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Making Your Manual Look Good




Now that you are well on your way to developing your content for your policy and procedure manual, it is time to consider the format.

Even though your manual will have valuable information, it will not benefit your staff if no one reads it. How can you design and format the manual so that it is easy to read and digest?

In this lesson, we will consider the appearance of your manual. It is critical that you pay attention to how the manual looks to the reader, because its appearance reflects the professionalism of your company.

Key elements to consider are:

Organization
Clear headings
Appropriate text sizes
White space
Visual elements
Paper quality
Cover and binding
Online version, electronic distribution

Organization. Some of your favorite novels and movies might start in the middle and switch back and forth from the past to the present. While those changes in time may be effective in fiction, they will not work with your policy and procedure manual.

A typical printed manual has a cover, a title page, a foreword or introduction, the Table of Contents, the policies and procedures, and index.

Use your Table of Contents as your guide to organizing your main information. Number your policies and procedures for easy reference. Both your main sections and any sub-sections should be numbered.

You can number your sub-sections with a decimal format.

Section 1. Safety and Health

  1. 1.1  Emergency preparedness

  2. 1.2  Personal hygiene

  3. 1.3  Equipment cleaning

Another important means of organizing your manual is to number your pages. All business documents that are more than a few pages long should have page numbers. When you link your table of contents with those page numbers, your readers will be able to find what they are looking for.

Remember that these page numbers will change as you finalize your document, and again when you make revisions later.

Headings

The headings for each section should clearly state the procedure or policy it contains. The wording should make it easy for an employee to find that information. For instance, if a worker is seeking information on the dress code, your workplace policy should be filed under the heading "Dress Code." If other terms are often used in your company for work clothes, such as the word "uniform," you can also use that word in your index to direct readers to the "Dress Code" section.

The sub-sections in your policies and procedures should also have clear headings. For example, your "Personal Electronics" section may contain subsections called "Texting" and "Social Media."

Use your Table of Contents to outline your guide, and to make sure that all appropriate policies and procedures are covered in your manual. In addition to making your manual easy to read, this outline format will also make it easy for you to make updates and revisions to your manual, as they are needed.



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