If you’re working on a project that needs documentation, you have to ask yourself one question: “What is the best documentation tool?” The answer isn’t right in front of you, anyone could just type it into Google. I want this to be different. I want you to learn which documentation tool is the best for your project by reading this post. You’ll find out what works best for you no matter who you are or what stage of development your business is at.
Everybody wants to be the best at something, but nobody wants to compete with others, right? Yet, ironically it is the competition that makes something interesting. Prospective customers are also interested in this very competition when they choose a product or service that best suits their needs. In the world of technical documentation and manuals there is always an onslaught of products available that cover the same ground with similar claims. The best documentation tool may seem obvious to some but not so obvious for many.
Bit.ai
Bit.ai is a documentation collaboration platform that allows you to manage all of your documents in one place. It allows you to create notes, documents, and wikis, and you can manage your company’s documentation across teams or departments.
Dropbox Paper
Dropbox Paper is an online document workspace that lets you organize and display text, media, and files all in one place. It’s a web-based tool, so it’s accessible as long as you have an internet connection. If you’re already a Dropbox user, you can create and edit documents without leaving Dropbox.
Tallyfy
Tallyfy is workflow and process management software that lets you capture and automate your company’s knowledge. This software offers the ability to see the status of your tasks, and it is built to integrate into many other systems like Slack or Gmail. It also automates the process of tracking document changes.
Apiary
Apiary by Oracle is a dedicated host for Application Programming Interface (API) documentation that lets you design, prototype, document, and test APIs. One helpful feature is the ability to prototype an API without written code.
MarkdownPad
MarkdownPad is a full-featured Markdown editor for Windows. This tool allows you to create text-based web content, blog posts, websites, articles, READMEs, and software documentation.
Doxygen
Doxygen is a top-rated tool for generating documentation from annotated C++ sources, and it supports other programming languages. It can generate online documentation and offline reference manuals from specific source files by extracting information directly from the source, creating continuity between your documentation and source code.
Software Documentation Tool: ProProfs Knowledge Base
Employee onboarding is something you cannot ignore, especially in the case of remote workers who are spread across geographies and only have a certain idea of your firm and the work you do. This makes onboarding all the more crucial for remote employees.
The first few days of new employees are extremely crucial, as that’s when they have the time to invest in learning about your organization and the roles they are hired for.
For optimum utilization of this time, it’s best to use a tool like ProProfs Knowledge Base software – simple, powerful, and feature-rich.
This tool helps you create an online employee handbook to familiarize new hires with your firm’s work dynamics, policies, vision, mission, and, most importantly, the role that remote employees are going to play in your organization.
You don’t want your new hires to get bombarded with emails on the very first day of their joining. So, it’s best to offer them a platform that provides them all the relevant information they need to get started. ProProfs Knowledge Base software helps you achieve this with ease.
It’s an excellent tool to create a company-wide knowledge platform, more like an employee handbook, that can be accessed easily on multiple devices, including laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. The software’s compelling features, such as its MS Word-like editor, Google-like search functionality, customization options, workflows, and more, work together to provide you an unmatched experience.
Even minute tasks like adding text to multiple pages at a go, creating toggle content, adding your firm’s logo and brand name, etc. can be easily done with this powerful tool.
All in all, it’s a great tool to keep emails at bay, calls at a bare minimum, and provide remote employees with a smooth and hassle-free onboarding experience.
Software Documentation Tool: MarkdownPad
MarkdownPad is one of the most famous markdown document editors for windows. You can use MarkdownPad to write articles, READMEs, and of course, software documentation.
With instant HTML previews, users can quickly see what their documents look like in HTML as they create them.
MarkdownPad offers a lot of customizing options like color schemes, fonts, sizes, and layouts. It even supports your custom CSS stylesheets and has a built-in CSS editor. Users can easily convert their written text into HTML or even export their documents as PDFs.
With a simple, easy to use user interface, MarkdownPad is a great document editor for software documentation. However, the lack of cloud features and the fact that it’s only supported on windows can be a bummer for a lot of you out there.
Document360
Like GitBook, Document360 is a hybrid solution that can bring together your internal and customer-facing documentation.
Notable features of Document360 include built-in localization mechanisms, content review reminders, SEO features, comments, and more. Granular analytics allow you to track how the readers interact with your docs.
Despite its extensive feature set, it’s a relatively easy-to-use tool. Documentation writers can choose between a Markdown editor and visual WYSIWYG tools, tailoring the editing experience according to their preference.
Note that Document360 is less affordable than other tools on this list. Its cheapest plan starts from $99 per month and only includes customer-facing documentation features. To be able to manage both your external and internal docs in Document360, you will need to pick one of the premium plans ranging from $299 to $599 per month. While this tool may be prohibitively expensive for smaller teams, large enterprises may find that its substantial feature set is more than worth the hefty price tag.
What users say about Document360:
“Document360 was exactly what we needed to publish documentation to various reader groups. It’s quite straight forward and quickly to grasp on one hand, while feature rich on the other.”
Conclusion
There is a lot of debate about what is the best documentation tool and which you should use. I hope to settle that here and now and say that there isn’t a one size fits all solution. But there are certain documentation tools out there that will make everyone’s lives easier. Plain and simple, we need documentation.