How-to guides help users solve a real-world task using your software. Procida compares them to recipes in the sense that they are directions you give users so that they can successfully reach a certain goal. Unlike tutorials, which are aimed at complete beginners, how-to guides assume users already possess some basic knowledge of features, tools, and of how to perform simple tasks. Reference guides are technical descriptions of the machinery and how to operate it. Developers tend to be quite good at writing it since they know all about their code and how to use it.
Explanations are a deep dive into, or a discussion on, a particular topic you think is relevant to a higher-level understanding of your software. About explanations, Procida points out that —. This section of documentation is rarely explicitly created, and instead, snippets of explanation are scattered among other sections. You could use some SEO techniques together with some marketing strategies so that as many users as possible can get hold of it.
Also, what you put in your docs should be organized into a structure that makes searching for specific information a breeze. Steve Konves recommends you structure your docs in a singly linked tree: starting from the root node, which should be placed in an obvious location for every interested user to discover, all other items can be easily accessed. Software documentation for end users can take 1 or several of many forms: printed manuals, PDF documents, help files, or online help. Each form is designed to show the user how to use each of the program's functions, whether in the form of a walkthrough or a tutorial; in the case of help files and online help, this may include demonstration videos as well as text and still graphics.
Help files and online help should be indexed and keyword-searchable to allow users to quickly find the information they're looking for. Although help file authoring tools can generate indexes automatically, it is often better to create the index manually, using terms users are likely to search for. Printed or PDF user manuals can be written with a word-processing program like Word or a sophisticated text editor like FrameMaker, depending on their length and complexity.
Try Doxygen. You comment your code, run Doxygen, and you have a webpage. Yes No. Not Helpful 4 Helpful I have seen keypresses documented in multiple formats. Is there an actual standard for items or are they all different? There is no universal standard; however, it is a good idea to set a standard for your own documents.
They have different styles, so if you write cross-platform documentation, you may end up using some elements from one guide and some from another. Not Helpful 2 Helpful 2. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.
The text should be arranged for easy reading, with graphics placed as close to the text that refers to them as possible. Break the documentation down into sections and topics logically. Each section or topic should address a single issue, be it a single program feature or task. Related issues can be addressed with "see also" listings or hyperlinks as necessary.
Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0. Any of the documentation tools listed above can be supplemented with a screenshot-creating program, such as Snagit, if the documentation requires a number of screenshots. As with other documentation, screenshots should be included to help explain how the software works, not to dazzle the user. Tone is particularly important, especially when writing software documentation for end users.
Address users with the second person "you" instead of third person "users. Helpful 0 Not Helpful 1. Submit a Tip All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published. You Might Also Like How to. Every tech company—from small startups to well-established giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google—uses some form of software documentation.
Programmers, stakeholders, and users alike benefit from this form of technical communication. They are mainly distinguished based on the specific goals they accomplish. With that out of the way, software documentation can be split into two broad categories:.
When talking about software documentation, people mainly refer to product documentation. Of course, it can be for both the software developers and the end-users. We can further classify product documentation into the following types:. This category includes all the documents describing the underlying processes that bring a product from ideation to launch. Process documentation aims to break down the software development journey and provide a vision for all the teams involved in the project.
While product documentation is intended for both internal and external audiences, process documentation is mainly intended for the people developing the product. Writing software documentation is tricky.
While workflows vary from company to company, there are certain best practices that, if adhered to, can make the process a lot smoother and yield the ideal results. In 7 simple steps, you can create any type of software documentation, irrespective of its goal s. For that reason, you first need to highlight the purpose of your document. A simple tip is to open up a blank doc and type up its purpose as the title.
Furthermore, highlight the audience of the document. Go one step further and create personas of the type of people who would read your technical content. List down those FAQs somewhere. The goal of identifying the questions is to collect your thoughts, design your document accordingly, and provide the most relevant information that delivers maximum value. Technical documentation can make or break a project. If every step of the way for a project is well-documented, it can run smoothly and save time.
No one-on-one conversations to give the right people the right information, and with that, no misunderstandings. With detailed documentation, onboarding new team members becomes a breeze. When your product is growing, changing, and scaling, you can easily refer new talent to the necessary documentation and have them up and running in no time.
A project with great documentation simply relies less on the individuals working on it. It has its own framework that anyone should be able to work with. It makes your software project more resilient against unexpected challenges. Documentation for your product helps in the pitching process, but also when you're further down the line.
Prevent any issues while you can and ensure a pleasant collaboration. Just make sure you cover the essentials for your project specifically. Do you have your whole project already planned out in your head? They will notice: not only in how well the software tool works, but also in how fast it was delivered—without you having to make a lot of changes after launch.
But what kind of documents will you actually need? Depending on the size of the project, you could need documentation that will guide daily processes. Or maybe you mostly need a framework for the bigger picture.
Product documentation describes the end goal: the actual product you are building. How it works, how to work with it, technological specifications, manuals—anything you need to know once the product exists. For your developers, the most important product documentation is the system documentation.
It explains how the software product works, why it works in a certain way, and how to work with it. For the actual users of your software product, user documentation is essential.
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