While you are planning how to show your screenshots, consider the following points:
- Manage all your screenshots in a proper order as that can help the user to understand all the steps quickly and easily.
- Write down the content of the manual in landscape orientation to aid full-page screenshots that are of excellent quality and readable.
- You can also use a photo editing or graphic design program to include arrows, labels, circles and extra notes to grab attention to specific areas of the screenshot.
- Use vibrant colors to highlight those arrows, labels and other edited elements on the screenshots.
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Back the Visuals with Descriptive Explanations
Visuals play a crucial role in WordPress instruction manuals, but still they can create a lot of confusions without proper explanations. Before exploring the step-by-step process of a particular WP activity, first explain what your user is trying to achieve and why it should be completed. Any functions added in the process should also have explanations as it allows the user to follow that particular step. While writing out your text, you should focus on:
- Divide long paragraphs into chunks
- Use screenshots directly under the corresponding text as opposed to merging them together after one or more pages of content.
- Explain WordPress terminology that may be used throughout the content.
- Insert links to other resources or video tutorials that users can access for more information.
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Add Helpful Sections
Of course, instructions are the core of your user manual. But, there are many additional sections that you can add to the beginning and at the end of your WordPress instruction manuals for more comprehensive user experience.
Make a complete Table of Contents: As your manual would have lots of sections and subsection. Thus, it is imperative for you to make it as simple as possible for users to find the instruction. You can create a complete table of contents of all sections and subsections and their corresponding pages to make it simple and accessible for your ideal users.
Add Section Summaries: At the end of every section or subsection, you can add a brief summary of what the user learned and also the essential points that were covered.
Create Easy WordPress install instruction manuals: You can create easy WordPress Installation instructional manual for your clients and explain the procedure of installing WorPress.
Add a Website Maintenance Section: You can include the detailed section about maintaining the website and updating existing pages, posts, categories, widgets, menus and appearance components.
FAQ Section: It is one of the most popular sections that are used to display solutions to the most common issues or problems. If you require ideas of your FAQs, then try to look around at what visitor are asking about in the WPMU DEV forums or any other WP forum.
Include a Resources Section: Include a Resources Section: This section includes a lot of information related to WordPress. By adding a Resources section with links to the WordPress.org Codex, handy WPMU DEV articles, and video tutorials on YouTube, you will allow your users to move in the right direction when they need more help.
Add a Support Section: With the help of Support section in the manual, you can help your users to find out how and where to get support from an actual person.
Glossary Section: New WordPress users don’t know much about technical terms. Thus, with the help of Glossary section at the back of your manual, you can give brief explanations about the technical terms to the users in the simplest way.
