Talk:User guide

Old merge discussion (2007/2008)
Hi, I believe this page (User_guide)should be merged with Owners_manual.

Calvinleemk 20:07, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree. It is also known as "user manual". The user of a car is not always the owner, so this is not the reason to make a difference between owner's manual and user guide or user manual. All this terms may refer to many things. The software user manual is described in a section of Software_documentation. Arauzo 23:53, 2 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Completely disagree and call into question the sanity, intelligence, breeding, intellect, education, lineage, and species of whomever was insane, stupid, ill-brought up, ignorant, unschooled, bastardly, and inhuman enough to suggest it in the first place. The distinction between an owner and a licensee is reason enough for the distinction.139.48.25.61 (talk) 19:05, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Yeah an owner, licensee and user are not the same things. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.79.111.33 (talk) 09:24, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

A user's manual is not the same as an owner's manual because of the distinction between owner and licensee previously mentioned. User's manuals are usually for software, and owner's manuals are usually for equipment. Arthemise (talk) 20:57, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Definately Agree, with the above three comments. These should not be merged at all. An owners Manual and a user guide are two different things. It's the difference between operating a car and maintaining a car. They should not be merged, but there should definately be a comment on each explaining the difference and linking to the other. 202.12.233.23 (talk) 22:16, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

User guide versus User manual
As a practitioner who sometimes writes user guides and/or user manuals for computer software products, I offer the following thoughts:
 * There is a significant difference between a user guide and a user manual, which is not mentioned in this article.
 * This article would benefit from a section titled Computer software user guide.
 * The section on Car user's manual does not belong here.
 * There is justification for a separate article on User manual, with a section titled Computer software user manual.

For examples that illustrate some of the differences between a user guide and a user manual, see these websites: Downsize43 (talk) 01:35, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Google Earth User Guide
 * Starta User Manual

Where is the apostrophe?
I noticed that Wikipedia shamelessly removes the apostrophe in articles like User guide or Tourist guide. But I don’t agree. An “Installation guide” would be without apostrophe because it is a guide about installation. But user guides are not about users, they are written for them. A linguistic evolution does not become good just because many people are stupid enough to follow it. If you have difficulties to remember how it is correct, I recommend reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

If nobody argues against me, it might happen that I'll try to create a new article User's guide and make User guide redirect to it. --LucSaffre (talk) 05:15, 29 September 2015 (UTC)