A how-to guide is an article that's in-between a software review and tutorial. It's more of a general overview of how to use a technology rather than a tutorial providing in-depth code snippets to accomplish a single goal but is less detailed than a software review and focuses on the practical aspects rather than its history.
Think Getting Start with a Technology providing an brief overview of why and how you'd use it in a software application.
Here's an example of a how-to guide written by one of our Eng-Ed Contributors so you can see the level of detail you should aspire to.
Provide the audience a run down on what the article will be covering. When creating a How To Guide we must consider the audience. Ensure that the guide can be used by a developer of any level. Let's assume the audience is smart, but has no prior experience on the subject at hand.
Provide the audience with any prerequisites that may be required to follow your How To Tutorial along. This is where we can spend some time by defining any keywords, prior readings, or resources the audience should go over (or know) before diving into your How To Guide.
Introduce the purpose of your How-To Guide, what functionalities of the proposed software will you be covering? (Cite other EngEd articles or sources if applicable)
What is the scope and purpose of the guide, introduce the audience to the software or tech you are writing about and explain what is its purpose, and be sure to highlight any of its main benefits and features. This will help frame the guide for the audience and help them understanding what they will be doing.
Discuss several areas of the technology and make sure to include its advantages and the use cases.
Give step-by-step instructions (directly to the user) that the audience will need to follow when trying to go a given task with the software or system (be sure to include images and links throughout your article that help support your article).
Be sure to wrap your thoughts up and briefly summarize what the audience just learned. Provide links to follow-up articles and/or in-depth tutorials about the technology.