Once your manual is written and produced, it’s time to distribute it and start to think about how it’s going to be maintained. Too many organizations stop thinking about a manual once it has been produced and allow the manual to go out of date. The result is a manual that quickly becomes unreliable, and one that staff don’t trust. Think of manuals as going through two phases: the planning and development phase, and the maintenance phase.
Increasingly, organizations are also using electronic, or online methods of distributing and accessing their manuals. Staff members can then obtain access to a manual using their computer. Online manuals can dramatically cut the amount of time it takes to get information into the hands of the people who need it, as well as significantly reducing printing costs.
In this chapter, we’ll cover:
