A new and extremely effective way to document your software specifications, a new online software solution for organizing software requirements. This days software programming has become an extremly complicated thing to organize. Let’s start with the basics: The markdown method 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 functions to upload documents 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.
Spread sheet: Builtin spreadsheet to quickly add specification data. Copy and paste from Excel. Upload files: Upload files to any node. Previewer for pdf, txt, word, excel etc. Tags: Use tags to group your requirements for fast and easy access. Export: Export documentation to HTML with containing SVG-format diagrams. Print to pdf file. Fast access: Add bookmarks to your content for super fast access. See additional details on Realtime Documentation Solution.
Slack integration was recently implemented to Docstell. This lets you get notified in your favorite Slack channel when someone in your team is commenting your docs. 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.
No matter what kind of project management tool you are using or what kind of team is at your disposal, often times I find one of the causes to be lack of proper documentation, be it requirements, specifications or other kind of information that you need to be able to make correct decisions for your application or system at any given moment. It is possible that the system is documented in some way, but all too often the information is spread out in different places. Some of it might be checked in in your version control system, other parts are on a wiki, some documents are on a Sharepoint site that parts of the team don’t have access to, yet others might be in Slack or in Teams. Or even worse on a teammate’s personal hard drive or inbox. Hidden information that could have been important to make correct decisions is a huge problem.
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. Read extra info on docstell.com.