Both your team and your customers will thank you for having user guides. Good user guides not only make customers happier but also cut down on the number of help tickets your team gets about a product or service.
One small problem is that it can be challenging to write user guides. It’s hard to make step-by-step guides that your team and buyers will actually follow because of legal requirements, complicated formatting, and technical documentation.
You don’t have to be an expert writer to write a grand user manual, which is good news. You only need good tools for user guides. User manual software makes your work easier, gives your help team more power, and makes the whole experience for your customers better.
A new item is only valid when it can be used. Make sure your customers can use your product. If they can’t, it doesn’t matter how many problems it solves or how helpful it is to them.
That can be done by giving good technical instructions to people who will be using your product.
Making an informative user manual can help fill in any knowledge gaps, speed up the hiring process, keep customers from leaving, and encourage them to adopt your product. And with the right tool, it’s easier than ever to make, distribute, and update your user manual.
Top Online User Manual Tools for 2024
You can read about Online User Manual Tools in this post. Here are some details:
Luckily, there are many tools you can use to not only make an online user guide but also keep it up to date. In addition to making users happier, these tools will also help you cut down on support costs.
We’ll look at 11 free tools for creating user manuals that will help you make a better one that keeps people coming back.
1. Whatfix
Whatfix is an easy-to-use software that lets you make interactive instructions and user guides. It gives you advice inside the app, data, and connections to other apps. Whatfix lets you make step-by-step guides that users can use in the application or on your website to help them with different tasks.
2. Helpjuice
Helpjuice is an easy-to-use tool for making user guides and knowledge bases. Its editor panel is simple, so you can make multiple versions of a piece and easily switch between them. You can set permissions, organise content, and use tools like dragging and dropping files, linking them together, and intelligent analytics. It is possible to connect to well-known apps.
3. ClickHelp
ClickHelp is a cloud-based help authoring tool that lets you share your work in a number of different formats. It lets you import files, reuse material, and do detailed analytics and reporting. ClickHelp lets users see different documents and versions of them in a single portal. This makes it easier to keep manuals up to date and handle them.
4. Dozuki
Dozuki is a tool for industrial and frontline workers to keep records and learn new skills. It replaces paper-based instructions with material that is both visual and written, adding safety standards and guidelines to user manuals. Built-in data and ongoing training help users keep up with standards and ensure safety and efficiency.
5. Paligo
Paligo has advanced features that make it easier to make and handle user guides. Its structured authoring environment lets you set up a clear content hierarchy by breaking up documentation into chapters and parts. The platform has an easy-to-use XML editor that makes editing and managing structured material easier for people with different levels of technical knowledge.
6. Notion
All of your wikis, documents, and projects can be found in one place in Notion. It also has a powerful AI tool built right in. Notion gives you blank pages that you can use to build and change things with “blocks.” You can add text, tables, and checklists, or you can insert pictures, links, and other things from Asana, Github, and other apps you use.
The Notion gallery has a vast number of templates that can help you get started. You can also make your designs. You and your team can efficiently work together to make new pages and let your customers know about any changes or improvements to your products.
7. Scribe
In just a few seconds, Scribe makes step-by-step guides for you. As you do a job or activity, all you have to do with the Scribe extension is record your screen. The platform will do the rest. Scribe will make user guides for you that include GIFS, pictures, and steps that you can give to your clients.
Scribe takes away the hassle of having to write down your task processes by hand. Subject matter experts only need to do the work, and you’ll get a complete guide at the end. You won’t have to worry about scheduling hours for endless reviews or missing an important step.
8. Document360
Document360 is a knowledge-based platform that can be used both inside and outside of your company. This means that you can build, store, and manage both private content for your team and documentation for customers that they can see all in one place. Document360 can be used to make FAQ pages, user tips, self-help books, and more.
Users will be able to find the help they need right when they need it with your Document360 knowledge base living in an in-app window. To make your user guides even better, Document360 can connect to well-known third-party tools like chatbots, translation services, and tracking tools.
9. HelpDocs
You can create, host, and keep an eye on self-service knowledge material with HelpDocs. With HelpDocs, all you have to do is use the custom text editor to make an “article” that looks like a document. The platform will take care of the rest. Put your articles in order by topic or use themes that are optimised for SEO to make searches quick and easy.
A tool called “Stale” is built into HelpDocs, which makes it easy to find pages that may be out of date or need to be updated. You can even set articles to go live at a later time, which lets you write content ahead of time to match new products or changes that are coming.
10. Speach.me
Speech. It is a library of how-to videos for businesses. It only takes a few minutes to record, edit, and improve videos with things like voiceovers, quizzes, calls to action, notes, and more. Put finished video versions into websites, learning management systems, or other tools that are already out there to make sharing them easy.
Speech. It works great for business teams with many end users. With the Enterprise Suite, it’s easy to manage content for various teams in different places, giving them both company-wide information and advice based on their location or user.
11. Bit.ai
Bit.ai is a platform for managing information and documentation from start to finish. It has a lot of features for working together that are meant to make teams work better. There is a content library, intelligent search, controls that can be changed, and flexible editor rights on the digital content management platform.
With this writing tool, it’s simple to make templates, logos, themes, and other things that give users a unique experience. With features like password protection and link tracking, you can share private content without worrying that it will get into the wrong hands. Visual embeds and links help you make complete user guides.
12. ClickUp
Yeah, the world’s most flexible project management platform is also a good tool for making user guides. In ClickUp Docs, you can make user guides together with people from IT, customer service, marketing, HR, and other departments in real-time. ClickUp lets you make Docs and quickly link them to your processes, tasks, and projects so you can make manuals with just a click.
Did we also say that we had templates for training manuals? Do not prepare a Doc; select a ClickUp template and start working. To make your information base, you should use the ClickUp Wiki template. This free template has subsections, headings, and a table of topics that will make writing a lot easier.
13. Nuclino
The “collective brain” Nuclino brings together information, documentation, and project management all in one place. With advanced filters, this user manual software keeps all of your papers and information in order. It even has templates for user guides for keeping track of projects, meeting minutes, department-specific wikis, and more.
14. GitBook
GitBook is a special kind of user guide tool made for tech teams. GitBook makes it possible for engineering teams to store all of their essential technical data in one place instead of spreading it out across multiple platforms. For a better user experience, put together troubleshooting guides, installation directions, and operation manuals in one place. Its AI-first design makes it easy to find information that can be shared in Slack messages, existing documentation, and other places.