Content

Article

A type of content you can create with Inline Manual. Use this feature to create longer documents, like knowledge base tutorials. When you add an Article, it will appear in the Widget.

Checklist

Shows which Walkthroughs a user has completed and which they haven't. You can choose to set this up so users must complete each Step in sequence, or you can give your users the freedom to tackle Walkthroughs in any order they choose.

Feedback

A survey for your users. You can use the Feedback feature to get reliable responses. Write your question, add images or video, and you're ready to go. Below your content, users see a five-point Likert Scale to choose from with expressions ranging from displeasure to delight. You can label the expressions to suit your needs.

Hotspot

A style of Launcher that's an animated, pulsing icon. Hotspots are handy, for example, when you want to draw attention to new features. See: Launcher.

Launcher

Appears in your application as a clickable Tooltip, Hotspot, or Text. Placing a Launcher makes it possible for your users to start a Walkthrough on their own or open a Tooltip from anywhere on your Site.

Permalink

A direct link to the content you've created. Use this link within your knowledge base or in an email to redirect users to a page with the specific guide or tutorial.

Popover

A modal window; a graphical box visible onscreen.

Redirect

An internal or external link that, upon clicking, leads to a specified URL. Use Redirects to send users to another website.

Step

A typical Step in a Walkthrough might include a popover message highlighting an element or a welcome message with an introductory video.

Tooltip

A style of Launcher that's a static, clickable UI element that provides additional information about specific parts of your application and appears as a red question mark. See: Launcher.

Topic

Any content created with Inline Manual. It can be a Walkthrough, Tooltip, Article, Feedback form, Redirect, or Folder.

Walkthrough

A step-by-step guide. Use Walkthroughs to get your users exploring, learn new features, or perform specific tasks. Walkthroughs are designed to get users to follow steps to accomplish a desired goal.

Widget

A menu for the content you've created with Inline Manual. You can use it to list Walkthroughs and Articles that your users can select. By default, the Widget appears in the lower right corner of a Site with the title "Inline Manual" You can customize the title, placement, design, and available content.

Design and Customization

Backdrop

Darkens the area around a selected element or popover message. Add an Outline around an element or Step popover to highlight it. Lock down tours and keep users from clicking anything but a selected element or Step popover with a Cover.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheet. CSS describes how HTML elements are displayed on the screen. With CSS, you have more advanced options for customizing your Inline Manual content.

Selector

Defines the element from the application or website assigned to a Step, Launcher, Trigger, or Action. When the Assign button is used, a selector is automatically generated.

Step templates 

Templates make creating guides easier and faster. You can use existing templates, modify them, or create your own.

Settings and Configuration

Element

A specific element of your application, like a button, form field, or link. You can assign elements to the Steps of your Walkthroughs and Tooltips.

Path

Used to redirect users to a specific page when a Step is started. Paths are only available in Walkthroughs.

Triggers

Use a Trigger to respond to user actions such as clicking or hovering over assigned elements. With Triggers, you can fully control how your users go through guides. By default, Inline Manual proceeds from one Step to the next as soon as the user clicks the Next button. However, you can change the guide's flow. For example, you can set it up that if the user clicks the assigned element they go to a certain Step or Topic or that the Walkthrough gets deactivated.

Targeting and Analyzing

Analytics

Provides you with relevant data about your guides and users. Each report shows the count and increment/decrement percentage. It also displays a rankings preview for the top played/completed Walkthroughs, the number of Widget clicks per path, and a comparison chart for Walkthroughs launched vs completed.

Autolauncher

Lets you automatically launch Topics for specific groups of users. Autolaunchers will launch depending on the rules, segments, and options you set. For example, you can use this to launch a Topic to new users who created their account within the last 30 minutes.

Automation

With segments you've created you can make Topics that automatically launch for specific groups once conditions are met. See: Autolauncher.

Completions

The number of guides completed by a user. By default, a guide is completed when the last step of a Walkthrough is reached. You can change this in the Authoring Tool and choose which Step completes the guide.

Funnel

Allows you to measure how your customers move through your Topics. You can shed light on drop-off funnels and find out where users need help.

Hits

The number of page visits on the website.

People Tracking 

With Inline Manual you can follow users of your website and see reports describing who they are and how they behave. You can use these reports to discover where they're from, which tutorials they've completed, and their latest activity. Enabling People Tracking allows you to use Analytics and Automation.

Segment

A specific group of users. See: Segmentation.

Segmentation

Used to create segments within your user base. You can identify groups of users based on their behavior or roles. Use this feature to send different messages to different groups of users.

Management and Publishing

Diagnostic tool

Helps troubleshoot potential problems. The Diagnostic tool checks the currently viewed Site in the browser against the active Site you provided in the Authoring Tool.

HEAD

The current and latest version of your content.

Release

A named state of a Revision.

Revision

Each time you edit a Topic, a new Revision is created. This means you can see when the content was changed and revert it back to a previous Revision.

Site

Your application, the one for which you want to create content.

Site ID

The unique ID number of a Site you've created. You can find a Site's ID in the Portal (it's the number in the URL of a given Site).

Tags

Used to identify Topics more easily. Tags appear in the Topic list when you add them to a Site.

Topic ID

The unique ID number of a Topic you've created. You can find a Topic's ID in the Authoring Tool (it's the number below the Topic's title) or in the Portal (it's the number in parentheses, next to the Topic's title). The ID is also visible in the URL of a given Topic.

Version control system

Helps you manage changes to Topics over time. You can safely develop and test new tutorials on your staging environment and push them to production when you're ready to go live.

Implementation

Authoring Tool

A Chrome extension that allows you to create and edit content for your application: Walkthroughs, Tooltips, Feedback forms, Redirects, and Articles. You can install the Authoring Tool and begin creating your in-app Walkthroughs and tutorials at any time, but they won't play for your users until the Player has been installed on your Site.

Frames

A frame or an iframe is an HTML element embedded inside another HTML element on a website. The iframe is often used to insert content from another source. For example, an advertisement or a survey.

Integrations

Currently, we support integrations with Google Analytics, Heap Analytics, Intercom, Kissmetrics, Marketo, Segment, and/or Woopra.

Player

The Inline Manual software that displays the Widget, Articles, Walkthroughs, and Tooltips you create for your Site. The player, consisting of concise Javascript code, can be installed in several ways depending on your platform and preference.

Single-Page Application

A web application that loads a single HTML page and, when users interact with the application, dynamically updates the page without refreshing it.

Organization

Account

Your account in Inline Manual.

Active User

A user that logs into your application and has the Inline Manual Player installed for them.

Organization

Organizational feature used to add and manage users and contributors for your tutorials. If you work in a team, setting up an Organization will make working on topics easier and more effective.

Owner

A user role in an Organization. Owners have complete access to Inline Manual and the Authoring Tool. They can fully manage Topics, Sites, and their Organization's subscription and membership.

Portal

A site at app.inlinemanual.com. Inline Manual's dashboard, where you manage the settings for the Player and your account.

Reader

A user role in an Organization. Readers have permission to view Topics and Sites, but not to edit them.

Writer

Writers have permission to edit basic Topic settings and create Revisions. They can view Sites, but cannot update or assign Topics to them. They can create Topics, but their Topics need to be assigned to a Site by an Owner.