1.4 How to use this manual Although we would be honored if you would read this manual from the beginning to the end, we can imagine that not all parts are necessary, relevant or suitable to you. For example if you are just an interested physicist who does not own a computer, you may skip Chapter 2: Installation guide. while everybody else probably needs Chapter 2 to use TALYS. A complete description of all nuclear models and other basic information present in TALYS , as well as the description of the types of cross sections, spectra, angular distributions etc. that can be produced with the code can be found in the next three chapters: Chapter 3: A general discussion of nuclear reactions and the types of observables that can be obtained. Chapter 4: An outline of the theory behind the various nuclear models that are implemented in TALYS. Chapter 5: A description of the various nuclear structure parameters that are used. If you are an experienced nuclear physicist and want to compute your own specific cases directly after a successful installation, then instead of reading Chapters 3-5 you may go directly to Chapter 6: Input description. The next chapter we consider to be quite important, since it contains ready to use starting points (sample cases) for your own work. At the same time, it gives an impression of what TALYS can be used for. That and associated matters can be found in Chapter 7: Output description, sample cases and verification and validation. People planning to enter the source code for extensions, changes or debugging, may be interested in Chapter 8: The detailed computational structure of TALYS. Finally, this manual ends with Chapter 9: Conclusions and ideas for future work.