About

Hi, and welcome to a list of resources to help you get started on your next documentation project. DocToolHub features a growing directory of over 600 selected knowledge articles and tools of the trade. We’ve amassed a trove of useful links so you spend less time researching and more time planning and authoring.

Who is DocToolHub for

This site is for anyone who needs to write, edit, or publish user documentation (also known as user assistance) for software products. This includes:

• Professional documentarians who need to research processes and tools for new requirements
• Software developers wanting to write accurate and impressive-looking documentation
• Marketing writers and anyone else who’ve been given the task of writing technical content, be it a user manual, in-app guided help, etc.

Why DocToolHub

Starting a new technical documentation project can be daunting. For one thing there’s no best tool, nor one way of doing things. The software project you’re documenting – its platform and functionality – will greatly determine your project deliverables, as well as how your readers will access the documentation.

And, creating user assistance that is actually useful for customers, that makes your product look good, shouldn’t simply be a passing thought, a box to be ticked right before shipping. Technical writing is a labor-intensive craft whose end reward is a satisfied customer that gets the most from your product. For this, you need a grasp of the fundamentals of what you’re trying to do.

But alas, in comparison with other domains like software development, design, or entrepreneurship, there are relatively fewer resources out there offering advice or guidance for writing good documentation – although the ones that do exist are quite good.

DocToolHub lists these great resources and categorizes them to make your life easier. And with your help, we can grow this list and increase its usefulness for all.

You can find the story behind DocToolHub here:
http://idratherbewriting.com/2018/03/09/doctoolhub-finding-the-right-tool

How to use this site

This site features four types of resources:

• Collections of knowledge articles on a diverse array of topics, categorized according to theme
• A directory of documentation tools (“tools” in the menu), categorized according to type, OS, outputs, and more
• A list of useful and interesting blogs about technical communication
• A showcase of examples of beautiful documentation

Some use cases for this site may be:

• Your company is planning to develop a new product on a platform for which you are unfamilar. Given a set of requirements, you need to narrow down a list of candidate documentation tools before selecting the one best suited to your needs.
• You’re an experienced technical writer and you’ve heard about a new trend that you want to read up on as a starting point for further learnings.
• You’re currently taking a technical writing course in higher education and are seeking to broaden your knowledge about a particular domain.
• As an experienced practitioner, you want to keep up with best practices.
• You’re interested in adopting a new look and feel for your current documentation and want to browse other help sites for inspiration.