What the instructions have to say, not just how you deliver them
Article 10(7) governs how instructions reach a user. Annex III 1.7.4 governs what is in them - and it requires the instructions to cover reasonably foreseeable misuse, not only the use you intended.
Almost everything written about the Machinery Regulation online is about delivery: may the manual be a QR code, how long must it stay up. That is Article 10(7), and this site has a guide to it. It is the smaller half. What the instructions must actually contain sits in Annex III, section 1.7.4, and it is where a manual is far more likely to be found wanting.
“In addition to the obligations set out in Article 10(7), instructions for use shall be drawn up as set out below.”
Foreseeable misuse, not just intended use
“The contents of the instructions for use shall cover not only the intended use of the machinery or related product but also take into account any reasonably foreseeable misuse thereof;”
This is the sentence most existing manuals fail. Describing correct operation is the easy half; the text asks you to also address the ways the machine will reasonably be misused. Not every imaginable abuse - "reasonably foreseeable" is doing real work - but the shortcuts an operator under time pressure actually takes, the guard someone removes because it is quicker, the material the machine was never meant to process but obviously will be. If your risk assessment identified those, the instructions have to speak to them.
Who is going to read it
“In the case of machinery or related products intended for use by non-professional operators, the wording and layout of the instructions for use shall take into account the level of general education and acumen that can reasonably be expected from such operators.”
A manual written for a trained maintenance engineer is the wrong document if a non-professional could end up operating the machine. This is the same distinction that decides whether safety information must ship on paper regardless of what you host, and it turns on who could foreseeably use the machine rather than who you sold it to.
And it has to be in their language
“The instructions for use, the safety information and the information set out in Annex III shall be in a language which can be easily understood by users, as determined by the Member State concerned, and shall be clear, understandable and legible.”
Contents and language are one duty, not two. Instructions that cover foreseeable misuse perfectly, in a language the operator cannot read, satisfy neither half. Which languages you owe is set by the member state the machine is placed on the market in, and that has its own guide.
Paper has not gone away
“However, at the request of the user at the time of the purchase, the manufacturer shall provide the instructions for use in paper format free of charge within one month.”
A right exercised at the point of purchase rather than a standing right to demand paper at any moment for a decade. It still has to be honoured, free, within a month - so the printable version has to exist and stay current, not be reconstructed on request from whatever is on the website that year.
“In the case of machinery or a related product intended for non-professional users or that can, under reasonably foreseeable conditions, be used by non-professional users, even if not intended for them, the manufacturer shall provide, in paper format, the safety information that is essential for putting the machinery or related product into service and for using it in a safe way.”
And where non-professional users are in scope, the essential safety information ships on paper whatever else you do. Digital delivery does not remove that; it sits alongside it.
What this means if you are moving a manual online
The common plan is to take the PDF that shipped under the Directive and put it behind a QR code. That satisfies Article 10(7) and leaves 1.7.4 untouched, because the contents were written to the old rules. The honest sequence is the other way round: check the manual against 1.7.4 first, correct what it does not cover, then decide how to deliver it. Hosting is the easy part and it is the part that gets done first.
What this guide does not cover
Annex III 1.7.4.2 lists the specific contents a manual must carry - identification, intended use, assembly, transport, commissioning, maintenance, residual risks and more - and it runs to dozens of items. Reproducing that list here would be copying the annex rather than explaining it, and the annex is free to read. This page is about the principles the list hangs from. Nothing here is legal advice.
Everplate is where this documentation lives
Upload the manuals and declarations you already have and you get a QR code, plate artwork and a permanent address, in every language you sell into. Published revisions are never deleted, so what you served in 2027 is still provable in 2037.