Ask HN: Help/FAQs/documentation system, like Google's help?

#1

Post by apexauk » Wed, May 26, 2010, 11:21 PM UTC

Does anyone know of a system (SaaS or self-hosted) to run a help/FAQs/documentation system?

We're looking for something simple, in the style of all Google's help sites (e.g. http://mail.google.com/support/) - basically a simple CMS, with categorisation and automatic generation of multiple levels of index pages, search, "did this help" style widgets for feedback, list of most popular articles etc.

What I'm _not_ looking for is a GetSatisfaction/UserVoice -style "community-powered" support.

Not rocket science.. but surely a common problem. Anyone know of anything ready-to-go?

Cheers! -- A

Re: Ask HN: Help/FAQs/documentation system, like Google's help?

#2

Post by mikexstudios » Thu, May 27, 2010, 12:24 AM UTC

I've seen many startups use Tender App (http://www.tenderapp.com) which seems very well designed and developed (by the team at entp!).

Here's an example of their help/FAQ/doc system: https://help.tenderapp.com/faqs

Re: Ask HN: Help/FAQs/documentation system, like Google's help?

#3

Post by ABrandt » Thu, May 27, 2010, 12:33 AM UTC

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but a fellow HNer (hajrice) is working on questionify.com

They're still in private beta but I know Emil would be more than willing to offer an account. Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: Help/FAQs/documentation system, like Google's help?

#4

Post by thaumaturgy » Thu, May 27, 2010, 12:34 AM UTC

A lot of open source projects just use MediaWiki.

Re: Ask HN: Help/FAQs/documentation system, like Google's help?

#5

Post by fabiandesimone » Thu, May 27, 2010, 12:56 AM UTC

You might want to give Screen Steps a look. http://www.bluemangolearning.com/

Re: Ask HN: Help/FAQs/documentation system, like Google's help?

#6

Post by gspyrou » Thu, May 27, 2010, 6:27 AM UTC

If you are using ASP.NET you may take a look at Web Application Toolkit for FAQs : http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/jsenior/Web-Application-Toolk...

Re: Ask HN: Help/FAQs/documentation system, like Google's help?

#7

Post by oziumjinx » Thu, May 27, 2010, 11:39 AM UTC

Check out http://www.helpspot.com/ and http://www.knowledgems.com/

Re: Ask HN: Help/FAQs/documentation system, like Google's help?

#8

Post by apexauk » Thu, May 27, 2010, 1:57 PM UTC

oziumjinx wrote: post #7

Check out http://www.helpspot.com/ and http://www.knowledgems.com/

Look handy - thanks! I'll check these out.

Re: Ask HN: Help/FAQs/documentation system, like Google's help?

#9

Post by apexauk » Thu, May 27, 2010, 1:58 PM UTC

mikexstudios wrote: post #2

I've seen many startups use Tender App ( http://www.tenderapp.com ) which seems very well designed and developed (by the team at entp!). Here's an example of their help/FAQ/doc system: https://help.tenderapp.com/faqs

Thanks, we saw Tender - but they don't have a way of disabling the other parts of the system (forum etc) apparently.

Re: Ask HN: Help/FAQs/documentation system, like Google's help?

#10

Post by gdevore » Thu, May 27, 2010, 2:16 PM UTC

ScreenSteps Live combines a hosted documentation service with a desktop client for quickly creating screenshot based documentation. It also integrates very nicely with Zendesk. You can see an example here:

http://help.screensteps.com

Or, here is another example site we set up:

http://ipad.screensteps.com

Very simple to use and very effective. You can read a case study here:

http://www.bluemangolearning.com/screensteps/case_studies/se...