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.