Database Reference
In-Depth Information
hands-on training became available. Therefore, your user documentation needs to be thorough and accurate and
written with very basic terminology that anyone can follow.
Many books are out there that cover precise details on how to write professional user manuals. Your team's
technical writer will have this base covered. If, however, your BI solution is created for a small company, the
solution itself is very simplistic, or you simply do not have the budget for a large team, then you may not have the
luxury of hiring a tech writer to draft a user manual for you.
Let's look at some general guidelines on how to draft a simple user manual that your client can refer to,
without going into the extreme depth and detail that typical technical writing books cover.
The Anatomy of a User Manual
The goal of any user manual is to give information that is easy to find and provides a step-by-step guide on how to
perform an action. User manuals are usually divided into subjects and often include illustrations and numbered
steps to follow.
A user manual is not the same as a trade book, such as the one you are reading now (although the exercises
within this topic are close to an example of how a user manual should read). Users of instruction manuals will
not read each page, paragraph after paragraph. They want to get right to the information, gather it with as little
reading as possible, and get on to using the solution itself.
Let's take a look at the anatomy of a user manual. As you can see in Figure 19-7 , the layout should be easy to
read, and the structure should be consistent. A good user manual will include signposting (guides to helping the
user get to the information they need) to allow information to be gathered at a glance.
Main title : Clearly indicates which software the manual is written for on the front page or
cover.
Table of contents : Gives subject locations at a glance including accurate page numbers
that each subject can be found on and sometimes indicates the number of pages a subject
spans within the manual.
Page numbers : Even if the manual is short, page numbers are still necessary.
Page headers : Indicates the topic at a glance in a standard place on every page.
Spot color, shading, or icons : Visual aids that draw the eye to specific information.
Subject headings : These must correspond with the titles in the table of contents, must be
listed at the top of each page before a new subject, and must accurately define the subject
so that users can get to the right place at a glance.
Figures (illustrations) : These must genuinely aid the user rather than confuse them
further, and they must be properly numbered and labeled and referred to within the text
nearby.
Step-by-step instructions : These must be accurate, written simply with easy-to-understand
terms, and highly descriptive, logical, and thorough; they are usually written in the
imperative (without using the word you ).
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search