Why you should stop writing user manuals with Microsoft Word

Are you still writing your user manuals with word processors such as Microsoft Word or spending lots of time searching for word user manual templates? Then you should probably read this 7-minute article before downloading your word templates. We guarantee this article will save you a lot of time and energy, which all are equal to money in the business world. 

Companies are constantly looking for ways to save time and money while improving efficiency. However, they lose a lot to new solutions and technologies by resisting change and sticking to old conventional methods. There are many reasons why you should forget word templates and stop writing your manuals with Microsoft Word. Here we discuss some of the most important benefits of moving to a modern and specialized online tool to create user documentation. The table below shows a brief comparison. 

Microsoft Word vs. Online Documentation Tools

But there are much more details about online manual makers. Read the whole article for a complete comparison of online documentation tools vs. Microsoft Word for writing user manuals.

1. Resuming Wherever You Are

You can continue working on your manual from different places and computers, even using Microsoft Word. Yet, remembering to carry its latest version with you everywhere is quite frustrating. Cloud-based tools, however, have made it a lot easier. Access your account and resume your documentation from anywhere and on any device. Not just the latest version but the whole history of your writing is always with you wherever you are.

2. Enjoying a Centralized Shared Platform

Unlike Microsoft Word, an online documentation tool provides your team with a centralized platform for managing your user documentation which could be beneficial in several ways:

A. Efficient Teamwork and Collaboration

• Saving Time through Real-Time Collaboration

There is no need to waste time sharing each Word document separately and waiting for feedback, comments, or revisions. This shared space helps your team effectively collaborate on writing manuals in real time, where you can also keep track of all the details, such as who made what kind of changes.

• Faster, More fun, and Cooperative Writing.

Writing could sometimes be challenging, mainly when those long pauses of indecision occur. Sometimes you don't know where to begin, what, and how to write. A short start by one of your colleagues or sometimes even a single sentence by somebody else could give you a good idea of what to do and inspire you to continue writing. Working with a team of writers in a collaborative environment that facilitates brainstorming could stimulate innovation and creativity.

• Eliminating Verbal Decision Making

The ability to comment and edit in a shared platform decreases verbal decision-making while keeping track of changes and written decisions in one place for future reference. 

• Get Notified of Each Step

Take your time doing other tasks—no need to follow up and constantly check your documents for revisions. You'll be notified of new changes, comments, reviews, and approvals.

B. All Manuals in One Place

You create a separate specialized space for your instruction manuals to find and manage your manuals and access relevant people recruited to collaborate.

C. Onboarding new members

Onboarding new members are much easier when you get them straight to where they need to be. It provides them with all the materials necessary to integrate into the organization and familiarize them with your product/services and user documentation.

3. Creating Rich Content Easily

Inserting videos and sound clips from different sources is much easier using online manual writing software than Microsoft Word.

4. Managing variants

Creating and managing several variants of a single document is another advantage of online platforms over Microsoft Word. It helps you add new manual versions, guides of different products in a series, etc., as multiple variants of the original file instead of creating a separate file.

5. Easier, Cheaper, Yet More Precise Translations

• Auto-Translation

Sonat benefits from integrating powerful translation tools that automatically translate all your content into your selected languages in a twinkle of an eye. It sure saves you a great deal of time and money.

• Delivering Full and Precise Translation

Unlike Microsoft Word, where your translation may come in a completely different file, you can add translations as other dimensions to your original document using online user manual creators. Therefore, all topics are automatically created in your translated version, making it impossible to miss a case. It helps you deliver a more precise translation of your user manual.

• Facilitating Collaboration Between the Original Technical Writers and the Translators

Translators could work on the document in the same place as technical writers, which helps with straightforward communication and collaboration between writers and translators.

6. Successful Feedback Collection

You're probably aware of the importance of feedback on user manuals. Manufacturers often dedicate a section to the feedback in their manual to collect users' opinions and customer experiences about the product and its documentation. The process of submitting feedback is a big bummer for many users, and They often ignore it even if they're willing to do it. Online tools like Sonat give you this option to enable feedback on your publication. Therefore, rating and sending feedback would be as easy as pie, and users are more likely to do it this way.

7. Boosting Your Business

Online tools provide you with an automated manual process. Automatic measuring of SEO metrics of your content is another advanced feature that online tools could provide without needing third-party software. It helps you monitor and improve those parameters without effort, resulting in improved marketing and business.

8. Publishing Directly

• Easy Update and Publishing

Using an all-in-one online tool where you can both write and publish creates two separate worlds for you in the same place. You can immediately publish multiple topics on your custom domain through a single click as soon as you finish writing. In comparison, the direct publication is not possible on Microsoft Word.

• Supervised Publishing

Does anyone need to approve the manual before publishing? Is reviewing by some supervisors a must? By using an online free user manual creator like Sonat, you can set different rules and prerequisites for publication, such as metrics that define text quality, SEO parameters, or approvals by reviewers and supervisors. This way, your user manual won't be published until it meets every requirement you've defined and everyone does their duty.

9. Access on Multiple Devices and Platforms

By replacing Microsoft Word with modern online solutions, you can ensure that your documentation looks good on different devices and that your users access your manuals through various platforms. Moreover, you could always check a preview of your user manuals before publishing.

Conclusion

Considering all advantages of online documentation tools over Microsoft word, we believe it's time to move to a specialized tool for documenting your manuals. Sonat is a free modern documentation tool to create and manage online user manuals, user guides, knowledge bases, instructions, and tutorials. It's a powerful tool that provides you with everything you need in one place to create and publish a professional manual. Start writing your user guide using Sonat's Free User Manual Templates without pause and hesitation. Sonat's free templates are classified into seven categories to help you choose the best match and write a perfect manual in the shortest time.