Some words about user guide

While using different electronic devices, computer hard- and software we from time to time face various users’ guides. A user guide, which may be sometimes called a manual, is a piece of technical writing that helps people to use a product.

Manuals usually contain both written information and some images that help to illustrate the information and make it more understandable. These images could look like series of screenshots for software or clear diagrams in hardware user guides. Taking into consideration the target audience technical writers, who are usually responsible for creating manuals using technical writing tools and software and in big companies, or programmers, product or project managers, or other technical staff, who might write them in smaller companies, try to use simple language and to avoid complicated terms.

Practically all users’ guides have more or less the same contents. The contents usually have the following pages: a cover page, a title page, a copyright page, a preface, that provides the details of related documents and informs how to navigate the manual, a page of contents, information on how to use the most important functions, a troubleshooting page with the description of possible errors or problems which you may face, and the ways to fix them, a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), and contact details. There might be a glossary and an index if the document is large.

Software guides are not an exception. They also have pretty much the same structure (e.g. The Starta User Manual). Some of the documents might provide the reader with useful internal links and even can be devoted to the specific step of using a software such as installation, how to or getting started guides (see also online help authoring).

Some data bases and other kinds of business software which presuppose the limited functionality for administrators, managers, developers and so on, have manuals for each group of users.