Training manual templates | Writing tips

To write an effective training manual, you need to carefully consider the needs of your trainees. What are the key skills that they will need to be successful? The instructions in this post will help you to carefully craft your training materials for optimal effectiveness, and you'll find other helpful resources to make the job easier.

If you need a training manual template, click here.

1. Define the scope of your training.

Outline the scope of your training. Which skills are the most essential for trainees to learn? Be sure to consider what your audience already knows about the subject. For product training manuals, get as much feedback as possible from product support staff, developers, sales associates, and the customers themselves. For employee training, clearly define the tasks employees must learn to be effective on the job, and be sure to get feedback from existing employees.

2. Create list of procedures or policies.

Use your outline to generate a list of procedures that trainees need to complete. Much of the writing process will be focused on procedures. For example, "Creating a new account". These procedures should be ordered in a manner that allows your audience to learn progressively more difficult tasks. Each procedure should build upon knowledge from previous procedures.

3. Use your template to draft your procedures or policies.

Open your template and use the placeholders to fill in the details for your procedures and other content. After you are finished, write introductory content for each procedure that tells trainees what they will learn. Follow each policy or procedure by summarizing what was learned.

4. Add graphics to enhance learning.

Adding graphics to your training content will help trainees understand concepts more clearly. A graphic should be used when a visual explanation gets your point across more effectively than text, or enhances what is explained in the text to address visual learners. Also, be sure to add your corporate logo to the cover page to help establish your brand.

5. Add navigation aids.

After drafting your content, use the navigation sections in your template to add a table of contents and index. These tools will help trainees find important information quickly.

6. Have others review your work.

Ask other experts on your product or process to review your training manual or other training documents to ensure accuracy, and that you've covered the necessary content.

These steps should help you in writing a training manual that will help your trainees become experts.

Books on writing training manuals

Here is a list of highly-rated books to help you through the process.

  • "The Training Design Manual: The Complete Practical Guide to Creating Effective and Successful Training Programmes" by Tony Bray
  • "Developing Training Courses : A Technical Writer's Guide to Instructional Design and Development" by Rives Hassell-Corbiell
  • "Writing Training Materials That Work: How to Train Anyone to Do Anything" by Wellesley R. Foshay, Kenneth H. Silber, and Michael Stelnicki
  • "How to Write & Prepare Training Materials" by Nancy Stimson
  • "Preparing Instructional Objectives: A Critical Tool in the Development of Effective Instruction" by Robert F. Mager

Off site reviews - 6 ways to exchange edits

Coordinating a document review can be a tedious process. However, the task is even more difficult when reviewers work in another location and can't quickly exchange comments via paper. Fortunately, technology is presenting writers with new options for handling off-site reviews.

Here are some of the options to consider when working with off-site reviewers.

  • Create a PDF of your document and provide it to a shared network location, or email it to reviewers. Reviewers can then use Adobe Acrobat's robust review features to add comments to the PDF. If you use the latest version of FrameMaker, you can import review comments directly into your document and edit them.
  • If you work in Word, you can share the file via email or network and reviewers can use Track Changes to insert their changes into the file. The Track Changes feature allows you to accept or reject reviewer changes on a case-by-case basis or all at once. You can merge changes into your original document, or just use the tracked changes as a go-by copy if you wish to incorporate them manually.
  • If Word's Track Changes feature isn't your cup of tea, you can use the Compare feature to see what reviewers have changed. Just compare the file containing each reviewer's changes to your original to see what edits were made.
  • Use a wiki. Many collaborative wiki-like tools have revision tracking so that you can see who has made changes. Also, this allows reviewers to see each others' comments during the review, so they have a chance to respond; this isn't possible if they all look at a separate copy of a document.
  • Invest in a document repository tool with version tracking. Such tools allow you to add a document to a repository, specify reviewers, and then automate the review process. The tool will track revisions and handle reminders for each reviewer.
  • Stick with email, and develop a simple notation that reviewers can use for submitting comments. For example, ask them to include the page number and then a short description for each change. Use strikeout and underline formatting to indicate deletions and additions.

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