Manual for creative model makers pdf

This stimulates discussion of your team members and prevents disagreement at a later stage. Once the user manual has been reviewed and optimized, the texts are more or less definite. This means that any images can now be created and added to the content.

The reason to wait until the texts are ready is that creating or editing images can be time-consuming. As images should support, replace, or augment text, you want to wait to create them until the texts are final.

Images in user manuals may include illustrations, photos, screenshots, tables, diagrams and schematics. I advised Philip not to use photos as a cheap alternative for illustrations.

Often, photos are not as informative because they contain too much information. Besides that, photos can make a user manual look messy.

Before we start making it look nice and translate the content, we want to be sure that the content is complete. You can adjust the User Manual Template in MS Word by adding a company logo and adjust the font, colours et cetera, but that might have limitations. When you know how to work with Adobe Indesign, or are willing to learn to work with it, this will offer you much greater design possibilities.

Action: Adjust the User Manual Template to fit your brand identity, or download the InDesign user manual template and adjust it. Philip now has both the content of his user manual Word file and the user manual template InDesign file. The content needs to be put into the InDesign template. This is called Desktop Publishing. Action: place the content from your Word file into the Indesign template. If you decided not to use the InDesign template but stuck to the Word file, then you can skip this step.

Depending on the market in which you are going to sell your product, you might need to translate the user manual. In general, a user manual should be available in a format that is easily accessible to the user.

That can be printed, or used online or on-device. In the European Union, for some product groups, it is still restricted to provide the user manual printed with the product. However, as of April , the instructions of many product groups may be delivered in a different format rather than in print. There is one exception, however. Safety information shall still be delivered in paper form along with the product.

Besides that, upon request from a consumer, a paper user manual should be made available to the consumer. The best part of all this is that you can get the same results as Philip did by following this step-by-step process on how to create a user manual. And he did this without any knowledge of technical writing. The results are as follows: A manual that enables 1st run of product to ship on time with no delays and passing customs without any problems.

I have listed this information below. What is the definition of a user manual? Other names, or other forms of a user manual, might be: User guide Technical documentation Instruction manual Operational manual Training manual Quick Start Guide Installation manual Maintenance manual Software manual Besides the primary goal of a user manual to assist a user , secondary goals could be creating a better user experience and meeting legal requirements.

What information should be in a user manual? Based on the first template for Philip, we have developed templates for the following product groups: Medical Devices Toys Machinery Electronics What formats does a user manual have? Through the following links you can download a user manual sample for documentation: IKEA installation instructions Jura user manual Step 2 Identify the User s of Your User Manual Template Ok, so now Philip has some basic knowledge about user manuals.

Is the product used professionally or mainly privately? What other technical experiences do they have? What describes the user? I have created a template that contains the questions. I asked Philip to fill out the template.

I did this for Philip. If the problem is too complex, you could break it down into chunks. Action: To define the structure of your user manual: Copy the content from the Lifecycle [product name] tab to the ToC [product name] tab. On the ToC [product name] tab , replace product name with your own product name.

Add a column to the left. If applicable, organize your sections logically. Determine what topics will become chapters by adding chapter numbers. We will add some more chapters in the next step. Determine what topics will become paragraphs by adding the section numbers.

Determine what topics will become sub-paragraphs by adding the subsection numbers. Step 5 Create Meaningful Headings Each topic in the user manual gets its own heading. So, Philip has just created the sub- titles for his topics.

I asked Philip to redirect his headings and to take notice of the following general guidelines: Use the structure as shown above for the first, second and third level heading. Make sure the headings are self-explanatory. Make sure that the heading covers the full topic.

If the section covers the maintenance and repair of a product, the heading Maintenance would be incomplete. If possible, try to omit articles at the beginning of headings Action: Write new headings for your ToC entries. Step 6 Determine the Legal Content Dependent on the market where your product is placed in or put into service, and dependent on the product group your product belongs to, specific legislation applies to your product.

How to Create Compliant Manuals for the EU How to Create Compliant Manuals for the US Philip didn't need to conduct these steps, as the template he used already contained the legal content as required by the relevant directives. The user manual should describe the intended use of the product. The user manual should describe the reasonably foreseen unintended use of the product.

If applicable, non-compliance in residential areas should be mentioned. If the product is too small this can be placed in the user manual. The name, registered trade name or registered trademark and the postal address should be mentioned on the product. A risk analysis should be conducted to determine the residual risks related to the use of the product. Safety information shall be provided in order to inform the user of measures to be taken.

WEEE information shall be included Information on packaging waste shall be included. The user manual template complies with this standard. Study the IEC checklist to ensure your manual complies with the standard. Action: To adjust the user manual template: If you want to work with the free template: Download the free user manual template Word or Change the section headings according to your own ToC.

Do not adjust the Table of Contents. The table of contents can be updated automatically once you have adjusted the section headings. Add the mandatory content as determined in step 6 of your manual. If applicable, modify sections and the appendices according to your own needs. The international standard for user instructions, the IEC , provides the following definition for the intended use: An exhaustive range of functions or foreseen applications defined and designed by the supplier of the product By describing the intended use you determine the safe envelope of the product.

Action: write the intended use and the reasonably foreseeable misuse of your product. Write the safety warnings based on the risk analysis Even though the intended use has now been clearly defined, this does not mean that using a product is completely without any risks. According to this method, there is the following hierarchy of risk-reducing measures: Inherently safe design measures Safeguarding and complementary protective measures Information for use This means that the user guide should warn of any residual risks related to the use of the product.

BUY NOW A good safety warning describes the nature of a hazardous situation, the consequences of not avoiding a hazardous situation and the method s for avoiding it. In the first part of the specific section: Embedded in a procedure: 1. In the Preface any supplemental directives can be placed, such as Read all instructions before use or Keep these instructions for future reference can be placed in the introduction of a user manual.

In order to help Philip create and place a safety message, I have created another template. Create all other content Now I asked Philip to create all other content, such as the procedures, technical specs and legal information. I gave the following tips: Exclude unnecessary material to avoid information overload for example sales promotion, extensive repetition etc.

Make sure terms are familiar to the user, technical features and terms are well explained and use terms consistently. Describe any prerequisites that should be met before the actual instructions start.

This may also be describing special tools or space for maintenance and repair. Provide conceptual information when information is necessary for adequate understanding and execution of tasks. Always write topic based. All manuals are available for view for free without any registration. You easily find what you need in few seconds. Get the advantages of bookmark the document with quick registration. If you want to view them later, you will easily find them in your account.

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You will be able to easily view them later. Commodore Electronics Ltd. Coreland Coresoft, Inc. Gottlieb D. Datasoft, Inc. David A. Dynamix, Inc. Dreyer, Inc. Epos Corporation Epyx, Inc.

Equilibrium, Inc. HotGen Ltd. Imagitec Design I'Max Corp. Intelek IntelliCreations, Inc. KOEI Co. Lothlorien Macmillan Ltd. Mesa Logic, Inc. Metro3D, Inc. Microcomputer Games, Inc. MicroProse Ltd. Chip Software Mr. Nihon System Ninja Theory Ltd. Ltd NMK Co. NuFX, Inc. Produce Co.