User manuals and online help

A user manual is a printed set of instructions for using a product or service. Online help is an electronic set of instructions for using a product or service. Online help can be delivered as a file on the user's computer, or delivered live over the Internet.

Our writers have won awards from the Society for Technical Communications for their user manuals and online help.

User manuals

If you manufacture a new, unusual or complex product, a user manual is vital. A well-written user manual reduces:

• the time it takes your customers to learn to use the product
• the risk of your customers injuring themselves with the product
• the number of calls to your sales staff or your help desk asking for help using the product.

A user manual can also protect your business against personal injury claims by clearly explaining how to use the product safely.

Society for Technical Communication awards

The Society for Technical Communications is a US-based organisation dedicated to the advancement of the technical communication profession. Every year, the Society runs a competition to recognise excellence in technical communication.

In 2002, our writers won an award from the Society for Technical Communication for the manual 'Getting Started in NVivo 2.0'. 'Getting Started' combined a user manual with a simple tutorial demonstrating the use of the software. In 2006, our team won another award for the online help for an event booking database product.

Online help

If you manufacture software, or you don't want the expense of printing and shipping paper manuals, consider online help as an alternative to a user manual.

We can produce a file to ship with your product (compressed help files) or a help site that your users can access via the Internet (web help).