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Unit 7 · Application documentation

An app nobody knows how to use is an app nobody uses. You write the help, manuals and tutorials that go with your project.

Learning outcome Hours Term
RA6 — Documents applications, selecting and using specific tools. 8 2nd

What you will learn

  • Identify systems for generating help
  • Generate help in the usual formats
  • Generate context-sensitive help
  • Document the structure of the stored (persistent) data
  • Write the user manual and the reference guide
  • Write installation, configuration and administration manuals
  • Create tutorials

Lessons

  1. Where help lives — the three places help lives, help-generation systems, docs-as-code and the docs map of your app
  2. Site and PDF — build a Zensical site, write a user manual and a reference page, and generate a PDF with Pandoc and Typst
  3. Context help — the help ladder, an accessible HelpTip in Svelte 5, a driver.js tour and screenshots generated by Playwright
  4. Admin, data, tutorials — installation, configuration and administration manuals, documenting persistent data, and writing a tutorial