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Customizing your manual
Customizing your manual
This section will discuss the various customization options that are available to change the look of your live manuals to your own liking, or to match your company’s branding. Adding logos and changing colors
Publishing your manual
Publishing your manual
Writing a good manual is one thing, but of course the goal is to make it available online for your readers. Luckily, in most cases, there’s nothing you need to do: everything you write and save is live and online immediately. But there’s a bit more to it,…
Translating your manual
Managing topics » Languages » Translating your manual
Once you created an extra language in your manual, of course the next step is to actually translate the content. There’s two ways to translate your topic (or have them translated): Translating directly in Manula Using a Translation File
Linking to your online manual
Getting Started » Linking to your online manual
One of the benefits of using Manula for your online manuals is that your manuals are live and available online instantly, hosted on Manula servers. There is no need to arrange your own server or hosting. No need to upload HTML files and images to the internet. As…
Creating a manual
Getting Started » Creating a manual
When you log into your account, you will arrive at your Account Dashboard, which holds all manuals you created. However, if you just created your Manula account, it will be completely empty. So let’s create your first manual now. Here’s how: Click the…
Managing Manual Versions
Managing topics » Managing Manual Versions
If you are writing manuals for a product that is regularly updated with new versions (software for example), you probably want to keep separate manuals online for the current version and all older versions. Manula’s Versions system makes it easy and efficient…
Adding your first topic
Getting Started » Adding your first topic
With a new manual created, it’s time to add some content, in the form of topic pages. This is done in the Manual Editor. (If you’re not in the Editor yet, you can go there from your Account Dashboard by clicking the title bar of one of your…
Integrating on your own domain
Publishing your manual » Integrating on your own domain
The default option for publishing your manuals online is to have them “hosted” on the manula.com domain. However, Manula also support publishing your manuals on your own domain. This “own domain” option shows your manuals on your own domain,…
Adding your own colors and logo
Getting Started » Adding your own colors and logo
By default, your live manual will have the standard “Manula-green” top bar, black headers and “Manula-green” links and no logos. The final “Getting Started” step is to customize your manual with your own colors and logo, so that it…
Adding logos and changing colors
Customizing your manual » Adding logos and changing colors
Adding your own logo Custom logos will appear on the top left of live manuals, above the Table of Contents (for example: the Manula logo in this manual). You can set a separate logo for each manual you create, so the logo settings are found in the Manual Properties…
I set my manual to Published, but it keeps saying “Draft”. Why?
Frequently Asked Questions » I set my manual to Published, but it keeps saying “Draft”. Why?
This is probably caused by the version of your manual still being in Draft mode. To fix this, open the manual in your manual editor, click the version name in the top bar to open the Version menu, then choose Manage Versions. In the Versions screen set the version to…
Getting Started
Getting Started
Welcome to Manula! Let’s get you started on your first online manual. We’ll discuss how to create a new manual and add some topics, how to arrange topics in your Table of Contents (ToC), some formatting tips (headers, bold text, bullets, etc…),…
Publishing on manula.com
Publishing your manual » Publishing on manula.com
With Manula, the default way to publish your manual online is to make it publicly accessible on the manula.com domain, for everyone to see. Setting your manual to “Publish Live” To make your manual available on the manula.com, there’s only one…
Private Manuals
Publishing your manual » Private Manuals
By default, your manuals are publicly accessible on the internet, for everyone to see. But for many types of manuals, that is not desirable. For instance, if you’re using Manula to create an employee handbook, you probably want this handbook accessible for your…
Using Variables
Managing topics » Sharing & Copying topics » Using Variables
The Variables system is a powerful tool to make your life easier. It lets you dynamically insert a piece of text into your topics. Variables are especially useful when you have multiple manuals and are sharing topics between them. However, even if you are managing only…
Downloadable manuals in PDF format
Publishing your manual » Downloadable manuals in PDF format
An online manual is great, but it does mean that your readers need to be connected to the internet to read it. So it’s good to provide an alternative, a downloadable PDF that users can download to their local computer or mobile device, for offline reading. Or…
Languages
Managing topics » Languages
Manula fully supports the localization of your manuals into multiple languages. Once your manual has multiple languages, readers of your live manual can switch between languages using the language selector in the top bar. Of course, you can also…
Setting Topic Slugs for URLs
Managing topics » Setting Topic Slugs for URLs
In your live manual, each topic has a unique URL. This is useful if you want to deeplink to a specific topic in your manual. Topic URLs are constructed like this: http://www.manula.com/manuals/[companyslug]/manualslug]/1.0/en/topic/[topicslug] (The CompanySlug can…
Sharing vs Copying
Managing topics » Sharing & Copying topics » Sharing vs Copying
First, let me explain the difference between Sharing Topics and Copying Topics and when you should use either method. Copying Topics When you copy a topic from another manual, the actual topic contents (Title, Body and Keyword) are copied to your current manual as a…
Working with Drafts
Managing topics » Working with Drafts
Saving as a Draft Normally, when you click the Save button to save your topic changes, the modified topic is live on the internet immediately. This is great if you’re making a small change to a topic. However, in some situations you may need to make larger…
Topic Revisions
Managing topics » Topic Revisions
The Revisions system lets you track changes made to a topic and also revert to older versions, either completely or partially. Every time you Save a topic, the Title, Body and Keywords are also saved as a new, time-stamped, Revision. You can reach the Revisions…
How can I disable the Print functionality?
Frequently Asked Questions » How can I disable the Print functionality?
Here’s how to disable the print features: Just add the following CSS code under the Custom CSS tab in your Manual Settings screen: #topic-header a.print-page { display: none; } @media print { * { display: none; } } Make sure to also check the “Include…
Can I import my existing documentation?
Frequently Asked Questions » Can I import my existing documentation?
Manula does not have a feature for automatically importing/converting existing manuals or documentation. So how I do get existing content into Manula? If you want to transfer documents to Manula, the quickest way is to: Think of a good manual structure and create…
Headers, Bold & Bullets
Getting Started » Headers, Bold & Bullets
Manula uses the popular Textile markdown language for formatting your manual topics. Textile is much easier than HTML and quicker than WYSIWYG editors, though initially it may take some getting used to. Here’s a quick introduction to creating headers, bold text…
Adding a language
Managing topics » Languages » Adding a language
Here’s how to add a language to your manual: In your Topic Editor, open the language menu from the top bar (to the left of the Search box) In the language menu, click the Manage Languages button, which will open the Language Manager screen. In the Language…
Linking to other topics
Formatting topics » Linking » Linking to other topics
In a good user manual, the topics are interlinked. It is good practice to use links to other topics, e.g. for more or related information. Manula makes it easy to create and maintain your inter-topic links by using readable topic IDs to identify the topic you’re…
Regular bullets
Formatting topics » Bullets » Regular bullets
Simple bullet lists Use *’s for regular bullets. E.g. if you type this in your editor: * This is a regular bullet * This is another one * And this is the last to get this in your live manual: This is a regular bullet This is another one And this is the…
Removing topics
Managing topics » Removing topics
Removing topics can only be done from the Edit Topic tab. So to delete a topic from your manual: Select it in the ToC on the left Switch to the Edit Topic tab at the top. Click the red Delete button on the bottom left. Confirm that you really want to delete by…
Adding images
Getting Started » Adding images
Any manual needs images, screen shots, product photos, logos, etc. Adding an image to your topics is a 2-step process: Upload the image to the Image Manager Insert the image from the Image Manager into your topic. Uploading and inserting a new image: Place…
Translating directly in Manula
Managing topics » Languages » Translating your manual » Translating directly in Manula
If you’re doing the translation yourself (or if you’re willing to give external translators Author level access), then the translation can be done straight into the Manula admin system, in your trusted topic editor. Just select the language you want to…
Indenting and block quotations
Formatting topics » Indenting and block quotations
Indenting text Indenting a paragraph of text is simple, just prefix your paragraph with “p(.”. Use multiple parentheses to indent more. For example: This is a normal paragraph without indentation. p(. This paragraph is indented. p((. This paragraph is…
Embedding videos
Adding images and videos » Embedding videos
Sometimes, a complicated task is easier to explain with a video. Manula makes this easy by just allowing the embedding of YouTube, Vimeo and Wistia videos into your manual topics. Just upload your video to YouTub, Vimeo or Wistia, add the video to your Media…
Re-arranging topics
Managing topics » Re-arranging topics
After you have created multiple topics, you will find they will all appear in your Table of Contents as one flat list. However, for most manuals you probably want a more structured list, that is, have your topic list divided into headers and sub-headers. Like the ToC…
Inserting images
Adding images and videos » Inserting images
Any manual needs images, screen shots, product photos, logos, etc. With Manula, you can easily insert any images into your topics, in a two-step process: first upload your image to the Image Manager, then insert from there into your text. Of course, once your image…
Using a Translation File
Managing topics » Languages » Translating your manual » Using a Translation File
If you’re having an external translation company doing the translation, they’ll probably ask you to send them a file containing the texts in the original, so that they can translate it and send it back to you. This is where the Export/Import Translation…
Adding topics & sub-topics
Managing topics » Adding topics & sub-topics
You can add new topics to your manual using the Add Topic button at the top left. Click the Add Topic button and the Topic Editor will appear on the right. Enter a topic title in the Title box, e.g. “My first topic”. Enter a topic body in big text…
Setting topic keywords
Managing topics » Setting topic keywords
The online manuals you create with Manula automatically come with a built-in Search feature on the top right. The Search feature produces a list of topics that best match the search words entered. The order of topics in the results is based on the appearance of the…
Tables
Formatting topics » Tables
The Textile formatting language allows the creation of simple table using pipe (|) characters. For example, entering this in your manual editor: |_. Plan |_. Price |_. #manuals |_. #authors |_. #topics | | Free | US $0.00 | 1 | 1 | 20 | | Solo | US $9.95 | 1 | 1 |…
Linking
Formatting topics » Linking
Creating links between topics is an essential part of any online manual. This chapter explains how to link to other topics within the same manual, how to link to external web-sites and how to create email links: Linking to other topics Linking to external…
Managing topics
Managing topics
In the manual section, we will discuss the creation of topics, including the details about saving as a draft, publishing topics and revisions. We’ll also explain the adding of languages and versions. Adding topics & sub-topics Re-arranging topics Removing…
Linking to external websites
Formatting topics » Linking » Linking to external websites
Want to include a link to an external website in your topic? For example, a link to your own site, like this. This is how to that: Place your text cursor inside your topic text, in the location where you want the topic link to appear. Alternatively, select the…
I updated the PDF, but it doesn’t show the changes. Why?
Frequently Asked Questions » I updated the PDF, but it doesn’t show the changes. Why?
That is probably just your browser showing you a cached copy of the PDF. If you force a “hard refresh” in your browser, it will show the changes. If you’re unsure how to hard refresh your specific browser, here’s how.
Using Info and Warning Boxes
Formatting topics » Using Info and Warning Boxes
The Banners section of the toolbar lets you insert page wide Information and Warning boxes. Information Boxes Code like this p(banner tip). This is an Information Box. It supports multiple lines of text and will automatically grow to fit its content. Use this for…
In the top bar, can I add a link back to my own website?
Frequently Asked Questions » In the top bar, can I add a link back to my own website?
Yes, this is possible: Use the black Settings button on the top right to go to the Account Settings page. At the top, click the Customize tab There, under “Link Company Name in Top Bar”, choose “Company website”. Click Save Changes at the…
Sharing & Copying topics
Managing topics » Sharing & Copying topics
If you’re maintaining multiple manuals, for multiple different products, there will always be topics that are the same (or very similar) in each of your manuals. The more similar your products are, the more this will be the case. Manula provides two different…
Integrity Checker
Managing topics » Integrity Checker
The Integrity Checker tool automatically checks all topics of your manuals for: Broken topic links: links to topics that do not exist (anymore). Missing images: references to images that do not exist in the Image Library (anymore). Undefined variables: inserted…
Topic visibility
Managing topics » Topic visibility
When you create a topic and publish it by clicking Save and Publish, the topic is immediately visible online and included in the Table of Contents. However, in some cases, you may want to control the public visibility of a topic. This is done using the Visibility…
Code blocks
Formatting topics » Code blocks
If you have a technical product, you may want to include snippets of code in your topics, either in HTML or any other programming language. And of course, if you include code, you want it to be output as is, and not interpreted by either our Textile parser or the…
Adding images and videos
Adding images and videos
Most manuals needs images and videos, here’s how to insert those into your topics: Inserting images Embedding videos