There is no doubt for me that TWiki is the best tool to maintain a software documentation up to date and connected to the development team. For internal tools that do not need documentation localization and assuming users all have internet access, TWiki do the trick. But things aren't always that simple, particularly when you need to package your products a minimum. Some issues :

• Internationalization
  • How to easily maintain localized versions ?
  • Are WikiWords really a problem ?
  • NB : Those ideas are already tackled in WebTeachProject, LocalizationIsNeeded, InternationalizationSupport topics amongst others.
• Printed manuals
  • Users often demand well printed manuals with a professional layout (eg well positionned page breaks, TOCs specifying page numbers, etc) that is difficult to achieve by printing web pages.
• Help files
  • Static Html or hlp files generation ?
  • How to generate indexes ?
  • Would the GenHTMLAddon help here ?

I am not waiting for a complete answer. This is a new problem for me and I need to investigate further. But maybe some of you have come to a quite integrated solution ? We could also use this topic to complete the above issues list.

-- JeromeBouvattier - 25 Mar 2002

We use TWiki to maintain internal documents of various types, some of which are occasionaly provided to customers and/or auditors. We use HTMLDOC (see PrintUsingPDF) to generate printable (e-mailable) versions with page numbers, header/footer control, page numbering, table of contents (with page numbers), etc. They also to provide an easy way to view previous versions of the web.

Also see MotorolaExtensionsToTWiki.

-- DaveAlsup - 25 Mar 2002

Thanks Dave. Lots of useful infos there. Don't know why I missed those links before.

-- JeromeBouvattier - 26 Mar 2002