INSTRKTIV User Manual Secrets is a style guide. It provides rules that can be seen as guidelines for creating information for use. The purpose of this publication is to create clearer and more consistent information for use, such as user guides, online help, installation manuals and so on.
The rules and guidelines in the publication cover user guides for all kinds of hardware devices, software and machinery. These guidelines are developed and maintained by the INSTRKTIV team and based on years of experience and finding solutions for technical communication challenges. This experience has been combined with and inspired by guidelines from widely-used standards, such as the IEC/IEEE 82079-1 for information for use, ANSI Z535.6 for safety messages, ASD-STE, the IBM style guide, and the SAP style guide.
The topics covered in INSTRKTIV User Manual Secrets are based on what we encounter at INSTRKTIV. It regards the conventions that we prefer. There are many other style guides with other solutions and conventions for similar challenges. That’s all good. They all serve a similar goal: creating user-friendly content through clarity and consistency. Any style guide should help create clear and unambiguous instructions that help users complete tasks efficiently.
The guidelines are arranged alphabetically by topic. Use the table of contents to go to a specific topic. For example: If you are not sure how to deal with punctuation in vertical lists, or how to format safety instructions, look for the topic (for example punctuation, or safety instructions) in the table of contents, navigate to the correct page and consult the rules.
Lothar Naujokat
Director, HANNETS
“The Instruction Manual Template helped our engineers to create the user manuals for our latest product. It contains all the information you need to create your own compliant manuals, so you don’t have to outsource this! It is such a time saver!”
Philip Olsson
CEO, ISOVOX Sweden
“The factory manuals always need to be redone. This was a daunting task for us: we never knew where to begin and at the end we were not sure if the manual did comply. The User Manual Template provides us all relevant information so we can create compliant instructions and decrease our liability.”
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