Tom Mulhern

Technical Writer • Marketing Writer • Editor

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QuickStart Guides

QuickStart guides come in many forms and sizes. Some stand alone, especially in the case of a simple product, and some are the only printed material to ship with a product (if the full manual is online and is not printed). In many cases, a quickstart guide fulfills a requirement set by a government agency, providing the basics of a product's operation.

Here are samples of QuickStart guides I've created, all targeted to cover common tasks, simple installation, maintenance, or all of these.    

RAELink3 QuickStart Guide
The backbone of one type of wireless communication system for portable gas monitors required extreme clarity, not only in operating the unit, but in how to interconnect with a base station computer and how to configure it. The unit has a simple interface that consists of three buttons and a display, but it's vital that the user understand exactly how to connect it to the intended network and what the display shows.               

RAELink3

RAE-Sep Tube Cartridge QuickStart Guide
This QuickStart Guide is as bare-bones and concise as possible, relying on illustrations to show the user how to properly use a very interesting cartridge that can very easily be used incorrectly. Printed on a single sheet and then laminated with a protective plastic covering, it fulfilled the requirement of guiding the user without making them spend a lot of time in the field thinking about it.   

RAE-Sep

RAELink3 Mesh System Configuration Guide
This two-sided laminated sheet is designed as the ultimate "how-to" and reference for a wireless system that can accommodate nine different products and self-builds and self-heals (should one of its nodes go offline). Various types of configurations are detailed, as well as the "rules of the game" concerning the distance each component of the network can cove, as well as critical steps in the start-up order.    

RAELink3 Config Guide