A modern and very simple way to document your software specifications, a new online software solution for organizing software specifications. This days software programming has become an extremly complicated thing to organize. Let’s start with the basics: The markdown system in Docstell is very convenient to use. When a text zone is inserted in to a node you can begin typing your markdown right away. When leaving the edit area the text is automatically formatted. The idea with markdown is that it will save you a lot of time when formatting your texts. Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, which is then converted to valid HTML. Instead of getting frustrated about how a lot of common word processors format your text in every way but the one you want, markdown is very predictable and easy to learn.
Docstell is also adding functionality to upload files to a node. You can upload any type of file and share with you team or keep it in a private node. Just drag it from you computer and drop it on the node you want to attach it to. They added a preview zone that makes it possible to preview files adjacent to your other information. You can view for example pdf, docx, xlsx, csv, txt, png, jpeg and mpeg4 files. If you for example receive a specification in a pdf file format you keep this file here together with the rest of the documentation and will easily be able to preview it and let all your team have access to it.
Docstell uses draw.io as an integrated diagram editor. This means that you can use all the power of this popular tool. Add links to your diagrams for really smart navigation to find more information about an asset that is described somewhere in the documentation. Docstell is a realtime documentation solution that puts the collaborative work in the right place from the beginning. This means that when you need to ask a question or need feedback on your work, you put that adjacent to the source to keep a log of the discussion in the right place. This saves a lot of time both for yourself and your team mates. Read additional info on Software Project Organizer Solution.
Slack integration was recently implemented to Docstell. This lets you get alerted in your favorite Slack channel when someone in your team is adding comments to your documentation. From the message in Slack you get a link back to the node with the comment in Docstell, this makes it convenient to answer the question in the right context and to build up the knowledge base where it should be. If you don’t use Slack or want to be notified by email we added functionality to mention a user in the comment. Use the @ sign to get a list of users that belongs to the workspace. If this user is not online an email is sent that tells the user that there is a message waiting to be answered. You can configure if emails should be sent in the new user settings dialog.
The solution to this problem is to make it a lot easier to create good and up to date documentation. It must be almost frictionless to put the information where it should be. If you struggle to find the right spot on the documentation map you rather throw a chat message in Slack leaving all the good benefits of the right context. And there is always a risk that you miss to include vital information or do not explain enough details and risking a misunderstanding and an answer that is built on incorrect information. Instead of taking this risk you should feed the documentation system and benefit from it not only for yourself but also for the whole team. And also make sure that you can benefit from this in the future. This will lead to a positive spiral, when you see the benefits of good information in the right place that is easy to comprehend and all the positive things that this bring to you and your team mates, you automatically will continue putting new information where it should be.
Go simple, make it efficient and start to benefit from the power of having your documentation organised and accessible for your whole team. All the time. Keeping software documentation simple and super easy to update will prevent your team to invent new ways of adding specs in new formats and put it in places where it is hard to find. See additional info at docstell.com.