Maruthi Prasanna

     I started toying with the idea of using Markdown for documentation only a couple of months ago and happened to pick Typora as my choice of Markdown Editor. You can tutor this tool by yourself in a single day, but it takes time to learn some nuances if you are learning it all by yourself. For a long time, I thought Typora doesn't have the option to add a cover page, header, footer, and page numbers, and last week I figured out that we can do all these by using the YAMAL front matter. You can add typora-root-url to the YAMAL front matter to insert images by their relative path. To know more, see: https://support.typora.io/YAML/ https://support.typora.io/Images/ Related articles: YAMAL front matter in Typora Use markdown for your README Why I am gung-ho about Typora Conditional text in markdown Author documents using markdown Using mermaid in markdown Do agile technical documentation using markdown Tool independent technical documentation Techniques for cost-effective ...

     I was looking for ways to add a cover page, header, and footer in Markdown and just figured out how we do it in Typora Markdown editor. It is easy. Set the header and footer using YAML Front Matter. The YAML front matter must be the first thing in the file and must be valid YAML, set between triple-dashed lines.  Source: https://support.typora.io/ The following is an example for setting the document title, header, and footer using YAML: --- title: Agile Technical Documentation header: A Quick Guide for Agile Technical Documentation footer: ${pageNo} --- Apart from this, you need to make a few PDF export settings. Select File > Preferences > Export > PDF and select the checkbox for Read and overwrite export settings from YAMAL front matters . Now, the document exported into PDF will have A Quick Guide for Agile Technical Documentation in its header and page number in its footer. If you need a cover page as well for the PDF export, paste the followin...

     This post is going to be a tutorial on Typora with almost end-to-end instructions for a beginner. Install Typora and Pandoc as a prerequisite. Refer to my previous posts or figure them out by yourself.  First, I want to answer why Typora and why Markdown. Typora is a Markdown Editor with a WYSIWYG interface, and it makes using Markdown a lot easier. For those skeptical about Markdown, kindly note that great products may not come with a great endorsement. Technical Writing is not a particularly easy job, but everyone can be a Technical Writer to the same extent to which everyone can be an artist. Markdown can help everyone be a Technical Writer, and an easy-to-use Markdown tool such as Typora can make it even easier. Conduct training on Markdown for all product team members and not just Technical Writers. The content created using Markdown can be easily integrated into CMS. People responsible for the product can write about the product and the features they are d...

     I was doing some research on can we apply the conditional text in Markdown just like we do in DITA, and came across this: https://shopify.github.io/liquid/ https://shopify.github.io/liquid/basics/introduction/ Static Site Generators such as Jekyll can process Markdown and Liquid, and you can implement conditional filtering and content reuse using Liquid. I mean to say DITA is not the only go to implement conditional text. Related articles: YAMAL front matter in Typora Insert images in Typora Use markdown for your README Why I am gung-ho about Typora Author documents using markdown Using mermaid in markdown Do agile technical documentation using markdown Tool independent technical documentation Techniques for cost-effective technical documentation The ability to learn is the key to survival. We can learn faster by learning from each other.

     I have been using Typora Markdown Editor for some time now, and I am relatively a novice compared to the people who are using it for several years. Now I want to try some advanced functions, and Janne Kemppainen's blog ( https://pakstech.com/about/ ) helped me do the same. I learned the basics of using Mermaid to create diagrams and visualizations using text and code. Like me, you can visit the Mermaid site ( https://mermaid-js.github.io/mermaid/#/ ) to teach yourself the ways to use this open-source software. Here is a sample for inserting a pie chart: '''mermaid pie title NETFLIX         "Looking for movie" : 90         "Watching it" : 10 ''' The diagram generated is as in the following: Related articles: YAMAL front matter in Typora Insert images in Typora Use markdown for your README Why I am gung-ho about Typora Conditional text in markdown Author documents using markdown Do agile technical documentation using markdown Too...

     My cost-saving ideas apply to the following: lessen recurring costs incurred on maintaining technical documentation & decrease the technical supports costs by making technical support information easy to access The idea involves setting up a documentation system that involves Markdown and Static File Generator. Both cost almost nothing and are highly reliable and secure. Consider that you want to digitalize an entire library of books. We need to consider tools for this so that the file format will remain valid even after a hundred years. We need easy to catalog documentation archival, built incrementally and available online from the start. I suggest using Wiki format (such as Media Wiki), Markdown, or LaTeX. My preference is for Markdown format as it is easy, and the files can be online or offline. The same thing applies to Technical Documentation for a product company. We need to have technical documents for the long term, and we must try to avoid tools depende...

     Drive down costs and increase productivity is the theme for running a business in our current times. Quite often, documentation in a company is a monolith that is expensive to maintain, and fixes to it may not address the long-term problem. It is challenging to make information more accessible. This document describes documentation ideas that can apply for a startup or any company which follows Agile methodology. The idea is to keep the costs low, develop the documentation incrementally, and make it work for the long term. Some of the tools that we use can make our work more simple or more complex. All information must be captured in real-time and must be curated well. Hosting the information online will make it available to the stakeholders in real-time. Also, the company must be careful about not getting locked into a few tools which can drain money and resources. Try the following ideas: Use Markdown to create portable content and host the contents online using a ...