There are several main reasons why putting your software manual on-line is necessary. It makes your web-site attractive for search engine crawlers and therefore brings you targeted traffic from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and other search engines. A good online manual makes your product serious and credible. Moreover, if a user faces difficulty using your software and asks for technical support, you may easily resolve the issue by referring that user to a certain page of your online help. Simply give the page's URL. With just one click the user will see screenshots and explanations which will help them to settle the case.

Many software vendors, from large companies to independent developers, clearly understand these reasons. They made their help systems a part of their web sites by aiming to attract more prospects and to generate more sales. But even a sketchy analysis of a dozen manuals available online discloses a bunch of common mistakes which may reduce the effect of this very powerful tool. The main reason of the mistakes is incorrectly considering an online manual as a standalone document that user can download or read on the web site. The right approach is to make your help a part of your web site. This is a pretty simple task if you follow these rules:

Make pages! Not a file

The most common mistake I noticed on many software vendors' web sites is that they offer their manual in a single file: PDF, CHM, RTF, etc. Certainly it may be very convenient for users to download a product manual file and use it on the desktop, especially if the manual is too large to be included in the software setup package. But having an online manual is not the same as having a manual online. Feel the difference!

It's very smart to allow users to download a complete manual as a single file. However a file may attract just a few new visitors from search engines, even if their crawlers are able to index your PDF or RTF. Also the file is almost useless for your technical support needs. For instance, you may not point users to certain sections of your help system by simply giving them direct URL links. Hence to get the maximum effect out of your help system you should make it a part of your web site. Split the manual into many pages and convert them into HTML. Almost all serious help authoring software allows exporting your help file into HTML format. Each page must contain a certain section or a chapter of your manual. Many pages which are relatively small are easier for reading, navigation, and bookmarking. You nevertheless must keep the balance. Don't make a lot of little dinky pages that people must roam through to make up a required solution. Each page should completely cover a certain topic enough to solve a certain task. Furthermore, a page with topical content is perfect bait for search engine crawlers.

Follow common style

Well, you have exported your help file into a set of HTML pages and are ready to upload them to your server. Stop! Check the look of the pages. The set must follow the common style identified by the corporate identity.

Page 1 of 4 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 3 4 | Next