In today's highly competitive market, reference documentation has become one of important components of corporate products. As a product guide, reference document can help enterprise customers quickly understand how to use product and improve efficiency of using it. This article will detail definition, features, writing process, precautions, and other aspects of a reference document.

Help documentation definition

Help Documentation is a kind of technical documentation written to help users better understand and use software, products, etc., and is a product guide and user guide. It includes introduction, installation, configuration, use, and troubleshooting of product.

The role of reference documents

Improving Product Usage

With reference document, users can quickly understand functions and methods of using product, so as to improve efficiency of using product and reduce problems and confusion that users encounter during use.

Reduce customer support costs

Reference documents can provide customers with comprehensive product information and user guides, allowing users to solve problems on their own, reducing customer support costs and increasing customer satisfaction.

Enhance your brand image

By creating standardized and easy-to-understand reference documents, you can improve product usability and user experience, enhance brand image, and increase user satisfaction.

Help document writing process

1. Determine target audience of reference document.

Before writing a help document, you need to clarify target audience of help document, including user's technical level, use cases, needs, etc., to determine language and content of help document.

2. Define structure of help document.

Reference documents should be organized in a logical order, including product overview, installation, setup, usage, troubleshooting, and other chapters, so that users can quickly find information they need.

3. Write content of help document.

When writing contents of a reference document, following points should be taken into account:

(1) Brevity and clarity. Use simple and clear language, try to avoid using overly professional terms and abbreviations so that users can easily understand them.

(2) Emphasis: Highlight and highlight important information and steps, and use images and diagrams to help users understand better.

(3) High usability: Help documents should be practical, allowing users to quickly resolve problems and complete tasks.

(4) Ease of Update: The reference document should be easy to update and maintain, update content in a timely manner, and ensure accuracy and completeness of document.

4. Check validity of reference document.

After writing is complete, a test should be conducted to determine effectiveness and usability of reference document to determine if reference document needs further revision and improvement.

Help Documentation Notes

1. The language is short and clear

When writing reference documents, you should use concise and easy-to-understand language, avoiding overly technical terms and abbreviations so that users can easily understand them.

2. Focus

In help document, important information and steps should be highlighted and in bold, and images and diagrams should be used for better understanding by users.

3. High practicality

Help documentation should be helpful, allowing users to quickly resolve problems and complete tasks.

4. Easy to update

Reference documentation should be easy to update and maintain, update content in a timely manner, and ensure documentation is accurate and complete.

5. Consider needs of different users

While writing help documents, consider needs of different users, including technical level, use cases, requirements, and so on, to determine language and content of help documents.

6. Check validity of reference document

After writingOnce completed, a test should be conducted to determine effectiveness and practicality of reference document to determine if reference document needs further modification and improvement.

Online tool for creating reference documents:

This is an online tool for editing documents and sharing content. It not only provides users with an easy-to-use knowledge sorting platform, but also provides a high-quality knowledge publishing platform. The content of a document created with it will be automatically converted into a website. The URL link can be accessed, which is convenient for customers to browse web, help them understand product, and provide a convenient experience for users. This will help creator plan ahead for display structure of help page. Users only need to edit content as needed, and content can be previewed right in view to avoid unnecessary errors. Even beginners can create a beautiful and practical help center and product manual page. A good help center tool should be easy to use for internal employees and user-friendly for external clients (an external help center looks good). In terms of product benefits, I have summarized following points.

1. In terms of operation: In terms of operation, there is no need to build a document frame (each theme has a corresponding display frame, and now there are 15 themes for help document scene), and you can use it when you open browser, do not know programming and design, can easily edit documents with Word, edit, update and publish at any time, low maintenance costs, allowing customers to easily browse with one click .
2. On external display: provides a variety of external display themes to support mobile phone adaptation, you can switch and change colors at will, page footer support, add domain name independently...
3. Details: contains many useful plugins, including global search, user feedback feature, article guide, help site visit statistics, site navigation...
4. Editor. Rich rich text + Markdown make editing easier (supports uploading videos, images, and files).

5. This is an online content writing tool that allows users to write, post, and share content; creating a website does not require programming skills and is a waste of time. . It only takes three simple steps: register a site, create content, choose a template, and you can create a beautiful product brochure.

6.It is a document authoring tool that is easier to use than VuePress and GitBook and is suitable for a wider range of users. By using , you don't need to know basics of code, and you don't need to know what website design is, you can make product manual faster and easier.

7. In addition to most basic products with following practical functions, it can not only quickly create a fresh product brochure:

8. Separate domain name. Use product guide on website to provide an independent domain name that can instantly increase authority of a web page!

9. Team Collaboration: Provides a collaboration feature that allows team members to edit together online to better achieve internal collaboration!

10.SEO Support: Web pages can be indexed by search engines, which increases accessibility of web pages and optimizes user experience!

11. Web page access data. With help of product guide provided by , you can access third-party website traffic analysis. Businesses can use website traffic analysis tools to collect information such as number of visits, keywords, and user profiles of an entire web page, and make scientific adjustments to content of a web page!

Summarize

Reference documents such as product manuals and user guides are an important way for enterprise customers to understand products. Well-written help documents can improve product usage, reduce customer support costs, and improve brand image. When writing reference documents, it is necessary to clarify target audience, determine structure of document, write content, test effectiveness, and pay attention to concise and understandable language, conspicuous focus, strong practicality, ease of updating, and considering needs of different users.