Patent ID: 7155452

Claim:
A system for providing an electronic manual, the system comprising a server and a plurality of terminals interconnected via a communication network, the server comprising: a storage unit configured to store a plurality of electronic manual information sets, each of the sets describing the content of a product manual, a receiver configured to receive, via the communication network, request information from a terminal requesting an electronic manual, a memory configured to store customer information and associated product information, the customer information representing registered customers and the product information representing products used by the registered customers, an identifier configured to determine, based on customer information stored in the memory, whether request information received by the receiver was sent by a registered customer, a selector configured to select, from the storage unit, the electronic manual information set of a product represented by product information stored in association with the customer information when the identifier determines that request information received by the receiver was sent by a registered customer wherein the manual information set is automatically selected based on a user attribute comprising a skill level, and a provider configured to provide to the terminal requesting an electronic manual, via the communication network, the electronic manual information set selected by the selector, wherein, based on the request, the selector determines whether the customer desires to see a difference between a product previously used by the customer and another product currently used by the customer, and the provider provides the electronic manual representing the difference if it is determined that the customer desires to see the difference, showing the electronic manual of the product based on the request prior to the manual of the other product or so that the electronic manual of the product is visually distinguishable from the manual of the other product.