To understand a newly released product and its usage, we mostly depend on the documentation or tutorials released by the developer. It helps in understanding the features and how to use the same. Without a proper documentation, most of the features of a well-developed product may remain unused by its users. Most of the developers find it boring or waste of time to build a good documentation but here is a WordPress plugin named ‘Documentor‘ to make their life easier. In this article, I will talk about Documentor for WordPress with which you can create online documentation of a product very easily.
What is Documentor?
Documentor is a WordPress plugin to create, maintain and release a product documentation in Ajax or One-page In-line format. It also comes with Print, Email features. Print feature allows you to take a print-friendly copy of complete documentation for offline reading. Documentor also adds User Feedback option at the end of the documentation. It allows users to post their feedback about the documentation and finally it helps the developer in understanding the user’s requirements.
Ajax and One-Page Layout
There are two options to show the documentation – Ajax and In-line Layout. In case of Ajax, each tutorial will load on the same page on-click. On the other hand, in case of in-line layout, all tutorials will remain open on the page and will be highlighted when clicked in the left menu. Single page layout is very helpful for tutorials as the user will keep reading the documentation without leaving the page. Documentor handles that part very effectively.
Installation and Usage
Well, I installed Documentor on one of our product site and it was a piece of cake to create a documentation page like the one below.
You need to upload and activate the plugin. Once activated, there is a dedicated panel to create documentation. Under that panel, you can either add regular posts, pages inside the documentation or add fresh content via in-line editor.
Once added some tutorials inside the documentation, you can reorder the tutorials using Drag and Drop method.
To embed the documentation, you can use shortcode or template tag. It allows you to have documentation embedded inside any post or page. Just create a new blank page and enter the Documentor shortcode over there. It comes with QuickTag button as well which allows you to paste the shortcode of the Documentation using a button on the editor panel.
With Documentor, you can create unlimited documentation, each with the same or different skin and layout.
Documentor dashboard gallery
Mobile Friendly
Documentor is responsive and it works great on al devices sizes. So once you create and embed the documentation or tutorial with Documentor, it will be mobile friendly out of box.
Expectations from future updates
Documentor is a perfect choice for creating online product documentation and is very helpful for the solo developers or an application development company. There are few things which I would like to see in this plugin.
- Rewrite rule to have pretty URLs for the tutorials
- Documentor’s own WordPress Theme especially designed for Documentation purpose
- Inbuilt social sharing buttons
Conclusion
Documentor seems to be a perfect choice for product documentation purpose. It reduces time and effort to create and maintain product documentation. WordPress CMS as back-end allows us to put the site live in just few minutes and then have helpful documentation with Documentor plugin.
If you are looking to create documentation or knowledge base or tutorial page for any newly developed or existing products, your search may end on Documentor WordPress plugin.