---
title: "Write the Docs Podcast episode 30: Documentation templates, with Juan Lara"
date: 2020-07-20
description: "Documentation templates refer to established patterns we follow for common documentation types, such as quickstarts, how-to guides, concepts, tutorials, reference, troubleshooting, release notes, FAQs, or other information types that have..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/blog/documentation-templates-write-the-docs-episode/index.html
---

> For AI agents: a documentation index is available at https://idratherbewriting.com/llms.txt. Markdown versions of all pages are available by appending .md to any page URL.

# Write the Docs Podcast episode 30: Documentation templates, with Juan Lara

> In Write the Docs Podcast episode 30, Juan Lara from Google joins us for a lively discussion about documentation templates.

Documentation templates refer to established patterns we follow for common documentation types, such as quickstarts, how-to guides, concepts, tutorials, reference, troubleshooting, release notes, FAQs, or other information types that have similar, predictable patterns.

Templates can be helpful in orienting new writers, but they can also help ensure consistency among larger groups of experienced writers too. Our discussion in this episode ranges from observations about when templates are right for users versus writers, and how templates fit into an overall content strategy and information architecture.

Beyond templates, your user’s goals and journeys will influence the shape of your help content.

[Video: Video](https://www.youtube.com/embed/9F_uvncrVLw)

Resources mentioned during the show:

- [Google’s Technical Writing Courses](https://developers.google.com/tech-writing)
- [Cloud Spanner documentation](https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs)
- [The Good Docs Project: Templates to make good docs.](https://thegooddocsproject.dev/)

You can see the original post here: [WTD Episode 30: Documentation templates, with Juan Lara](https://podcast.writethedocs.org/2020/07/19/episode-30-documentation-templates/).

See also the [Conceptual topics in API docs](https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/docconceptual.html) in my API docs course for a list of best practices about overviews, getting started tutorials, quick references, glossaries, and other common topic types more specific to API documentation.