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Cheaper Alternative to Help Scout

Cheaper Alternative to Help Scout Help Desk Software

Do you really need to invest a huge amount for your internal knowledge base? Is it convenient to use that high paid software? Find the answer to these questions and also find the best and cheaper alternative to Help Scout.

Need for Documentation

Documentation is nothing but the set of information regarding the services or product you offer. Therefore, it should be informative and easy to understand. Usually, you may get the user guide along with the electronic product. But having a Knowledge Base online helps in the availability of the data.

In the case of Online Documentation, the most important is that it should be available to your customers. The customers are getting smarter nowadays. Hence, if they have any doubt they’ll first visit your Knowledge Base.

Product documentation is something tedious to work on. Therefore, there are many tools available to create documentation.

The most common for offline documentation is the MS-WORD. But in order to create online documentation, there are many platforms available. For example HelpScout, Zendesk, Wiki, and many more.

Let us consider the most popular platform Help Scout.

HelpScout

Help Scout Help Desk is the most popular platform for every business. You can create Documentation for your product and services. Help Scout offers many other services and charge accordingly.

Help Scout offers you to create help content for your customer at one place. They also provide their server space where you can store your Knowledge Base.

But the question is why should we store our Internal Knowledge Base on other’s server? Why we should pay a huge amount on this software?

Disadvantages

The biggest disadvantage of Help Scout is the amount they charge. Many popular businesses use Help Scout for their documentation as they can afford it. But what about the small businesses? They can’t even think about spending $20 to $40 a month only for their documentation.

Therefore, this needs to be changed. Well! Documentor WordPress Plugin is the perfect alternative to the Help Scout.

Cheaper alternative to Help Scout

Now, are you searching for an alternative to Help Scout and that too in your budget? Your search ends here. The easy to use and cheaper alternative to Help Scout is Documentor.

Documentor is one of the most popular WordPress plugins for creating online documentation, user manuals and help guides. It is designed to improve the customer’s interaction with the Knowledge Base.

Documentor pricing starts from $19 annually i.e. a meagre $1.6 per month! You can browse the price from the link given below:

[Click here for Pricing]

Documentor cheapest alternative

The plugin is very easy to use and best cheaper alternative to Help Scout. You can create unlimited user guides and Knowledge Bases using Documentor. Let us see what Documentor Plugin offers you.

Knowledge Base and Documentor Pro

Documentor comes with two different variations. The first one is Documentor Pro.

DocumentorPro:

Documentor Pro is simple and easy to use WordPress Plugin to create One Page Online Documentation. You can create unlimited user guides for your organization. You can store the Documentation Guide on your own server. Your content will be safe and secure with you.

You get a shortcode and template tag for each document you create. Therefore, you can embed it anywhere you wish to display.

The Documentor Lite version is free of cost and available at WordPress.org. The limitation of Documentor Lite is that you can create only one Documentation guide.

Therefore, if you want to create single page documentation, then the Documentor is the best fit.

DocumentorKB:

The second one is DocumentorKB. DocumentorKB is somewhat similar to the Documentor, but you can create a full fledged multi pages knowledge base with this plugin. You can design a beautiful front page for your Knowledge Base as well using free page builder plugins available for WordPress.

Features of Documentor and DocumentorKB

  1. Inline Docs: You can create custom posts in Documentor using the Inline feature. These sections will be considered as the Sections in your Knowledge Base.

  2. Drag and Drop Reorder: You can easily arrange your sections/posts/pages added into your guide or Knowledge Base. All you have to do is just drag and drop your sections to their desired places.

  3. Save as PDF: You can also save your documentation in a PDF format.

  4. Multiple Skins: Appearance of your guide matters a lot. Therefore, Documentor comes with 5 different skins.

  5. User Feedback: Users reading your guide can give their feedback on your written articles. Therefore, this will be helpful in order to improve the information.

  6. Live Preview on Dashboard: Once the guide is created, you can preview it before embedding on your website.

  7. Unlimited Documentations: In Documentor Pro and DocumentorKB you can create ‘n’ numbers of user guides.

  8. Shortcode and Template Tag: The shortcode and template tag are only available in the Documentor Pro and Lite. The DocumentorKB consists of the Links.

Addon’s

Now though it is the cheaper alternative, still it offers various add-ons with it.

1. User Access Manager Integration:

User Access Manager is a widely used WordPress plugin for restricting access. Therefore, Documentor and DocumentorKB are both compatible with UAM.

The addon allows you to restrict access to your guide and helps maintain confidentiality. Hence, you can secure your Knowledge Base using “User Access Manager Integration” Addon.

2. Docx Importer:

If you have created a document with a .docx extension, then you can easily import it into your guide.

3. Data Backup:

Sometimes it may happen that you might delete your guide. But you can always of a backup of your guides and restore them whenever required.

Conclusion

Therefore, considering the above points we can say that Documentor is the best and cheaper alternative to Help Scout. Looking forward to hearing from you as well through the comments section below.

documentor wordpress plugin theme to create online documentation

21 Best WordPress Themes to Create Online Documentation on WordPress

Are you looking for a good and easy plugin to create documentation on WordPress? Here I am going to tell you about some themes using which you can create beautiful documentation easily by using the Documentor WordPress Plugin.

There are so many free and premium themes available to create Documentation using Documentor WordPress Plugin. I will show you how the documentation or online guide looks on different themes which are created using the Documentor WordPress Plugin.

1) Sydney

Sydney WordPress theme is a business theme and comes in two variations a free version and a paid version.

It also provides a fast way for companies or freelancers to create a dynamic and responsive website. It is Compatible with Documentor WordPress Plugin to create a Documentation on the Website.

 

Documentor WordPress Plugin

Key Features of Sydney Theme:

  • Responsive
  • Theme Options
  • Google Font
  • Translation Ready
  • Custom Elementor Blocks
  • Parallax Backgrounds
  • Slider or Static Image header
  • Social
  • Live Customizer
  • Regular updates
  • Cross Browser Support
  • Fast Support

Download Link: https://wordpress.org/themes/sydney/

2) Customify

Customify is a lightweight, responsive, Flexible multipurpose WordPress theme built with Speed, SEO, and usability.

The theme works best with Documentor WordPress Plugin and Page Builder Plugins like Elementor, Beaver Builder, SiteOrigin, Divi, Visual Composer, etc.

Documentor WordPress Plugin to Create Documentation

Key Features of Customify Theme:

  • Comprehensive Header & Footer Builder
  • Ready to import websites
  • Made for page builders
  • Customize everything
  • Fast performance
  • SEO optimized
  • Fast & Friendly support

Download Link: https://wordpress.org/themes/customify/

3) Hestia

Hestia is a WordPress theme for professional. It is useful to make a website for creative business, small business like restaurants, sports/event management service, the online store (E-commerce), etc.

It is a responsive, WPML, SEO ready theme as well as works very good with Documentor WordPress plugin.

WordPress Plugin to Create Documentation

Key Features of Hestia Theme:

  • Translation & RTL Ready
  • SEO Friendly
  • Live Customizer
  • 1-Minute Setup & Demo Content Available
  • Custom Backgrounds
  • Optimized for Speed
  • Mega Menus
  • 1-Click Updates & Fast Support
  • Video Tutorials

Download Link: https://wordpress.org/themes/hestia/

4) Mesmerize

It is a flexible and multipurpose WordPress theme which help you to create a website easily and fast with drag and drop feature.

Mesmerize is a WooCommerce and SEO ready and responsive theme, therefore, it works on different devices very smoothly. It works great with the Documentor WordPress Plugin.

Key Features of Mesmerize Theme:

  • Predefined Designs
  • Content Blocks
  • Customizable Layout
  • Responsive Design
  • Video & Slideshow Backgrounds
  • Awesome Icons
  • 600+ Google Fonts
  • Multiple Pages
  • Multiple Page Templates
  • Customizable Colors
  • Typography Settings
  • Google Maps
  • Pricing Tables
  • Photo Galleries
  • WooCommerce Ready
  • Multilanguage Ready

Download Link: https://wordpress.org/themes/mesmerize/

5) Storefront

The storefront is a theme for eCommerce website designed and developed by WordPress core developer. There are many layout and color options customize your online store, Responsive designs, etc. Storefront WooCommerce theme works very nicely with the Documentor WordPress plugin.

Key Features of Storefront Theme:

  • Search engine optimize
  • WooCommerce integration
  • Just enough display options
  • Responsive
  • eCommerce-focused homepage
  • Accessibility Ready

Download Link: https://wordpress.org/themes/storefront/

6) OceanWP

OceanWP is a lightweight and highly expandable theme. Using OceanWP you can create any type of website like informative, medical, E-commerce, blog, etc.

It is a fast loading theme also including responsiveness, RTL & translation ready, SEO ready, etc. It works with Documentor very well.

Documentor

Key Features of OceanWP Theme:

  • Fully responsive
  • Fastest page load time
  • eCommerce Ready
  • SEO Base Built-In
  • Translation & RTL Ready
  • Awesome Support

Download Link: https://wordpress.org/themes/oceanwp/

7) Preschool and Kindergarten

Preschool and kindergarten is a WordPress theme for education and suitable for schools, pre-schools, tuitions, Academics, Universities, etc.

This is a mobile responsive and translation ready WordPress theme and very well works with Documentor WordPress plugin.

Key Features of Preschool and Kindergarten Theme:

  • Beautiful Design
  • Responsive Design
  • SEO Optimized
  • Advanced Slider
  • Speed Optimized
  • Extensive documentation
  • Widget Ready
  • Social media integration
  • Friendly and Quick Support
  • Cross Browser Compatible
  • Call to Action (CTA) section
  • Contact Form 7 Plugin Compatible
  • Documentor Plugin Compatible
  • 4 Custom Widgets
  • Breadcrumb
  • Easy legibility
  • Child Theme Support
  • Clean commented codes

Download Link: https://wordpress.org/themes/preschool-and-kindergarten/

8) Medical Circle

It is the most accessible WordPress theme which can be easily coordinate all type of users without coding skills to advanced developers.

This theme is for the medical sector such as hospital, clinic, veterinary clinic, medical store, etc. It is also for who is from medical sector like a doctor, dentist, surgeon, etc.

It is compatible and works very well with the Documentor WordPress plugin.

Documentor WordPress Plugin

Key Features of Medical Circle Theme:

  • One Click Demo Import
  • Multipurpose
  • Custom Widgets
  • Page Builder Compatible
  • WooCommerce Ready
  • One page Ready
  • Made with Widgets
  • Repeater Fields
  • Unlimited Slider
  • Unlimited Pages on Section
  • Responsive Slider Image
  • Book Appointment
  • Colors Options
  • Layout Controls
  • Social Media Integration
  • Translation Ready
  • Browser Compatibility
  • Responsive

Download Link: https://wordpress.org/themes/medical-circle/

9) VT Blogging

VT Blogging is speed and SEO optimized and responsive WordPress theme. It is used to create an online magazine, Adsense websites, photography, blogging, etc.

Documentation created using Documentor WordPress plugin is looks good in VT Blogging theme.

Documentor Plugin

Key Features of VT Blogging Theme:

  • Theme Customizer
  • Responsive Layout
  • Browsers & Multisite
  • Code Quality
  • SEO Optimized
  • Translation Ready
  • Custom Widgets
  • WordPress Best Practices
  • License & Customization

Download Link: https://wordpress.org/themes/vt-blogging/

10) Easy Store

Easy Store E-Commerce WordPress theme is compatible with WooCommerce Plugin. It is responsive, translation ready, SEO ready, and Compatible with Documentor Plugin.

Documentor WordPress Plugin

Key Features of Easy Store Theme:

  • Full Woocommerce Compatible
  • Responsive Design
  • Unlimited Color Option
  • Awesome Support
  • Build in Customizer
  • Quality Code
  • Highly Customizable
  • Plugin Compatible
  • Retina Ready

Download Link: https://wordpress.org/themes/easy-store/

11) The 7

The7 is a multi-purpose premium responsive WordPress theme. It has more than 200+ features with great customization options.

This theme comes with visual composer page builder which is one of the best WordPress page builder plugins. The 7 also works with Documentor Plugin very well and responsively.

WordPress plugin to create a document

Key Features of The7 Theme:

  • More Bang For Your Buck!
  • Multilingual & Translation Ready
  • The7 Elements
  • SEO-Ready & Mobile Friendly
  • Unlimited Headers
  • First-Class Support
  • 100% WooCommerce Compatibility
  • Regular Updates
  • 40+ Pre-made websites
  • 6 Premium plugins
  • Deep integration with WooCommerce
  • 1000+ theme options
  • Lifetime Updates
  • Professional support

Download Link: https://themeforest.net/item/the7-responsive-multipurpose-wordpress-theme/5556590

12) Divi

This is a premium WordPress theme having great graphics, multi-purpose orientation, and its own divi page builder.

Divi theme comes with 100+ pre-made layouts so that you can import them to build your website.

It is compatible with Documentor, WooCommerce, LearnPress, and many more.

Key Features of Divi Theme:

  • Drag and drop visual page builder
  • Prebuilt layouts and templates
  • Leads split testing tool
  • Theme options
  • Portability between sites
  • Responsive
  • Fast load time

Download Link: https://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/divi/

13) Avada

Avada theme is a multipurpose WordPress theme comes with multiple demo options to let you choose as per your need.

There no need to have any coding knowledge to develop a website using Avada theme just you have to install the theme and start creating your website.

You can make any type of website using Avada theme like E-commerce, Business, Education, Hospital, Restaurant, etc.

This theme works with Documentor plugin very well and smoothly.

Key Features of Avada Theme:

  • Responsive
  • Awesome Sliders
  • Unlimited Colors
  • Advanced Fonts
  • Retina Ready
  • Font Awesome
  • 5 Header Designs
  • Pre-Built Pages
  • Excellent Support
  • Advanced Admin
  • Elite Author
  • Translation Ready
  • Auto Updater
  • Custom Widgets
  • Shortcodes
  • Demo Content
  • Extensive Docs
  • Alternate Layouts
  • Multiple Portfolio
  • Multiple Sidebar
  • Video Support
  • SEO Optimized
  • Always Improving

Download Link: https://avada.theme-fusion.com/

14) kidzy

Kidzy is a responsive and fast WordPress theme specially designed for the education sector like schools, tuitions, academic, etc. This theme comes with demo content, therefore, it is easy to create a website.

Kidze support to WooCommerce, Documentor, and many other plugins.

Documentor

Key Features of Kidzy Theme:

  • Add and manage classes
  • Teachers profile management
  • Event management
  • Visual composer with custom shortcodes
  • Slider Revolution plugin
  • Advanced theme options
  • Woocommerce integration
  • RTL ready
  • Purpose oriented design
  • Box-Width and full-width layout
  • 100% responsive design (Google mobile-friendly)
  • 100% SEO Friendly and SEO Optimised
  • Google fonts support
  • Built with Bootstrap 3
  • Gallery custom Post Formate
  • Language translation supports
  • Built by HTML5 and CSS3
  • Extended documentation

Download Link: https://themeforest.net/item/kidzy-responsive-kindergarten-preschool-wordpress-theme/16912314

15) Extra

The extra theme comes with new modules of Divi page builder specially built for bloggers and online magazines or news portals.

Every module of Divi page builder can be customizable as per your need. This theme compatible with Woocommerce, Documentor, Booking ultra pro, etc. WordPress plugins.

Documentor plugin example

Key Features of Extra Theme:

  • Category Builder
  • Post & Page Builder
  • Fully Responsive
  • Ratings & Reviews
  • eCommerce Ready
  • Elegant Design
  • Perpetual Updates
  • Premium Support

Download Link: https://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/extra/

15) Agentpress-pro

AgentPress Pro is a WordPress theme specially designed for the real estate sector.

It is easy to create a real estate website using AgentPress pro theme. This theme is compatible with all plugins including Documentor.

Key Features of Agentpress-pro Theme:

  • Theme Options
  • Theme Customizer
  • Customizable Header
  • AgentPress Listings Plugin
  • Homepage Widget Areas
  • Mobile Responsive
  • Custom Page Templates
  • Documentation and Support

Download Link: https://my.studiopress.com/themes/agentpress/

16) Eduma

Eduma is one of the most preferable themes to create an educational based website. It comes with 20+ pre-built templates by using them you can easily create a website very fast.

It is compatible with WooCommerce, Documentor, LearnPress, more than 10+ payment integrations.

Documentation plugin for WordPress

Key Features of Eduma Theme:

  • Sorting Choice Question Type
  • Content Drip
  • myCRED Integration
  • Random Quiz
  • Co-instructors
  • WooCommerce Integration
  • Stripe Integration
  • Certificate
  • Lightweight and simple to use page builder
  • Customizer
  • Flexible course selling

Download Link: https://themeforest.net/item/education-wordpress-theme-education-wp/14058034

17) Citybook

Citybook is a directory listing WordPress theme having responsive designs, pre-built layouts using them you can easily create directory listing portal.

In this theme, you will get an admin interface which can be easily customizable with flexible listing options without restriction of numbers.

Citybook theme very well works with Documentor Plugin.

Key Features of Citybook Theme:

  • Elementor Page Builder: Drag and Drop page builder (save $34)
  • Advanced Elements for Elementor Page Builder
  • Contact Form 7
  • Filterable Portfolios
  • 8 different home page styles
  • Limitless Options with Metabox Fields
  • Unlimited Color
  • Sidebar and full-width page
  • Right or Left sidebar position
  • Fully Responsive
  • Infinite scroll to load CityBook Listing and gallery
  • Awesome Icons Font
  • Bootstrap 3.x

Download Link: https://themeforest.net/item/citybook-directory-listing-wordpress-theme/21694727

18) Authority Pro

An Authority pro WordPress theme comes with design elements and tools that make it easy to improve conversion rates to reach your business goal.

Our Documentor Plugin works with Authority pro theme very well and smoothly.

Key Features of Authority Pro Theme:

  • Accessibility ready
  • Custom header
  • E-commerce
  • HTML5 markup
  • Landing page
  • Pricing page
  • Mobile responsive
  • Theme Customizer
  • Theme options
  • Translation ready
  • Gutenberg optimized
  • Layout options
  • Widget Areas
  • Mobile Responsive

Download Link: https://my.studiopress.com/themes/authority/

19) Trendy Travel

Trendy Travel is travel related WordPress theme using it you can easily create a website for travel agency including booking system.

You can create tour packages and sale it via different payment gateways.

Using Documentor plugin you can easily create documentation for your every package and it works and looks very good.

 

Key Features of Trendy Travel Theme:

  • Coded with HTML5 & CSS3
  • Woocommerce products for packages
  • BBPress Support
  • BuddyPress Support
  • Complete Localization+ WPML Support
  • Events Calendar Pro Support
  • Mega menu with widgets support
  • Google web fonts used
  • Best RTL Support
  • Visitors Ratings+Review System
  • Unlimited Layout Possibilities
  • Boxed & Wide Layouts
  • Awesome Gallery Options
  • Cross Browser Compatible
  • SEO Ready
  • Best Support & Guides

Download Link: https://themeforest.net/item/trendy-travel-tour-travel-travel-agency-theme/8414684

20) Zero

Zero is a multipurpose WordPress theme with responsive designs, different home page layouts, transition effects and portfolio, font icons, scroll animation, sticky menu, etc.

This theme compatible and works very well with visual composer page builder, Slider Revolution plugin and Documentor plugin.

Documentation plugin

Key Features of Zero Theme:

  • Well Designed
  • Intelligent
  • Responsive
  • Premium Support
  • High Security
  • 12 column grid
  • video background
  • Well Commented code
  • WooCommerce Ready
  • Sticky navigation
  • Custom post
  • Google Web fonts
  • Cross browser optimization

Download Link: https://teslathemes.com/wordpress-themes/zero/

21) Funki

Funki is a responsive WordPress theme coded with HTML5 techniques and has a layout which is a combination of CSS3 and javascript. It works on all devices, browsers and any display resolution.

This theme is compatible and works with WooCommerce, Documentor, etc.

Key Features of Funki Theme:

  • Responsive & Fluid layout
  • Customizable slider
  • 21 layout options
  • Options to set the default layout for Home, Categories, Posts, and Pages
  • Choose up to 4 footer widget columns
  • Multiple ad posts
  • 14 different theme skins
  • Header and footer custom menu builder
  • Social widget to add social media buttons
  • Custom footer text
  • Child theme support
  • Drag & Drop Builder
  • Demo import
  • Customize Panel
  • Hook Content
  • Auto theme updates
  • SEO optimized
  • Google fonts
  • WPML compatible

Download Link: https://themify.me/themes/funki

Conclusion:

These are the themes which work very well with Documentor and Documentor Knowledge Base WordPress plugin. Hope this article helped you for how Documentation will look when created using Documentor plugin.

If you have any suggestions regarding the above content please let me know in the comment area below.

Import Word Docx File to Documentor Online Documentation on WordPress

Now Create Online Documentation Importing From Your Word Document in WordPress

Are you tired of writing your product documentation guide on WordPress? And with the new Block Editor, is it a tedious job for you to create/edit the sections?

Documentor helps you to create product documentation guides online. Make a flexible and outstanding documentation guide for your products and services using the premium version of the Documentor WordPress Plugin.

Documentor Plug-in:

Documentor lets you create online documentation on WordPress easily. It is best suitable for one-page documentation guide with an easily navigatable side menu, but you can easily create beautiful large documentation too using the AJAX feature that comes with Documentor PRO. You can create an unlimited number of product guides. Documentor is provided with one click PDF generator. With export-import facilities, Documentor also offers pre-designed responsive skins.

For those with huge documentation guides, you can load each section with AJAX.  And the cherry on the top is the guide created with Documentor is SEO compatible too (using Yoast SEO WordPress Plugin)

.docx Import:

We got a huge response to the Documentor. We came to know that lots of people prepare documentation in Google Docs or Word files. People find it easy to create documents on Word or Google Docs file. We wanted to save their extra work of rewriting documentation on WordPress.

New Release!

This new release of Documentor Docx Importer Add-on version 1.0.0 (compatible with Documentor plugin version >= 1.6.3) can let you import the .docx file. If you have a Word Document file of your product documentation, you can upload it in the Documentor. Documentor will make a section-wise partition of your documentation. All the “Heading 1” titles of your Documentations will be considered as a new section. After the sections have created, you can reorder the sections. You can drag and drop a section to another one to create the sub-sections.

For more details about this addon – please check the official DocX Importer Addon Page – along with the step by step video.

Restrict content online documentation and user manual

Restrict Guide Content using User Access Manager Addon for Documentor

As the world is digitizing, the businesses, educational institutes, and many other sectors made their presence online. Increase in online business forced the organizations to store their data on the web.

This increased the demand for information security. As you are making the information available to the public, it becomes vulnerable.

Confidentiality, Availability, and Integrity are the major pillars of Information Security

There are many security issues filed just because of poor security. To maintain information security of your online documentation or user manual, you cannot give the complete access to every level of the user. You might have some confidential data. And only the higher authority can access it. Therefore, you have to grant some permissions to the other users.

Or say you want to make certain sections of the online documentation available only for your premium users, who are members of your site. In this case also, restricting the content of the guide using an access control plugin is essential.

So here we are! Documentor WordPress plugin comes with an addon “Documentor – User Access Manager Integration“. You can find this feature in Documentor’s Multisite and Developer version.

User Access Manager is a plugin which allows only specific users to access the data. So in this article, you’ll see the step by step guide for user access manager addon integration.

Why User Access Manager Addon is needed?

You might be looking to create online documentation using Documentor. Or you already have created your guides using Documentor WordPress Plugin.  Therefore, there might be some sections in your guide which you want to keep hidden. That means, only the users with the specified privileges can see the content. The User Access Manager Addon for Documentor can help you with this.

Once you have purchased the multisite or the developer package, just install the plugin.

Steps to install Documentor:

  1. Log in to the WordPress dashboard.
  2. Go to plugins => Add New.
  3. Click on upload plugin => Browse the plugin zip file
  4. Click Install.

Now go to “Installed plugins” and check whether the “Documentor – User Access Manager Integration” is activated.

Along with the above plugin, you’ll also need to install the User Access Manager plugin. The UMA is available on wordpress.org plugin repository. Therefore, in order to install that follow the following steps:

  1. Login to your WordPress dashboard.
  2. Go to plugins => Add new.
  3. Search for User Access Manager.
  4. Install the plugin and Activate it.

How to setup User Access Manager with Documentor

You might have different users accessing your guides. Therefore, some of the sections may be confidential. So let’s see how we can set this up.

1. Initially,  open the User Access Manager => Manage user groups.

User Access Manager

2. Give some name to your user group.

3. Give some description to your user group. The description and the IP range fields are optional.

4. Grant Read access to “Only group users”.

5. Similarly, grant Write access to “Only group users”.

6. Now its time to assign the access to specific type of users.

User Access Manager Role Affiliation

You can see the list of different user roles. Therefore, here you have to select only those user types to whom you want to grant access.

That means if you select “Author”, then only the Author can see the content. Likewise, you can select multiple user types at a time.  Click on Add User Group and this will create a new user group.

Once you have created the user group, now its time to change some settings. The settings contain the way the content should appear. You can completely hide any page, post, sections or even the media from your guide.

Setup User Access Manager Settings:

1. Go to User Access Manager => Settings

2. Now you just have to select the object type. The object type can be posts, pages, sections or even media.

Now manually change the setting for each type of object.

User Access Manager Settings

If you want to completely hide the pages, posts or sections then just select the “Yes” radio button as shown below:

completely hide section in UAM

 

Finally, we have to make some changes to our posts, pages, and sections. Just edit the part of your guide which you want to restrict.

UAM options on posts, pages and sections

 

Once you have selected the user group and updated the post, now its time to test the Documentor. If you have followed all the steps correctly then this should work properly. The users with no access will see the following message.

 

Final Output of Documentor guide

Documentor Settings if AJAX is enabled:

Most of the users enable the AJAX settings as its good for search engine optimization. Therefore the only addition setting you have to enable is “Enable Page Loading”.

The setting can be found just under the AJAX setting. To enable this setting just follow the steps given below:

  1. Log in to WordPress Dashboard.
  2. Go to Documentor => All Guides.
  3. Select and edit Edit the Guide.
  4. Go to Settings tab => Advanced Settings.
  5. Enable “Enable Page Loading” option. ( important )

ajax settings

So, this was the complete tutorial on how to setup User Access Manager and Documentor.

Here is a quick video tutorial as well for you to watch which might help you more with the setup.

If you know any other way or tools to grant the user access to your guides, do comment below.

How to Create Zendesk Knowledge Base Like Guide Using WordPress

Is it possible to create Zendesk Knowledge Base guide using WordPress? I guess this question is been asked worldwide by the WordPress users. Therefore the answer to this is YES! So today we’ll look at some of the alternatives to create Zendesk like Knowledge Base using WordPress. But before that let us see why Zendesk is so popular.

Zendesk knowledge base guide:

Knowledge Base is the centralized repository of information which is publicly available to the employees and customers. The information maybe regarding the specific product or the services the company provides. Zendesk is well known for creating a good Knowledge Base. It is one of the most popular helpdesk software. It also allows the customers to create a Knowledge Base on their platform.

Here’s what the Zendesk says:

Our customer service and engagement products are powerful and flexible, and scale to meet the needs of any business.

Zendesk has a robust and flexible customer service and engagement platform scales to meet the needs of any business, from startups and small businesses to growth companies and enterprises. But the issue is its pricing. per-seat licensing has been a great way for companies like Zendesk to charge a subscription and collect revenue. Zendesk, therefore, becomes more and more expensive for companies with a low budget.

But what if you can create the same environment to create Zendesk knowledge base guide like structure on your WordPress. Yes, you got me right. There are some plugins that are meant for building the Knowledge Base.

  • Documentor
  • weDocs
  • Knowledge Center
  • Helpscout
  • Document 360
  • WP Docs

Create Zendesk like Knowledge Base using WordPress:

As mentioned above, there are plugins available at WordPress.org to create guides. If you are willing to create a single page guide then Documentor works the best in this case.

Documentor

zendesk knowledge base guide, Documentor

It is a plugin which is easy to use and create single page guides. Documentor comes with two versions, lighter and the PRO version. You can create a single guide in the lighter version whereas unlimited guides in the PRO version.

Documentor is a great solution for creating a knowledge base like Zendesk. The following are the most important features of the Documentor:

  1. Easy to use
  2. You can add regular posts, pages, and inline documentation and everything appears on a single page.
  3. Added posts or pages or the inline sections can be reordered.
  4. Create documentation for multiple products and use easy embed options to publish any number of knowledge bases.
  5. Viewers can give feedback on the sections.

Full Site Knowledge Base:

Looking at the love of our clients, here is a big announcement for everyone. If you are willing to create a full site Knowledge Base, then there is good news for you all. Documentor is coming up with a new plugin by which you can create a full site Knowledge Base. Therefore stay tuned for the updates of the new product to be launched soon.

7 SaaS Based Product Documentation Service for Technical Writing

The main motive when you launch a product is to make people aware about it functionalities and make them understand how it works. You cannot expect your visitors to contact the Support team each time if they are not aware about its working. This might be indeed frustrating for them.

The best way to attain it is through the Product Documentation that will list out its working as well as the common questions that arises on the minds of the people.

Moreover it will also save the time of the visitors as they can access the documentation any where and any time.

Why to opt for a SaaS Based Product for Documentation? 

SaaS (Software as a Service) can be considered as a method of Software delivery where the vendor or the service provider hosts the application remotely and it is made available to the customer over a network.

It is just like the rental that the user have to pay for the period of time they are using it.

As time has passed SaaS based products have gained so much of importance due to the advantages that it offers.

Advantages of SaaS Based Product:

  • Upfront Savings
  • Saves time
  • No server maintenance required
  • Easy to upgrade as the Service Provider provides with the upgrades and updates
  • Highly adopted as it can be managed anywhere and any time

7 SaaS Based Product Documentation Service:

Kayako:

It allows to create a rich interactive self-service center with video as well as imagery. One can easily create a knowledge base that will help to have a better understanding of the product that is offered.

The articles are categorized based on different categories and sub-categories along with the count that help the visitor to understand it at a quick glance.

kayako

Zendesk:

One of the great service provided to create a Documentation or knowledge base for your customers by Zendesk.

It provides to build a beautiful knowledge base, community as well as the customer portal.

All in one service is provided that helps the users to easily manage the knowledge base.

zendesk

Freshdesk:

It allows to create a SEO rich knowledge base very easily and quickly. One of the unique feature that it offers is that it allows the support team for converting a reply to a customer into a KBase article.

It provides integration with Google Analytics to find out what exactly the customers are looking for. There is different content for staff as well as customers as it provides with different access controls.

freshdesk

Desk.com: 

They provide with a great service to create online documentation or knowledge base for the customers. It is very simple to use just as cutting and pasting the content that you require.

The team can easily update the content whenever required without needing any of the help from the web designer. It also provides with multilingual knowledge base that allows to serve the visitors across the globe.

desk

Help Scout:

It helps to enhance the support with a well integrated knowledge base. It allows to manage the knowledge base of up to 5 sites with no additional charge for it.

One can upload the articles easily in HTML, Markdown or txt format. It is also multi-lingual that helps the visitors about better understanding of the product and its features.

help-scout

JitBit:

They offer a knowledge base which is very simple that offers to publish any ticket to it with a single click.

The documentation in knowledge base can be distinguished as Public and Private. Private articles are the one to which only the technicians and admins will have the access to open it.

It also provides suggestions for the documents/ articles  for the visitors on the client portal.

jitbit

HappyFox:

It provides with simple online knowledge base or documentation that is beautiful, searchable, social media ready and responsive for the mobile. HappyFox also provides for the auto suggestion for the users on the client portal. With the structured index it makes it easy to share over the social media.

happyfox

The above listed are some of the best SaaS based Product Documentation services that helps to create an online documentation for your product very easily and quickly.

One does not require technical knowledge to create such type of documentation.

10 Points Checklist on Creating Documentation for Any Product

This is the last thing on the planet anyone would want to do. And that is to read, write and talk about the documentation process of a product. This is one of the last steps of the Project Life Cycle and also the most important one. Having a proper documentation of your product is going to give an ease of understanding to your website visitors. And if they understand everything about your product, they are most likely to buy it.

Therefore, you need to make sure that while you are creating documentation for any product, you need to see that it happens appropriately. That is why, in this blog, I am going to give you a 10 pointer checklist that will help you in creating that perfect documentation for any type of product.

1. Covering the basics

So this is the basic thing while creating the document. You have to mention all the basics of the product. For example, if you are creating a document for a mobile phone, then right from its screen size, to its internal memory and expandable one, you have to give every minute detail of it. This is will help the user understand the intricacies of the product so that he or she can willingly make the purchase.

2. Giving reference links

While creating the document, if you have taken any kind of reference from any website or e-book or from any other source, then you must provide the reference link at the bottom of the document. This is because it is counted as one of the ethical practices while creating the documentation. In simple words, when you are referring to someone on your website, you ought to give reference to that source from where you have taken the data.

3. Clutter-free documentation

This one is really important. You have to make sure that your documentation looks absolutely clean and clutter free. Do not stuff the document with too much of text as the user will not find it interesting to read. Instead, use less text, but be sure that the text which you are using is impact-ful and understanding enough for the visitor who is visiting your website.

4. Use pictures if possible

As the old saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words. So you can use pictures related to your product that will go in sync with the text. Thus, this will minimize the length of the documentation along with its complexities. The audience on the web prefers to go through those documents which comprise of pictures, diagrams, tabular sections, bullet points as it gives a quick reference of what the document is all about instead of reading the whole thing.

5. Humanizing the work

So while you are reading a user manual, how many times have you thought that if there was really a human species on the other side who created this manual? Or was it the wonders of the computer that made this manual? Albeit you are not here to paint or create a colorful novel or manual. Al you can do is, just humanize the content a little bit with your brand’s touch or your personality. This will only make the reader comfortable while reading the document.

6. Predicting problems

It is really important that you are anticipating problems that your users might face while using the document. See if all the call-to-action buttons are working or not. Think from the user’s perspective, what are the things that they will more focus on then act accordingly.

7. Use a standardized document

English is a language that can become flowery, harsh, soft, subtle etc and take many other forms. But then it can also end up in the state of confusion and disagreement while you are creating a document for any product. Therefore, I would suggest you use a standard language throughout the documentation process. What you can do is, you can dedicate a separate section at the beginning of the document mentioning that certain terms will be used in the documents and this is how they should be interpreted. This will avoid the confusion and disagreements among the audience.

8. Make use of rationale statements

If you are making use of rationale statements, then they are going to reduce the ambiguity of your document. Using such statements helps in simplifying your statements and also provides your users with additional information. If you are conveying the requirement in a concise manner then your audience is most likely to understand it.

9. Do the documentation by yourself

Nowadays you get ready-made templates for the documentation process. Documentation is really rewarding if done correctly and it can be of great benefit to your viewers for obvious reasons. So it is always better than you do it all by yourself. As when you are giving someone else to do it, it will not have the inclusion of all the details that you want to be in that document.

10. Keep easy to share options

So when you are creating the documentation for any product you have to keep the sharing options for that document in a proper manner. So that it will be visible to the viewers. If the viewer wants to share it on social media then he or she should be able to do it. Also, you should keep an option of “download PDF” over there, so those who wish to download it can easily find the option and they can download it.

I hope you will find this checklist useful and with this, you can deploy the things that were clinging behind while creating documentation for your product. If you have anything more to add on it, you can mention it in the comments section below and I would be happy to discuss it. Until then, good luck with your documentation process!

How to Create Internal Knowledge Base with WordPress

Are you planning to create an Internal Knowledge Base for your Company? Are you searching for tools to create a Knowledge Base for your company, products or services? So read further to know more about the Internal Knowledge Base as well as the easiest plugin used to create the documentation for you.

What is an Internal Knowledge Base?

Internal Knowledge Base can be defined as a complete set of information created by the company. The information can be a privacy policy, product details or service details. Therefore, you can save the internal knowledge base on the cloud and make it available to your employees within the intranet.

Importance of Internal Knowledge Base:

As your company grows, there is a lot of information to be shared among the employees. Information such as privacy policies or product details or services provided. So having an internal knowledge base is most important as all the information is available in one place. This makes it easier for the employees to access the data anytime they require.

You can create your documentation manually and make it available to your employees. But it is time-consuming and becomes complicated as the information increases. There are various tools that can help you create documentation. But they seem to be complicated to use. In order to have a good internal knowledge base the software or the plugin should be easy to use.

Documentor

Documentation is the most important asset for any organization. So the easiest way to create documentation or an internal knowledge base is the “Documentor” plugin.  Documentor helps you to easily create guides and arrange them using the drag and drop feature. You must have come across many other documentation plugins. All the guides you create are saved on their server. But this may lead to downtime if their server is responding at a slow pace. Documentor allows you to save your guides on your own server. Documentor loads every section, page or post from the guide on the same page.

Features of Documentor Plugin

Documentor makes your life easier as it is easy to use. All you have to do is download the Documentor plugin and start creating your guides.

1. Drag and Drop Guides:

What if you have created a huge documentation and found that you need to reorder many sections. Performing such action manually becomes a headache. Therefore by using Documentor, you can easily reorder your documentation or guides by simply dragging them.

2. Add Blog Post and Pages to your Document:

There might be a situation where you have already created some post and want to include them in your documentation. You don’t need to write the same content again and again. Documentor allows you to add Blog posts as well as pages to your Knowledge Base.

3. Add Shortcodes to your sections

You might be using several plugins. For example, a form builder, image gallery, etc. You can add their shortcodes in your guides. Therefore, you can add Images, Videos, Image Gallery, Graphs, Maps to your guide by just pasting their shortcodes.

4. Visitors Feedback

Visitors viewing your Knowledge Base can give their feedback about the content or section they are reading. As a result, you can make changes according to it.

5. Multilingual Support:

As Documentor is WPML compatible, it is possible for a viewer to view the document in his language.

6. Save as PDF:

The Documentor Pro allows you to save your internal knowledge base in pdf format. Hence, you can share your internal Knowledge Base within your employees.

7. Print Knowledge Base:

Along with saving, you can also print your internal Knowledge Base using the print icon.

With these features, one can easily create an internal knowledge base using WordPress. As WordPress is a under friendly platform and Documentor allows you to create unlimited guides, you can create and maintain internal knowledge base with ease.

Go ahead and try Documentor.

 

How to Change Product Documentation Template from Dashboard

Technical documentation of the product is very important. It helps customers understanding the product better and even use it without any help. A customer’s guide or help documentation should be ready at the time of releasing the product.

Like the website, the online product documentation page should also have a stylish look. The common layout of a documentation guide is different than a regular website.

A documentation guide should have better navigation between different articles under the guide as well as it should have dedicated search panel too.

Visitor’s feedback on the guide page helps in improving the documentation. Such feedback options like “Documentation was Helpful” or “Didn’t Help” should appear the end of the article.

Apart from these features, the design including color scheme, layout and placement of the navigation option depends on the documentation template.

If you create a product documentation or technical document of your product using Documentor, you get 6 design templates to choose from. These are very different in looks and allows you to get a new look in single click.

After adding all the sections in guide, you can choose between these 6 different designs. The option to choose documentation template is available under “Basic Settings” of the guide.

For every guide, you can have different template i.e. looks and design.

You can change the template anytime from the setting panel and customize the looks of your product documentation page instantly.

These ready layouts and mobile responsive so works great on all kind of devices.

Documentor comes with features such as PDF auto-generate, Visitor’s Feedback, Unlimited Guide, Drag and Drop Reorder of Sections, Print and Email options, Social Sharing, Database Backup and User Access Restriction.

You can create documentation with ready looks and layouts in no time and even customize the layout from dashboard without writing any piece of code.

Restrict Access of Documentation Guide Sections using Documentor UAM Integration Add-on

If you are running a member area website or having personal access areas, you may need to restrict access to selected users. For such situations, either you password protect the page or post or completely restrict access.

Free WordPress plugin like User Access Manager allows you to create a user group with selected users and allow access to those only. You can put any registered user of the website to that group or you can create multiple groups as per the access levels.

With this technique, you can control the access of different users as per their assigned group.

Access Control in Documentor Guide

We were receiving request to add similar feature for Documentor guide’s sections too. For example, if you don’t want to show certain sections of a guide to few people, you may need to restrict access. This feature is widely used on membership website or Internal usage portal of a company or organization.

UAM (User Access Manager) plugin works perfectly fine on Pages and Posts but was not working for sections. We thought to leverage the power of UAM and integrate it with Documentor.

Now we have finally released an add-on named UAM Integration to restrict the access of sections. By simply going on edit section panel, one can restrict the section to certain user group.

Note: UAM Integration is available along with Multisite and Developer plans of Documentor Pro WordPress plugin.