The SWS Handbook is divided into 9 chapters, each of which describe some aspects of the instrument. It is intended that the handbook can be read from cover to cover, although some forward references were necessary.
An overview of the SWS instrument is given in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3 the modes in which SWS could observe are presented with some examples of resulting data products. The wavelength calibration is described in Chapter 4. Chapters 5 and 6 present the photometric calibration; the latter concerns the so-called `Post-Helium' Phase of the mission. The pipeline, also called the Off-Line Processing system (OLP), is a system where the contents of the previous chapters is moulded into software. The pipeline and the data products are discussed in Chapter 7, with additional details in Appendix A.
Pointing issues and beam profiles are given in Chapter 8. Finally, the last Chapter 9 addresses several instrumental effects and caveats the user should be aware of that bear upon the understanding of SWS but could not find a logical place in any of the other chapters.
In addition to the 9 chapters there are several appendices, describing in detail the data products, calibration concerns, the uplink history, acronyms and symbols used throughout the handbook.