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- If Your Software Needs A User Manual It's No Good Download
- User Manual Template
- User Manual For Iphone
Why Free Software needs Free Documentation
Join our mailing listabout the dangers of eBooks.
The biggest deficiency in free operating systems is not in thesoftware—it is the lack of good free manuals that we can includein these systems. Many of our most important programs do not comewith full manuals. Documentation is an essential part of any softwarepackage; when an important free software package does not come with afree manual, that is a major gap. We have many such gaps today.
Once upon a time, many years ago, I thought I would learn Perl. I gota copy of a free manual, but I found it hard to read. When I askedPerl users about alternatives, they told me that there were betterintroductory manuals—but those were not free.
Why was this? The authors of the good manuals had written them forO'Reilly Associates, which published them with restrictiveterms—no copying, no modification, source files notavailable—which exclude them from the free softwarecommunity.
That wasn't the first time this sort of thing has happened, and (toour community's great loss) it was far from the last. Proprietarymanual publishers have enticed a great many authors to restrict theirmanuals since then. Many times I have heard a GNU user eagerly tellme about a manual that he is writing, with which he expects to helpthe GNU Project—and then had my hopes dashed, as he proceeded toexplain that he had signed a contract with a publisher that wouldrestrict it so that we cannot use it.
Given that writing good English is a rare skill among programmers, wecan ill afford to lose manuals this way.
Free documentation, like free software, is a matter of freedom, notprice. The problem with these manuals was not that O'ReillyAssociates charged a price for printed copies—that in itself isfine. (The Free Software Foundationsells printedcopies of free GNU manuals, too.) ButGNU manuals are available in source code form, while these manuals areavailable only on paper. GNU manuals come with permission to copy andmodify; the Perl manuals do not. These restrictions are the problems.
The criterion for a free manual is pretty much the same as for freesoftware: it is a matter of giving all users certain freedoms.Redistribution (including commercial redistribution) must bepermitted, so that the manual can accompany every copy of the program,on line or on paper. Permission for modification is crucial too.
As a general rule, I don't believe that it is essential for people tohave permission to modify all sorts of articles and books. The issuesfor writings are not necessarily the same as those for software. Forexample, I don't think you or I are obliged to give permission tomodify articles like this one, which describe our actions and ourviews.
But there is a particular reason why the freedom to modify is crucialfor documentation for free software. When people exercise their rightto modify the software, and add or change its features, if they areconscientious they will change the manual too—so they can provideaccurate and usable documentation with the modified program. A manualwhich forbids programmers from being conscientious and finishing the job, ormore precisely requires them to write a new manual from scratch ifthey change the program, does not fill our community's needs.
While a blanket prohibition on modification is unacceptable, somekinds of limits on the method of modification pose no problem. Forexample, requirements to preserve the original author's copyrightnotice, the distribution terms, or the list of authors, are OK. It isalso no problem to require modified versions to include notice thatthey were modified, even to have entire sections that may not bedeleted or changed, as long as these sections deal with nontechnicaltopics. (Some GNU manuals have them.)
These kinds of restrictions are not a problem because, as a practicalmatter, they don't stop the conscientious programmer from adapting themanual to fit the modified program. In other words, they don't blockthe free software community from making full use of the manual.
However, it must be possible to modify all the technicalcontent of the manual, and then distribute the result through all the usualmedia, through all the usual channels; otherwise, the restrictions doblock the community, the manual is not free, and so we need anothermanual.
Unfortunately, it is often hard to find someone to write anothermanual when a proprietary manual exists. The obstacle is that manyusers think that a proprietary manual is good enough—so theydon't see the need to write a free manual. They do not see that thefree operating system has a gap that needs filling.
Why do users think that proprietary manuals are good enough? Somehave not considered the issue. I hope this article will do somethingto change that.
Other users consider proprietary manuals acceptable for the samereason so many people consider proprietary software acceptable: theyjudge in purely practical terms, not using freedom as a criterion.These people are entitled to their opinions, but since those opinionsspring from values which do not include freedom, they are no guide forthose of us who do value freedom.
Please spread the word about this issue. We continue to lose manualsto proprietary publishing. If we spread the word that proprietarymanuals are not sufficient, perhaps the next person who wants to helpGNU by writing documentation will realize, before it is too late, thathe must above all make it free.
We can also encourage commercial publishers to sell free, copyleftedmanuals instead of proprietary ones. One way you can help this is tocheck the distribution terms of a manual before you buy it, andprefer copylefted manuals to noncopylefted ones.
[Note: We maintain a pagethat lists free books available from other publishers].
A user guide, also commonly called a technical communication document or manual, is intended to give assistance to people using a particular system.[1] It is usually written by a technical writer, although user guides are written by programmers, product or project managers, or other technical staff, particularly in smaller companies.[2]
If Your Software Needs A User Manual It's No Good Download
User guides are most commonly associated with electronic goods, computer hardware and software, although they can be written for any product.[3]
Most user guides contain both a written guide and associated images. In the case of computer applications, it is usual to include screenshots of the human-machine interface(s), and hardware manuals often include clear, simplified diagrams. The language used is matched to the intended audience, with jargon kept to a minimum or explained thoroughly.
Contents of a user manual[edit]
The sections of a user manual often include:
- A cover page
- A title page and copyright page
- A preface, containing details of related documents and information on how to navigate the user guide
- A contents page
- A Purpose section. This should be an overview rather than detail the objective of the document
- An Audience section to explicitly state who is not as well as who is required to read, including optionals
- A Scope section is crucial as it also serves as a disclaimer, stating what is out-of-scope as well as what is covered
- A guide on how to use at least the main function of the system
- A troubleshooting section detailing possible errors or problems that may occur, along with how to fix them
- A FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
- Where to find further help, and contact details
- A glossary and, for larger documents, an index
History[edit]
The user guide engraved into a model of the Antikythera Mechanism.
![Your Your](/uploads/1/2/5/1/125155866/656881783.jpg)
User guides have been found with ancient devices. Plantronics m165 marque 2 manual user guide youtube. One example is the Antikythera Mechanism[4], a 2,000 year old Greek analogue computer that was found off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in the year 1900. On the cover of this device are passages of text which describe the features and operation of the mechanism.
As the software industry was developing, the question of how to best document software programs was undecided. This was a unique problem for software developers, since users often became frustrated with current help documents[5]. Some considerations for writing a user guide that developed at this time include:
- the use of plain language[5]
User Manual Template
- length and reading difficulty[5]
- the role of printed user guides for digital programs[6]
- user-centered design[6]
Computer software manuals and guides[edit]
User manuals and user guides for most non-trivial software applications are book-like documents with contents similar to the above list. They may be distributed either in print or electronically. Some documents have a more fluid structure with many internal links. The Google Earth User Guide[7] is an example of this format. The term guide is often applied to a document that addresses a specific aspect of a software product. Some usages are Installation Guide, Getting Started Guide, and various How to guides. An example is the Picasa Getting Started Guide.[8]
In some business software applications, where groups of users have access to only a sub-set of the application's full functionality, a user guide may be prepared for each group. An example of this approach is the Autodesk Topobase 2010 Help[9] document, which contains separate Administrator Guides, User Guides, and a Developer's Guide.
References[edit]
- ^'Online Technical Writing: User Guides'. [email protected]. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
- ^Gary Blake and Robert W. Bly, The Elements of Technical Writing, pg. 143. New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1993. ISBN0020130856
- ^'Manuals Brain - all useful manuals at one place!'. manualsbrain.com. Retrieved 2017-08-15.
- ^'Boffins decipher manual for 2,000-year-old Ancient Greek computer'. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
- ^ abcChafin, Roy (January 1982). 'User Manuals: What Does the User Really Need?'. SIGDOC '82 Proceedings of the 1st annual international conference on systems documentation: 36–39 – via ACM Digital Library.
- ^ abMcKee, John (August 1986). 'Computer User Manuals in Print: Do They Have a Future?'. ACM SIGDOC Asterisk Journal of Computer Documentation. 12: 11–16 – via ACM Digital Library.
- ^'Google Earth User Guide'. Google. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
- ^'Getting Started with Picasa: Getting Started Guide'. Google. 15 June 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
- ^'Autodesk Topobase 2010 Help'. Autodesk. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
- ^Manualdevices - Free User Manual 'Manualdevices - Free User Manual ', Retrieved on 01 August 2019.
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See also[edit]
User Manual For Iphone
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