atw: Re: Guides and manuals [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Guides: Descriptive
Manuals: Prescriptive 

-----Original Message-----
From: Silcock, Howard DR

This may seem like a ridiculous question for an experienced tech writer to
be asking, but I'm wondering if there's any general agreement on the
distinction, if any, between a 'user guide' and a 'user manual'.
Wikipedia talks about 'a user guide, also commonly known as a manual'. 

Generally I've called what I've written 'user manuals' and thought of a user
guide as something much shorter, but I haven't ever seen a definitive
proclamation.

Surely someone on this list must have an answer to this question. Who knows,
maybe I'll get an answer we can all agree on. Or is that being a tad
optimistic?
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