21. Installation Stage: On-Screen Documentation
As well as paper-based user documentation, many systems now also have on-screen documentation.
On-screen documentation can take the form of:
- A help menu
- Web pages
- Popup help boxes
- PDF documents
- FAQ section
- Video tutorials
Many help systems have a search facility to answer those 'How do I ....' type of questions the user may have. Another popular format is the 'FAQ' or Frequently Asked Questions document.
Typical features of the help system include:
- Text search facility
- Hyperlinks and navigation buttons to move around the help documentation
- Buttons with relevant text
- Worked examples of how to use a feature
- Links to related features
- Multimedia help in the form of video tutorials or spoken word
- 'Tool tips' which appear when you hover over a word or sentence
- Pop-up instructions when you press a certain function key
The online version has the advantage that it can be easily updated with the latest information compared to a published paper based system.
challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you
Click on this link: Online help systems