Recording: Writing tech docs like a hacker with Jekyll
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Description
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Writing tech docs like a hacker with Jekyll
Static site generators are a new breed of documentation tools that are much more common in engineering groups where developers contribute to the documentation.
Jekyll is one of the most popular static site generators, but it is highly similar to others in the same category such as Docpad, Middleman, Wintersmith, and Octopress. You can see a more comprehensive list of the top static site generators at Staticgen.com.
Jekyll projects approach doc as code. All the files are open and editable within a code editor, and your files can live in the same repository as your program code or within the same version control workflow.
Although developers and web engineers love Jekyll, there are significant challenges to overcome when adopting Jekyll for any robust tech comm publishing scenario. Some of these challenges include conditional filtering, single sourcing, PDF output, a robust TOC, search, context-sensitive help, collaboration, SME review, and more.
In this presentation, Tom Johnson will share his adventures in using Jekyll and how he dealt with each of these challenges.
About Tom Johnson
I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.
If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the tech comm, be sure to subscribe to email updates below. You can also learn more about me or contact me. Finally, note that the opinions I express on my blog are my own points of view, not that of my employer.