Dr.Explain documents screens and web pages automatically.
ON YOUR TECH DOCS
Dr.Explain & Tiwri.com form a true multi-user platform for collaboration.
Creating Technical Manuals with PDF Creating an effective technical manual takes more than using good grammar and proper spelling. Technical documents rely on clear, well-crafted instructions to help guide users through complicated, and sometimes dangerous, tasks.
Creating a web-based document is extremely easy with our online documentation software. Write, edit, and upload content effortlessly with the MS Word-like editor. Upload existing files directly to your document. Customize content with your favorite fonts, brand name, and logo. Publish your document.
Dr.Explain is available in 9 languages:
Nov 30, 2012 Manuals are valuable to your clients because they provide a reference for end users and back-end users of the application. Sometimes the client that you are working with will not be the end user, and it’s important to provide your client with information so they can pass on the knowledge to others. May 10, 2011 Software, computers, games, and devices require user manuals, guides that explain how to use the product (and how not to). A user manual is a formal writing piece with a specific structure, and should be written by someone who is intimately familiar with the product such as a technical writer or the product designer. Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing software application produced by Adobe Systems. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers, and books. InDesign can also publish content suitable for tablet devices in conjunction with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.
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Uniquely Dr.Explain captures application screens or web pages and documents them automatically!
Dr.Explain is based on a unique interface analysis and screen capture system. Thanks to this system, Dr.Explain can automatically analyze an application’s user interface, take screenshots of all controls and elements, and then add explanatory callouts to all images in the draft help system. After that, all one needs to do is add descriptions to the callouts, and save the result in the HTML, CHM, RTF, or PDF format.
What Clients Say
Also might I say, this is a great program that solves many needs for businesses today. Once we get our documentation done, I'm probably going to turn around and purchase the whole package for the company. Thanks again and Great Work!
We are using Dr.Explain to produce CHM help, product documentation and to incorporate Web based html for a very large enterprise application. The tools and features within Dr. Explain have definitely made the job much simpler. Besides having a great product, the people at Dr. Explain have shown exceptional cooperation for incorporating ideas asked for by end users. This has increased our satisfaction with the decision to use Dr. Explain in our enterprise product development.
Dr.Explain + TIWRI.COM =
Collaboration
Tiwri.com is a cloud platform that lets multiple users jointly develop technical, reference, or user documentation using Dr.Explain as an editor application.
Two-clicks publishing
Moreover, when the documentation is ready, you can publish it on the Tiwri cloud server directly from Dr.Explain in two clicks.
Help file and online manuals creation Advantages
The Dr.Explain will analyze the structure of your software interface and will generate help topic drafts for it automatically. If you are a Web developer, then the HTML parsing capabilities will help you quickly document all significant parts of your Web site as well. It doesn't matter what technology or tools you used to design your software GUI. The Dr.Explain can make help documentation for any solution.
How To Create A User Guide For Software
The Dr.Explain tool is exceptionally useful for authoring help files with many screenshots and technical illustrations. The built-in capturing tool analyzes internal structure of captured windows or web forms and automatically creates numbered annotations for all significant GUI elements: buttons, fields, options, menus, toolbars, and so on. You must just add some descriptive text to complete the topic. With other help authoring tools those operations would take hours while with the Dr.Explain you can accomplish it in minutes.
With the Dr.Explain you can easily generate a complete array of end user help in various formats from a single source file. The Dr.Explain can make CHM help files, create online help manuals and prepare printable manuals in RTF and PDF formats. Electronically distribute your help file with application; put it on your product website; or deliver it as a printed manual within the box.
Many software vendors have already appreciated the simplicity of the Dr.Explain help file maker. The produced help files and online manuals can be easily built in any solution and invoked from any programming language. The common use cases include but are not limited to the following technologies: C, C++ (MFC & WTL), Visual Basic, C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET, WinForms, WPF, Delphi & Object Pascal, Clarion, FoxPro, PHP, Perl, HTML, JavaScript, and many more.
The Dr.Explain is a professional level help file authoring tool with many features at affordable price of $190(US) per license. The tool will pay for itself on the first project because it's a great time and money saver. The Dr.Explain is a good choice for any software vendor, from micro ISV and freelancers, to big software development companies and studios.
Thousands of excitedsatisfiedhappyeffective customers all over the world use Dr.Explain to create help manuals and documentation for their products.
Sample User Manual For Software
Here are just a dozen of them ...
Think about the last time that you consulted a manual. Did you start at the beginning and read the whole manual? Probably not. You probably looked first at the index or the table of contents. Once you found the right page or topic, you probably scanned the page first to see if it contained the information you needed. This is how most people read manuals.
No one wants to read your user manual. No one will read your user manual from front to back savoring every word and phrase. Technical documents are not novels. Readers want user manuals to answer their questions quickly so that they can get back to whatever they were doing.
A successful user manual provides users with quick answers to the questions that they might have about a particular product. Users searching for information don’t want to know about the latest and greatest features of a product. Users want to know how to complete tasks. Technical writing focuses on user tasks and the concepts that support the tasks.
Below are some practical tips on writing user manuals that will help you to write content that adapts to the needs of users.
Think like a user
When writing a manual, you need to put on a “user’s hat” and think like a user. You should have a good understanding of your users so you can understand the information they need to know, their background, and their knowledge of the product. Once you think like a user, you can write content that the users need to know.
If you have the opportunity, you will find it very useful to watch users actually using the product. When you watch users interacting with the product, you will get a better idea of what the users need to do, how they approach each task, and when they might use approaches to tasks that are unexpected.
Use active voice
Active voice emphasizes the user and is easier to read and understand. In most cases, especially in user manuals, you should use active voice. In active voice, the subject and verb in the sentence are clear. In passive voice, the subject is unknown and is acted upon by something that is not known or not stated. Passive voice uses verbs that include a form of “to be”.
Compare the two sentences below.
Passive voice: Supplies that will be needed to complete this project include a hammer, a screwdriver, and a rubber mallet.
Active voice: To complete this project, you will need a hammer, a screwdriver, and a rubber mallet.
The sentence that uses active voice makes it clear that the reader is the person who will complete the action. By using the active voice, you will make your writing more clear, concise, and direct.
Focus on the reader
User manuals should always focus on the reader. When writing information that involves the reader, such as instructions, use “you” and the active voice. Speaking directly to the reader will:
Reinforce the message that the information is intended for the reader
Pull readers into the document and make it relevant to them
Help to avoid passive voice by focusing on the reader
Compare the two sentences below.
Lack of reader focus: There are three options for viewing content in the editor.
Reader focus: You can choose from one of three options for viewing content in the editor.
How To Create A User Manual For A Software Computer
The sentence that uses “you” focuses on the reader and makes it clear that the reader is the person doing the action. You should aim to use “you” in your writing to make the content more relevant to the reader.
Write clear instructions
The primary objective of user manuals is to help users complete tasks. Below are some guidelines to help you write clear and concise instructions.
Use numbered lists for instructions unless the instruction includes a single step.
Use parallel construction for each step. Usually, you should start each step with an imperative word, such as “Enter”, “Click”, “Select”, etc. When you start each step with an imperative word, you are providing the user with clear cues on the required action for each step.
Avoid using a system response as a step. For example, don’t say, “The Info dialog window opens” as a step. You can incorporate system responses (when necessary) in the step that initiated the system response or you can mention the system response at the beginning of the following step, e.g. “In the Info dialog window, …”.
Provide just enough information so that the user can complete a task or understand a concept. Omit any extraneous information that the user does not need to know. Concise content makes it easier to understand concepts and tasks.
Establish standards
When creating documentation, there will be areas where there may be more than one way to spell a word, refer to an object, caption graphics, punctuate sentences, lay out a page, and organize information. These are just a few of the decisions that writers must make when they create documents. By establishing standards, the writer’s job becomes much easier since most of those decisions will have been already made.
The Chicago Manual of Style and Microsoft Manual of Style are two popular style guides. If you use an established style guide, you may still need to establish some specific guidelines for your writing project. As you encounter any issues with styles, you can create your own additional style rules that address the specific needs of your project.
If you would like to become a technical writer, you may want to consider registering for our Professional Technical Writing Course. It is an online course where you will learn how to write and revise instructions, technical reports, and software manuals (key technical writing documents).