Re: guide vs manual

[Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- westnet -dot- com -dot- au>]

Hi Saradha -
**
> Is there a difference between a User Guide and a User Manual.

I don't think there's a definitive answer as to what can and can't be in 
a user guide and what can and can't be in a user manual. Generally I 
might expect a Guide to explain concepts and describe procedures, and a 
Manual to contain reference information, but I probably wouldn't notice 
if I came across a Reference Guide or a Concepts and Procedures Manual. 
I think it also depends on the industry--users of a government web site, 
a defence application and a mobile phone probably have different 
expectations of what is meant by the words 'guide' and 'manual'.

You can avoid the problem by calling the book "Using <product>" rather 
than "<product> User Guide" or "<product> User Manual".

So if you're writing the documentation for a product called XYZ, any of 
these would work:
XYZ Guide and Reference
XYZ User Manual
XYZ User Guide
Using XYZ
Installing XYZ
XYZ Installation Guide

'Manual' seems to work better as a collective noun. "Have you seen the 
XYZ manuals?" sounds more natural to me than "Have you seen the XYZ 
guides?".

Regards

Stuart
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