Basically, you should try and work with three levels of headings: first-, second- and third-level headings. The first-level heading describes what the entire chapter or section is about e. A third-level heading uses noun-phrases e. Packaging contents and Tools to be used. Meaningful Headings tab. Dependent on the market where your product is placed in or put into service, and dependent on the product group your product belongs to, specific legislation applies to your product.
These requirements also include requirements on the content of your user manual and safety instructions. In order to sell your product in a specific market, you should make sure that your user manual complies with these requirements.
These two articles below will tell you how you can find out exactly which legislation applies to your product for the European and U. Pro tip: when there is a Declaration of Conformity available already, you can find the applicable directives in there.
Philip didn't need to conduct these steps, as the template he used already contained the legal content as required by the relevant directives. For his product, it means that the following information is required for the user manual for his product:.
This standard has been harmonised in the EU. Compliance with harmonised standards provides a presumption of conformity with the corresponding legislation! I have also created an IEC checklist that can be used to double check that your user manual complies with this standard.
In order to create an internationally compliant user manual, you should always make sure your manual meets the EU, US and requirements.
I asked him to adjust the table of contents of the template according to his own table of contents. Without removing and mandatory elements of course Do you remember from step 4 that I asked to start the numbering of the sections with chapter 4? Once you download the user manual template doc yourself, you will see that a few standard chapters have been added, as well as some appendices.
The purpose of your product, or better: the intended use, is the heart of a user manual and forms the basis of ensuring the safe and healthy use of the product. The way the intended use is described also determines your liability and affects the further contents of the user manual.
The most legislation requires you to include a description of the intended use in the user instructions. The international standard for user instructions, the IEC , provides the following definition for the intended use:. An exhaustive range of functions or foreseen applications defined and designed by the supplier of the product. By describing the intended use you determine the safe envelope of the product.
And once you have determined the intended use, you can focus on providing only those safety and user instructions for how to use the product within the given envelope. Additionally, to the intended use, many more standards, directives and regulations also require you to include a description of the reasonably foreseeable misuse. For example, the reasonably foreseeable misuse of an aggressive detergent could be the use of it in a food processing environment.
Paying too little attention to describing the reasonably foreseeable misuse will affect a company's liability. If the defectiveness of a product needs to be determined, all circumstances will be taken into account.
That includes the reasonably foreseeable use of the product. The description of the intended use determines which instructions are given in the rest of the manual.
For example, if a cooling system is only used for cooling certain medications, then only these procedures need to be described. When it could reasonably be foreseen that the cooling system may be used as a system to cool organs, this should be described in the instructions. By doing so, you, as the manufacturer, will limit your liability and you can focus on only describing how to use the system to cool medicines.
Figure 1. Reasonably foreseeable misuse? Even though the intended use has now been clearly defined, this does not mean that using a product is completely without any risks. To identify the hazards that come with the use of a product, you can conduct a risk analysis.
A risk analysis can also be mandatory for certain product groups, such as low-voltage equipment, toys, machinery and equipment for use in explosive atmospheres.
Standards, like the ISO , have been developed on how to conduct a risk analysis. According to this method, there is the following hierarchy of risk-reducing measures:. This means that the user guide should warn of any residual risks related to the use of the product.
This is done with safety warnings. A good safety warning describes the nature of a hazardous situation, the consequences of not avoiding a hazardous situation and the method s for avoiding it. Rotating parts. Risk of serious injuries. Keep hands clear. Then you want to warn the user where a hazardous situation might be encountered. Do this. Do that. This is embedded safety messages. General text general text general text.
In the EU, depending on the kind of product, it might be allowed to provide only the safety information in printed form and the rest of the information online.
Action: conduct a risk analysis and craft your safety messages using this template. Now I asked Philip to create all other content, such as the procedures, technical specs and legal information.
Again, for most product groups there are paid templates available which might make the work easier. These templates contain all legal texts, mandatory disposal information, copyright statements and comply with the IEC standard on user instructions. When using the template for crafting the safety messages, I asked Philip to indicate whether a safety message is a supplemental directive, or should be placed as a grouped, section or embedded safety message.
A user manual should give assistance to people by providing information about how to use a product. The crafting of meaningful headings is one of the tools that aid users in finding information. Philip has now created the draft version of his user manual, using the user manual template.
We call this version the textual content design. As Philip has a business partner and a developer with in-depth technical product knowledge, I asked Philip to let them review the work so far. Both his business partner and the developer provided feedback. Philip used this feedback to optimize the user manual. For example, the terms "mapped" and "connected" seem to be used in similar context a lot, but not clear if they are equivalent.
One of the most frustrating is the phrase "channel control s " which is used a lot but never defined that I can see. A few genuine errors. The one that sticks out the most is that DMX has bits. DMX actually has 8 bits per data slot, giving levels. Using the wrong terms isn't helpful to anyone new to DMX, and confusing to anyone with experience. A need for overall good editing. I know a good editor if you need one. There are so many errors in spelling and grammar, misused words, shortened words and placeholders.
Again, I know those are hard to fix in early versions but it reflects poorly on the product to have rough documentation so late in the development cycle. I'm not the only lighting designer or tech who is more than annoyed at bad editing--it makes me wonder if the lack of precision and attention to detail carries through to all aspects of the product!
I'd like to ask some questions and provide some thoughts. Missing Concepts As far as I understand you found the concept of Presets being referenced hard to grasp from the existing documentation? It would help me to know a few details about your learning process. Confusion and inconsistency When it comes to the A field I'll agree that this isn't as easy to find as it should be - being a central part of the concept where we have no programmer.
This will be adressed. Apart from this and the terms "mapped" and "connected" - what did you find confusing? If you search for Channel Control you get Channels - Introduction where this is explained. A lot of users find this function helpful. A few genuine errors You are right, it should read bytes instead of bits.
What other ones are you referring to? A need for overall good editing - Could you provide some examples that are more specific than this very general description? Thanks for the reply! I didn't mean to be too hard on your manual--I can see that it is a very difficult task with such a complex machine as the Congo, and also I don't intend to be critical of the Congo it's a nice console. But I have been involved in product and manual development in the past, so I know sometimes the team gets immersed in the terminology and it can be helpful to get the perspective of someone fresh to the product.
That's the spirit of my feedback--trying to provide my perspective as a new user and make things better. Of course I also have to say that I don't know that my way of approaching a new console is similar to anyone else's, so can't say if my comments will help all users, some users, or only me.
But in general I've found that consistency and clarity seem to be helpful. Also I have to say there has been considerable improvement in the manual from version 4. Some of your questions will take me some time to answer, and I will do my best to get those answers to you soon.
I don't fully understand your suggestion of using the "favorites" function--does that require that I am at the console or offline editor? Perhaps you could explain or I could email the answers to you? Prior consoles I've used: several, but there are some gaps. Started out on 2-scene preset 25 years ago, and since have used Colortran, EDI, Strand for conventionals.
I have some limited experience 1 show each with the Hog and Zero88 Frog. Step 2: Press and hold the top and bottom left buttons on the Cobalt Light Server as power is turned back on.
Process Explorer may start minimized on the main screen. If so, choose the restore button to view Process Explorer. Firmware updates are not available on ETCnomad Mac Computers It is strongly advised that when updating firmware on a console running v7. Step This component is now ready for use on the next normal power up. If you search for Channel Control you get Channels - Introduction where this is explained. A lot of users find this function helpful. A few genuine errors You are right, it should read bytes instead of bits.
What other ones are you referring to? A need for overall good editing - Could you provide some examples that are more specific than this very general description? Thanks for the reply! I didn't mean to be too hard on your manual--I can see that it is a very difficult task with such a complex machine as the Congo, and also I don't intend to be critical of the Congo it's a nice console.
But I have been involved in product and manual development in the past, so I know sometimes the team gets immersed in the terminology and it can be helpful to get the perspective of someone fresh to the product. That's the spirit of my feedback--trying to provide my perspective as a new user and make things better. Of course I also have to say that I don't know that my way of approaching a new console is similar to anyone else's, so can't say if my comments will help all users, some users, or only me.
But in general I've found that consistency and clarity seem to be helpful. Also I have to say there has been considerable improvement in the manual from version 4. Some of your questions will take me some time to answer, and I will do my best to get those answers to you soon.
I don't fully understand your suggestion of using the "favorites" function--does that require that I am at the console or offline editor? Perhaps you could explain or I could email the answers to you? Prior consoles I've used: several, but there are some gaps.
Started out on 2-scene preset 25 years ago, and since have used Colortran, EDI, Strand for conventionals. I have some limited experience 1 show each with the Hog and Zero88 Frog. In regard to learning process, my approach in all of the above is to read the manual first to get a feel for the design and programming philosophy of the console. Then I spend time hands-on with the console, getting myself into and out of trouble, referring to the documents as needed, until I feel comfortable that I can do what I need to do for the show.
The Congo was the first time that process failed--I spent a long time with the manual both before using the console, and with the online version while using the console.
I read the introduction Quick Intro and Presets. I watched all the online tutorials. Yet I always had the uneasy feeling that I had memorized a collection of facts and key sequences, but not mastered the board to the degree that I felt confident that I could always control the stage picture and devices.
You asked about the data flow and to me that is key--I always have a model in my head of how the data flows from faders to DMX, and when that didn't come from the documents, I just formed it from experimenting with the system.
I also sketch it out on paper, so by now think I have a good picture of the data flow and hierarchy of data in the system. Anyway this is growing long. I will gladly later since you asked send my thoughts on specific areas of the docs that are confusing, inconsistent, or confused me, hoping that will be useful to you.
I don't want to do a detailed edit of the manual for typos, etc. It's all cool. You might be surprised how many different approaches there are to writing and reading manuals - or learning consoles for that matter. I've been doing both since and there is always a new approach around the corner - none better or worse - all individual, subjective and therefore - valid.
In any case - lets drop out of this forum and mail directly. I can explain the favourites function. This is also a system that was designed from the start to be learned on-line and with electronic documentation.
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