley, a specialist documentation consultant who over the past eight years has worked with large public and private sector clients in Australia and the United Kingdom. He holds a degree in English and Psychology from the University of Queensland.

V I E W S A M P L E C H A P T E R OF H O W T O W R I T E U S E R M A N U A L S

: Click here to view Chapter 2 - Preparation. This chapter is useful in itself, being a complete guide to the preparation of a documentation project plan, including estimating.

V I E W T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

: Click here to view the complete Table of Contents. This gives you an indication of the scope and level of detail of this document.

D O W N L O A D - F R E E - U S E F U L - S A M P L E S

Two brief (~10 pages each) how to guides can be downloaded for free. They are zip files containing rtf & pdf copies of the documents.

They are useful and relevant to any software development project and are intended to give prospective buyers of the full featured range of Altiora how to guides an indication of their quality and usefulness.

Click here to download How to Perform Risk Management (.docx format).
Click here to download How to Perform Project Estimates (.docx format).

O R D E R Y O U R C O P Y N O W

This guide, proven over the past five years at large commercial and public sector sites, could save you thousands of dollars in technical writer fees. Or put it another way, you could not buy even an hour of a good technical writer's time for the price of this valuable How To guide. Yet technical writers routinely spend weeks or months implementing procedures similar to those contained in this guide.

Ordering your copy of this excellent How To guide for only US$24.95 is easy. Buy It

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Delivery Information. You will receive a download link by email soon after you place the order. The download contains the deliverables in MS Word (.docx) and PDF. The documents are your master copy.

How to Use the Documents. Save the master as a working document. Read the reference text that details what needs to be written, and to what level of detail. Then write what needs to be written, and delete the reference text, leaving the completed document. The structure is embodied in the template. Documents can be converted to HTML for intranet/internet delivery if desired, using your wordprocessor's inherent HTML conversion capabilities, or by using proprietary conversion software that builds contents hierarchies that greatly facilitates navigation. Contact TCS for more information.

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