My first shortwave radio was a Nanaola 10NT-5-4 circa 1965. It didn’t have much of a manual, but it didn’t need much because there weren’t that many controls.
Since then I’ve owned over 100 radios and see many manuals. Some radio manuals leave questions unanswered, and some just don’t make sense. Some of them were top notch, for example the Tecsun PL-330, and some were pretty bad, like the XHDATA D-808. The D-808 manual irritated me so much that I rewrote it from scratch.
To their credit, XHDATA is in the process of replacing the manual according to an email I got from them. I’ve also given Qodosen some suggestions to improve their DX-286 manual.
Writing a Manual
The D-808 manual was written using Microsoft Publisher because it’s designed for publications. It’s good for booklets and brochures. However, it is not something I’m all that familiar with and it’s used less often by non-professionals like me. Microsoft Word is more familiar and more commonly used. I’m engaging in this thought process because I encountered a truly awful manual this week, from a company known for their truly awful manuals, HanRongDa. The radio is the HanRongDa HRD-757. I won’t go into further details about that manual and its problems here — that’s not the point of this article. It’s about writing a replacement.
Audience
I’ve decided for my next manual not to attempt to design something for printing, but solely for electronic viewing. That simplifies the process and removes page layout tasks. I’m assuming that the reader wants to know what the product can do, and how to use it.
The HanRongDa HRD-757 Project
The manufacturers manual for the HRD-757 is divided into two main parts: describing the display/buttons and explaining how to accomplish certain tasks. The problem is that one has to look in multiple places to find things. That’s complicated by the character set the PDF file uses that renders it non-searchable. I can’t copy and paste either:
5IJTJTBIJHIQFSGPSNBODF.VMUJCBOESBEJP’PSNPSFEFUBJMT QMFBTFSFBEUIJTNBOVBM