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Home > E-manuals

E-manuals

More About E-manuals

What Kinds of Manuals?

  • Policies and procedures
  • Standard operating procedures (SOPs)
  • HR manuals and employee handbooks
  • Business process documentation
  • Computer/software documentation (systems and end-user)
  • Equipment operations and maintenance documentation
  • Training courses and materials

Why E-manual?

  • Easy to use. Readers can find information fast using the expandable table of contents, alphabetical index, or search—no more wading through oversized print documents.

  • Cheap. You don’t need to buy (or worse, develop) an expensive application for your online text. E-manual is ready to use now, and priced to fit within most budgets. Use the quote form and we’ll show you how little it costs.

  • Fast to create. When your text is ready to go, we’re ready to go. Set-up time depends on the size of the document and amount of customization.

  • Easy to maintain. All you need is a single site licence for Adobe Dreamweaver (USD $399)—with more than 3 million users worldwide, it’s the industry-leading tool for creating and maintaining web sites. Or we can maintain it for you—that’s even easier.
  • Subject experts can revise content. As an option, subject experts with little or no web authoring experience can easily maintain the content using Adobe Contribute, a companion product to Dreamweaver (USD $199). And Contribute also lets you control the publishing process.

  • Say goodbye to printing and mailing costs. E-manuals are far easier and cheaper to maintain than print manuals. For many organizations, the savings in printing costs alone during the first year can more than offset the initial conversion cost.

  • Fully customizable. Insert your logo, choose colours, select a type face, add a button—you have virtually unlimited options for changing the look and feel of your E-manual. Or show us your website design and we’ll customize it for you.

  • Related information is only a click away. Readers can link to related information such as forms, legislation, web sites, and other online resources.

  • All instructions are provided. Comes with a complete set of instructions so that your staff can maintain your E-manual, and a detailed style guide to help authors write and produce better content.

  • Supports multimedia. Go ahead, add graphics, animation, photos, video, audio—or whatever you want to enhance the text.

  • Printer friendly. No worries about trunctuated line endings or clipped banners. Make your print-dependent users happy and satisfy any possible need to keep a print master copy without having to maintain a separate set of electronic files.

  • Scalable. There’s virtually no limit to the size or number of E-manuals you can have—create a library of information.

  • Archive old content. Sometimes readers need to see an old section. E-manual lets them go back to any point in time and see what policy or process was in place. (optional)

E-manual Features

Find out more about various E-manual features.

Sample E-manual

View a functioning sample e-Manual.

Adobe Contribute

Adobe Contribute is optional third-party software that allows subject experts with little or no web authoring experience to create or revise content. Contribute also manages the revision process by assigning roles and providing appropriate access to each. Writers create and edit pages, but cannot publish. Publishers can create, edit, review, and publish pages. Administrators assign roles and access rights, and perform other administration functions.

You can deploy Contribute now or anytime in the future, and use it to maintain your E-manual, as well as other web pages.

The Specs

  • E-manuals can be viewed using any standard web browser. No additional plug-ins are needed.

  • If desired, E-manuals can be launched from a CD or from the desktop (search feature is not available without a server).

  • Uses a custom-designed Adobe Dreamweaver template. Requires a site licence for Dreamweaver to maintain your E-manual.

  • Onboard search engine is compatible with most servers.

  • Compatible file formats for input documents include Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, FrameMaker, WordPerfect, HTML, and others (contact us).

What We Do

  • Customize your E-manual with your logo, graphics, colour choices, and other options.
  • Convert your existing print or online manual to an E-manual.
  • Create the index and table of contents.
  • Upload to your web site or server so you can test it.

Optional Services

  • Help you design and write your E-manual.
  • Edit or revise existing content.
  • Train your staff to maintain the E-manual.
  • Provide ongoing email and telephone support.
  • Maintain the E-manual for you.

FAQs

Q: We have to make some content changes to the manual first. Do we have to do that ourselves, or can you help us?

A: We can help edit and finalize your manual—collectively, we have more than 50 years of experience writing and editing manuals of all kinds.

Q: Does E-manual need any fancy software or programming to work on our server?

A: No. There’s no special software or applications needed to host your E-manual.

Q: Once it’s set up, can we revise E-manual ourselves?

A: Of course. We designed E-manual so that you can maintain it. Once it’s set up, we turn over all the files to you. You’ll need a site licence for Adobe Dreamweaver, and as an option, one or more site licences for Adobe Contribute, which allows content experts with little or no web authoring experience to maintain the content.

Q: Are you affiliated with Adobe in any way?

A: No, we just like their software.

Past Clients

Organizations using online documents designed by Duncan Kent & Associates Ltd.:

  • Abbotsford School District
  • Alberta Personnel Administration Office
  • BC Buildings Corporation
  • BC Hydro
  • BC Ministry of Energy and Mines
  • BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks
  • BC Ministry of Forests – Range Branch
  • BC Ministry of Human Resources
  • BC Ministry of Provincial Revenue
  • BC Ministry of Transportation and Highways
  • BC Public School Employers Association
  • BC Public Service Agency
  • BC Transmission Corporation
  • Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
  • Dolby Laboratories
  • Emergco (emergency equipment manufacturer)
  • Great Canadian Gaming Corporation
  • Greater Vancouver Regional District
  • Insurance Corporation of BC
  • Prospera Credit Union
  • Richmond Fire Rescue
  • Smart & Biggar / Fetherstonhaugh (law firm)
  • West Vancouver School District
  • Worker’s Compensation Board