A while ago, a client asked me if I could help them update their Alfresco Manual. It turned out to be a long Word document, well-made with many screenshots. The problem is that it’s a long document (30+ pages), and if you only need to change a small part, you have to check out and edit the whole document. For users who need help quickly, the long document makes it difficult to find the information. There must be a better way to do this, I thought, more like the Alfresco Help documentation (in English), but with the content managed and displayed within Alfresco. So, I created the “Manual Manager” add-on.
It is a tool for creating and editing content using Markdown syntax, with the content displayed and navigated using a tree view control.
Included features:
- Real-time formatting preview during editing
- Sortable topics
- Move, copy, and delete topics, including subtopics
- Paste standard Alfresco images and icons
- Upload your own images via a dialog box or with drag-and-drop
- Use custom image sizes, transformed by Alfresco thumbnails
- Custom templates for new content, general default template stored in the Data Dictionary repository or site-specific
- Manage versions and quickly view previous versions
- Print only one topic or include all subtopics, all topics include metadata in the footer
- Page content is loaded via AJAX and then formatted in the browser, so the page loads super fast
Of course, this can not only be used for software manuals; it can be used for all kinds of documentation. One example of usage is for protocols, by using the template function to add a standard protocol template.
I will release this add-on soon. It will be a paid add-on; I haven’t decided how yet.
In the meantime, I have created this video where you can see how Manual Manager works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTn-lJozYkM