Building manuals: content, branding, and updates

Once you've shipped your first manual, the next question is: how do I make it actually feel like mine? This guide covers content choices, file specs, brand customization, and updating content after the QR is already in the wild.

1. Pick the right content format

You have three formats. Pick based on what your customer actually needs at the moment they're stuck:

• PDF — best for products with rich diagrams, exploded views, or content you've already designed in InDesign or similar. Customers tap to open it in their phone's PDF reader.
• Video (YouTube or Vimeo embed) — best for assembly steps that benefit from motion. Customers watch inline without leaving your manual.
• Step-by-step (recommended) — best for physical products with discrete setup steps. Customers swipe through one screen per step, with an "I'm Stuck" button on every step. This is the format that activates UnboxBridge's full feature set.

2. File sizes and limits

Whichever format you pick, stay within these limits:

• PDF: under 10 MB. Above that, mobile customers on slow connections wait too long. Reduce file size in Acrobat or Preview if needed.
• YouTube / Vimeo videos: any length works (we just embed the iframe), but keep individual setup videos under 5 minutes. Customers won't watch longer.
• Step-by-step: no hard limit, but aim for 5–15 steps per manual. More than 20 and customers get lost.

3. Cover image and product photos

Each manual has a cover image at the top of the customer-facing page. By default, UnboxBridge pulls your Shopify product photo. Override it from the editor if you want a setup-context shot — the assembled chair versus the boxed one.

4. Brand colors, logo, and welcome message Growth

On the Growth plan and up, customize the look so the manual feels like part of your brand:

• Primary color — applies to buttons, headers, and links.
• Logo — appears in the manual header. PNG with transparent background, max 2 MB.
• Custom welcome message — replaces the default opening text. Two sentences max — customers came for help, not marketing.

5. White-label your manual Pro

On the Pro plan, the customer experience is fully white-labeled. The "Powered by UnboxBridge" footer disappears entirely. Customers see your brand at the top, your help button in the middle, your CTA at the bottom — nothing else.

6. Edit content after the QR is printed

Here's the part most merchants don't believe until they try it: changing the manual content does not require regenerating the QR code. The QR is permanent — it points to your manual record, not the file. So when you ship the next batch with the same SKU and discover a typo on Step 4, fix it in the editor. Every QR already in the wild instantly serves the corrected version.