We're going to start by looking at what a complete step-by-step guide looks like.

Here is what a complete guide looks like (this is what your readers will see the first time they log into your published guide). We're going to break this down:

Top Navigation

Across the top of the screen, you'll notice three icons.

The Home icon will return you (the reader) to your account and list of Smart Guides you're currently reading.

Search will enable you to find anything you need in a hurry within the guide by keyword.

Profile drop down will provide you with different options.

Left Side Share Icons

These are your typical social network sharing icons which enable your readers to share a link to your guide with their social networks.

The last icon in the column is an embed button which generates an embed code for your guide so that you, or your readers and embed it on any site (more on that soon).

The Main Content Area

This main content area includes your main Smart Guide cover image, title, author information, and short description of the content at the top.

Below is a table of contents separated into sections and the section's sub-pages. Clicking on a section or page will take the reader to that content:

This first outline section will also help each individual reader track progress and any important information about the guide such as comments or favorites on a per item basis:

The Content

Sections

Sections provide separation between related bits of content and help you group pages together.

Each section has a background image (which can be consistent throughout your guide, or specific to each section), a title, and content that introduces the upcoming content.

Pages

Pages are individual areas within a section (like what you're reading now). Pages enable you to create a better reading and content consumption experience for your readers.

There is also an additional menu at the bottom of each page which enables the reader to:

Mark/unmark the Page as complete.

Favorite/unfavorite the page.

Move to other pages or sections without returning to the outline.

Other elements that Pages enable you to include are:

Resources

Resources are authentic external templates, spreadsheets, PDFs, documents etc. that you have created or used as part of the process. If there are other documents you think are critical to the process and that you have permission to share and redistribute, you can add those here as well (always leave credit and thanks to the original source somewhere in the description of the task).

Tips

The page description is filled with helpful content a user would need to complete the task you've presented.

Tips are little golden nuggets of advice, expert insight, or "out-of-the-box" approaches that you (the author) wants to include based on your experience or observations. Readers appreciate tips as they're very helpful.

Discussions

Comments and discussions are central to providing consistently updated content, access to other experts and feedback on your guide.

The discussion area is only available on Pages and features three tabs. The first, "My Notes" enables the reader of the guide to maintain personal notes, experiences or results for each specific page privately; the "Pubic Discussion" tab will act as a forum for all readers of the same guide, the best comments rising to the top; finally the "Author Feedback" tab enables your readers to leave private feedback on a per page basis for the author letting you know if your content is helpful or what can be improved.