How to Create a User Instruction Manual: STEP -BY-STEP GUIDE

1. Define your user & aim

The first thing you need to consider before starting work on your user instruction manual is your audience.
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.
2. Choose appropriate style & format
The second step is to decide on the most suitable style and format for your 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.
3. Delineate the problem you need to solve for your users
Although you may think this step is not obligatory since you probably already have a general notion of
your future user guide scope, you still need to plan thoroughly on how to write an instruction manual which will
solve a particular problem. 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.

4. Design an appropriate title page

Also, the title page is the “face” of
your user instruction manual – it’s not so
important in electronic user guides as in
physical ones. 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.
 5. Reference your user instructions
manual to other user documentation
This action is presented as a separate step
since it’s very important yet quite simple. 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. Do not forget
about the correct release date and/or version
number to make sure your user guide aligns
with the latest user documentation.

6. Insert the Table of Contents

You can skip this step if your user instruction
manual is only 5-8 pages long. In other cases,
you should include a table of contents to make
your user guide easier to research and follow.
It’s better when a table of contents incorporates
not only a list of the major parts titles but also
other headings allowing the users understand
what they can find in each part – even if you describe only one complex procedure. 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.
7. Go through the procedure and present all
the actions as steps
This step is probably the most critical – it will
comprise the body of your user guide. Apart from the
accurate and thorough description of each step, you need
to think of various visuals – mainly screenshots – to
illustrate all your actions in a step-by-step user guide to
make it easier to understand and reproduce the steps.
Frankly, this procedure is quite dull, and time and effort
consuming.

8. Edit and improve

Whichever tool(s) you decide to use to create
a user instruction manual, you need to edit, improve,
and proofread it after capturing the procedure. At this
step, you’ll have a document with text including the
description of each step and screenshots. If you’ve
chosen an outdated 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 copy-paste the text.
Afterward, you have to format your doc to make it
look nice and easy to follow.
9. Design an instruction manual template
Consider the layout of your user instruction manual – it’s more important than you may think as a layout
is like an interface: if it’s not user-friendly, a user will find it hard to perceive, navigate, and follow. Think of the
table of contents, heading formatting, font, colors, margins, graphic elements, line spacing, and so on. Even if
you’re working in an ordinary word processor, better to save an instruction manual template rather than simply
formatting your doc – you may need the same instruction manual template later. If you’re working in StepShot
Guides – as usually, the procedure is much simpler. If you need a PDF user instruction manual, import your own
instruction manual template or edit one of those available – in fact, edit just a title page, table of contents, and a
page with a step – the rest of your document will be formatted automatically. Also, you can take advantage of
predefined repetitive text labels – a set of variables such as company name, address, or contacts, date,
document version, or whatever you need.

10. Export & share

The last step is exporting and sharing your
user instruction manual. If it has been created with a
word processor, as a rule, you can export it to some
text formats or PDF. Moreover, an average word
processor doesn’t offer a wide choice of sharing
options – even in advanced tools, it’s usually just e-
mail and sometimes a web page.

Sembai, S. (2018, November 23). How to Create a User Instruction Manual: The FULLEST Guide . Retrieved from
stepshot.net: https://stepshot.net/how-to-create-a-user-instruction-manual/