Scripting an Efficient User Manual

User manuals are written guidebook to understand the uniqueness and functionality of a particular device or software. The manual can be either a hard copy or an electronic document in the form of (XPS or PDF) format. Quality user manuals will educate its readers about the product's features while teaching them how to use those features effectively and are laid out to be easily read and referred to. Following are the guidelines to be kept in mind for technical writer while documenting the user manual or designing the layout of a user manual.

First Impression:

Most of the users never bother to read the user manuals. Generally, it is kept aside and considered difficult to deal with. The consequences of this are, both the product and the user suffers. Keeping this in mind, the user manuals must make a strong and positive first impression. The guidelines which would help the technical writers to create an impression are listed below:

• Avoid a text-book look (landscape formatting can be less threatening).
• Make purposeful and effective use of color.
• The user manual should not be too lengthy.
• Make effective use of pictures or screenshots
• Maintain the consistency of the manual by using common font for the documentation.

Enhancing Findability:

Generally, user gets frustrated when they need to search for a specific topic in the user manual. Often this is due to the fact that the key words the writer has used are not the key words that users may search for. Here are some guidelines that will help users will easily find what they are looking for.

• Organize information hierarchically
• Divide the manual into appropriate parts.
• Denote importance by using different colors as per importance etc.
• Provide a key word index using the terminology of the user.
• Provide a glossary of technical terms.
• Make the quick start guide readily accessible.

Including Links to related Articles:

When you refer to another part of the manual, it is always advised to include a link to the related article for the convenience of the users. Otherwise, end users would waste time or might get frustrated by searching for what you just in the later part of the manual

Show the steps and substeps:

Writer should always include step numbers or bullets to make the understanding of the user more transparent as it becomes easier for the users to follow the context written in the manual. Writer can also take advantage of sub-steps to make the documentation easier to follow.

Unique URLs for each article:

This makes it really easy for user to respond to questions with links to the documentation. 

For Example:-If the user clicks on this URL- http://timelive.livetecs.com/Employee/AccountEmployeeTimeEntryPeriodList.aspx?AccountEmployeeId=50780&ViewType=PeriodView 

user would be taken to the exact article that user need to answer the question about how to create a campaign target list.

With a unique URL, user can even respond in email, in the communities, etc. sending its end users to the exact answer they are looking for.

Documentation Don’ts:

• Don’t write unnecessary information in the user manual and treat the manual like the kitchen sink.
• Focus on a particular Domain, and do not specify multiple goals in a single manual. 
• Don’t use jargon, slang or ambiguous sentences phrases or sentences.
• Don’t be vague and be as much precise as possible. 
• Don’t use those abbreviations those are not accepted widely.
• Do not give excuses like “This is done because…..”.

Conclusion:

If the technical writer establishes a workflow which ensures that the documentation is clear and unambiguous. Manual is easily delivered to the customer. Once the user gets its documentation off the bench and comes into act the customer will be amazed that how it helps in business.

About Author:
Naman Kharbanda is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at: naman.kharbanda@spluspl.com

Go Online With SharePoint!

Let’s starts with story….

I was travelling to my hometown, it was Friday evening. Suddenly phone rings, client at other end.

Client: Vishal, we have four new joiners today. Please create account for them with SharePoint online license and provide access to our online portal. User details are emailed you. It is very “Urgent”.

Ohh….. Administrator’s life! I rarely came across a client requirement, which are not Urgent!

No Laptop, No dongle…only mobile as a gadget….how can I assist them!

Thanks to 4G in my mobile

Jokes apart, Microsoft had launched app named ‘Office 365 Admin’ – a huge help in these kind of situations.

I installed ‘Office 365 Admin’ on my mobile. I logged into the app with my O365 account, created 4 users and replied to client! Got reply as ‘You are awesome!’

I would like to share the features of O365 admin mobile app to make administrator life little easy!

Office 365 Admin:

1. Monitor Service Health

2. Manage Users

3. Submit Support requests

This app is available for windows, IPhone and Android mobiles.

Prerequisite:

User has to be administration level permission at SharePoint Online domain to use this app.

A. App Installation:

Go to Mobile App store on your mobile and search for “Office 365 Admin”, install it and Login with your Microsoft office credentials.

B. Dashboard 

After Login to App user can see Dashboard:

From dashboard, we can see Service Health, unread Messages from message center along with quick links to the Users and Support requests at a single glance. Quick links are configurable with ‘Customize Menu’ option in Settings.

1. User Management:

To have a look at people in our organization, we choose ‘Users’.

Modify User Details:

We can select a user or search them.

After user selection we can manage user’s license, user role, update contact information and reset password. There is also facility to block user access for SharePoint domain.

Add new user:

We can also add new user by select new tab from user page:

2. Service Health:

Selecting ‘Heath’ option from Dashboard.

Open Service incident to get more details about it.

Sometimes at background Microsoft works on some service upgradation/degradation, causes SharePoint sites not accessible. Here we can find details of such activities with down time.

We can share this details by selecting Share option and enter email address of person with whom you want to share the details.

This is the useful information for any employee affected by the incident.

3. Messages:

About upcoming changes for office 365 service, choose Messages.

We can see the planned Features or service changes for O365.

Open a message for more details. We can also share this message within organization people.

4. Support:

In case of any issue with SharePoint product functionality or for any query, we can contact Microsoft support. Either we can raise service request or US users can directly call on support number.

User can view exiting tickets or create a new one.

C. Other Features:

Office 365 Admin app provides other features in menu options. We can access menu button at top left of dashboard (highlighted in below image).

We already discussed Users, Health, Messages and Support options. Let’s look at other features as feedback, settings etc.

5. Feedback:

We can give our feedback to Microsoft with Feedback option available in menu. User can rate it, suggest a feature or report a bug.

6. Settings :

User can manage personal app level settings with this option.

• FAQ: To learn more about admin mobile app, select FAQ.
• Notifications: Service health Notification, to get notify about any changes in services which are selected by user.
• Security: Using Security option, we can add Passcode for admin app, so that no one else can open it from phone.
• Language: User can set language for this app.
• Customize Menu : User can customize dashboard display options on app home page
• Social: Using Social functionality we can get in connect with other administrators via email.

This is all about SharePoint Online App, makes administrator life little easy!

About Author:
Vishal Himane is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at: vishal.himane@spluspl.com