How to Write Chapter of a User Manual

TECHNICAL WRITING
Tech Com Center

1] Start the chapter with the TITLE.

A note about the FONT SIZES: Make sure in terms of Font size, this is the largest header.

The font sizes of the headers should follow the hierarchy of document organization. The lower in the hierarchy a headers is, the smaller its font should be. By that logic, the smallest font size should belong to the “normal” paragraphs; the body text.

Thus you can determine the font sizes of your headers by starting from the body text and working your way up back all the way to the Chapter TITLE.

2] Follow the TITLE with a SUB-TITLE, if any.

Make a mental note, or leave some space, to insert a Table of Contents if your chapter is longer than 20 or 30 pages and has lots of headings and sections. Such a mini TOC would help your readers navigate easily and eliminate the need to go back to the main TOC in the beginning of the book.

3] Your first section header should be reserved for OVERVIEW. Give a short summary, an overview, of what the reader should expect in the rest of the chapter. A few sentences, or sometimes a single sentence, is just fine.

4] Follow this with other SECTION HEADERS and the SECTION BODY appropriate for each section.

5] If inside a section you need to have a TABLE, precede every table with a TABLE TITLE. That’s the traditional placement of a table title.

6] If inside a section you need to have a FIGURE, follow every figure with a FIGURE CAPTION. That’s the traditional placement for a figure caption.

HOT PDF TIP: If you will generate a PDF document out of your source file, any link pointing at the Figure Caption creates a usability problem.

Why? Because when you click on a PDF link, it takes you to the linked page and displays the linked figure caption at the TOP of the page. That means you’ll be looking at a caption WITHOUT a figure! That’s because the figure itself is left outside the screen and to see it you need to SCROLL UP each and every time. If you click on a number of such figure caption links it gets annoying after a while to scroll up to see the figures.

That’s why I recommend placing your figure captions BEFORE a figure, just like you would with a table title, so that when the document is converted into PDF, those who click a link and go to a figure would not have to scroll up to see the figure. In such an arrangement, the figure would be right UNDERNEATH the figure caption, saving the readers from the trouble of scrolling up.

7] Here are the structural components of each SECTION (all do not need to be present in every section):

* Introductory section overview sentence.

* Description of a feature.

* PROCEDURAL TASK(s). A set of NUMBERED STEPS to be followed to accomplish a task.

* TABLE TITLE followed by TABLE(s).

* FIGURE CAPTION followed (or preceded) by FIGURE(s) (read the above HOT TIP). A “figure” can be a photo, illustration, drawing, a chart or graph, a screen-shot, etc.

* BULLETED list(s).

8] If you need to leave a page blank at the end of the chapter because it starts on a right-side and odd-numbered page, add this note to the blank page: “This page is left blank intentionally for double-sided printing.” If you don’t do that a number of your readers will write back to you to make you aware of your “error.”

9] If you have left a space after the TITLE for a mini TOC, go back and generate the CHAPTER TOC.

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