The ________ manual tells you how to use a software program.
The Documentation manual tells you how to use a software program.
Software documentation is written text or illustration that accompanies computer software or is embedded in the source code. It either explains how it operates or how to use it, and may mean different things to people in different roles. Documentation is an important part of software engineering.
Technical documentation in software engineering is the umbrella term that encompasses all written documents and materials dealing with a software product's development and use. All software development products, whether created by a small team or a large corporation, require some related documentation.
Documentation is a set of documents provided on paper, or online, or on digital or analog media, such as audio tape or CDs. Examples are user guides, white papers, on-line help, quick-reference guides. It is becoming less common to see paper (hard-copy) documentation. Documentation is distributed via websites, software products, and other on-line applications.
Professionals educated in this field are termed documentalists. This field changed its name to information science in 1968, but some uses of the term documentation still exists and there have been efforts to reintroduce the term documentation as a field of study.