Questions to answer before you start

• Who is eligible to use this software?

• What platform(s) does it run on?

• Any specific version/patch requirements for any (or all) platforms?

Page/section templates:

(service)/installation.html

• Page overview
  • What this software does
  • Who can benefit from it
  • Grid of installation directions by platform, linking to pages like (service)/windows7.html, (service)/windowsvista.html, (service)/macosx6.html, (service)/macosx7.html, (service)/android.html, (service)/iphone.html, etc.
  • Link to “using” software collection
  • Link to uninstallation directions (if any)
  • Link to frequently asked questions
  • Link to help/support

(service)/windows7.html (and others, usually sorted by OS name)

• Introduction
  • Who should/can install this software
  • System requirements: Hardware, OS, other software/patches

• Where/how to download/buy this software
  • If some special unpacking/uncompressing/license key process is needed, describe it here

• Configuring this software
  • Launch the software from (wherever it normally installs to)
  • Navigate menus to configuration/preferences area
  • What to click/enter

• First launch
  • Anything you’ll need to do the first time you run this software that you won’t need to do later on

• Troubleshooting
  • If it doesn’t install/configure right, what do you try? Who do you contact?

• Next steps
  • (link to documentation about how to use the software once you have it installed, configured, and running)

What NOT to put in the installation pages / what to put in pages of their own

Keep the “general use” instructions separate from the installation instructions.

People only need to use the installation instructions once. They’re much more likely to refer back to the usage instructions for “how do you do X again?” Don’t keep everything on the same page and make them scroll through the installation instructions to get to “how do you do X again?”