Hello all,
What do you all use to document all aspects of a project you are working on? For example the details of a database; how two or more apps may work together to achieve some functionality; include notes, diagrams(?) and other information that can be saved for future use and shared with others?
Thanks,
Tim
i use yEd - graph editor, a mindmap tool, word (textmaker or open office), plain text editor, screenshots.
notes in the app project itself.
and usually comments when i edited a function, at top of a method initials and date or at a row itself.
any change make your documents somehow out-of-date and you have to update/maintenance it.
the disadvantage of documenting too much details.
TextEdit in macOS (styled document have graphics).
A second monitor is a must (fo db since we lust write ciolum names here and thereā¦).
A new keyboard might be good too 
I made a module and a window in almost every app, and store the documentation in the database of the app
it uses markdown to record the chapters of the documentation, I write from time to time.
very handy. I will rewrite it to use some html editor, will be more user friendly.
Sorry.
itās not the keyboard, its me: itās cold hereā¦
I use Pages, and then print to PDF. The User Guide PDF is part of any distribution package. For my main app, its around 70 pages long. I also have an Internal Notes doc for that app which is a similar length.
Iām not shy about writing comments - lots of them. Often I can write more comments than actual code, sometimes.
As well, more recently, Iāve been using Version Tracker by @Tim_Parnell. Very useful.
I also have a Module that just contains Notes (about 50+) on common Xojo or app logic that I often repeat in my projects. I then store that Module as an External Item and include it in all my projects for easy access, because I refer to that information frequently.
I kinda wish sometimes that the IDE global search had a feature to exclude notes. It can confuse my results when Iām just searching a code item.
I guess Draw.io is more used. It can be used on the go by web or you can download the desktop version (No java required as yEd)
notes.zip (4.9 KB)
You can do the same for any planning, drawing, ERD, etc. As a note is not integrated into the built app, it does not affect the app nor leak internal docs. All self contained as XML.
Issue 79090 : Enable right-click a NOTE and save as a document
I am particularly interested in what people use to build thier user documentation. Iāve been on the hunt for a solution for a while now.
I tend to create HTML files and build a āwebsiteā help system. macOS uses them for its help system.
Just write a doc in LibreOffice, add images, diagrams, etc. Save your copy. Save as PDF for the user.
As for a āhelp systemā I prefer Ianās way, HTMLviewer, but instead of HTML, PDF again.
I use RapidWeaver. With a small Xojo app I also do a PDF from the manual website.
Hi Kevin: my main app has an 858 page user-manual PDF, also published in .chm and .html formats. An updated version has been published almost every month for 20 years. For this, I use Help-and-Manual - https://www.helpandmanual.com/ - but itās not cheap. Iāve got the āBasic Editionā which can do much more than I need.
Thank you all for the responses to my question. Since Iām on Windows and I have now found an HTML template that will work. I really donāt like writing documentation Iām retired from a 47 year career were someone else wrote the documentation. I have decided that I will be buying Pinegrow HTML editor which is a WYSIWYG editor so I donāt have to hand code all the HTML.
No no no - interesting discussion here.
I am working in my company with a self hosted BookStack now.
In former times I used a Mediawiki. This is able to do this:
First I was sceptical - but after a time I was rather enthusiastic.
Delivers very clean and reliable output, the HTML is self-contained and does not need to reference pictures because they can be embedded inside the graphics editor. Best tool for help pages.
Dia is also great but a little less pretty than draw
Well, I just did it in around an hourā¦ now I have a nice html editor integrated in all my apps to type in the documentation of the app itself, the help file is a sql database with one table you can store in the app resources, or in a network for many users to consult and edit it.
