Read https://web.archive.org/web/20150715004105/http://online-learning.com/five-tips-writing-user-manual/.
Lab 4 is a User Manual. The pseudo-informal nature of such a document lets you:
Treat the prose as if you are looking directly at someone who has just purchased your product. They have just invested in you. You are grateful (and helpful) as a result. The first section should tell them that.
“Thank you for buying our product! Your problems will no longer exist! We have designed this exciting new software so that it is easy to use…”
User manuals are filled with:
Yes… formal stuff. While you have latitude to write in a more conversational style, we can not relax all the rules. You must still include:
Formatting must be consistent. This includes the standard fare:
and considerations in your figures. If you are annotating figures, you must do so consistently. Consider a case where you need to enumerate elements in a figure (usually a screenshot).
It does not matter which method you choose. Just be consistent. This includes font and color.
Every User Interface (UI) screen should (there may be a few exceptions…) be included in the user manual.