So I’m on the lookout for something, but I don’t know how to briefly describe it. I want something to help me document various projects at work. It’s not uncommon for me to spend a week setting something up, and it works for 2 years and then has a problem – and I have to re-learn everything about it from the ground up before I can start solving it. For example, I’m setting up a new VMWare server today, and I just know I’m going to forget some of the details on it – so I want to be able to type out some of the specs and processes, maybe use some tags, a coupel hyperlinks to more info, and be able to search for it a year from now. Does that make sense? Anybody have any suggestions?
Bookstack is a really nice wiki/documentation tool.
You may also like wiki.js or even just storing markdown files in a git repo. Lately I’ve been using Obsidian to manage some notes about servers, but am thinking of going back to bookstack to “publish” docs for others.
Bookstack is absolutely great. I have all my selfhosting knowledge written there from when I started 2 years ago. It is so great that I’ve started documenting stuff for other hobbies and for work.
How does bookstack compare to, for example, dokuwiki?
I know this is the self-hosted Community, but I would use GitHub for that use case. I like to keep notes and links in plaintext files, and then store those instruction documents together in a project with any files needed for the project (like config files), that can then ask be easily pulled to the device you’re working on. You can also get fancy and store the instructions in batch files that actually carry out the steps for you.
Of course something very similar could be achieved with a self-hosted git instance, but I like using GitHub because I like having the web interface and Pages option when those are relevant.
DokuWiki is a pretty lightweight wiki I’ve used for stuff like this in the past. There are also desktop wiki style apps if you’re not into web based stuff.
I have a folder in which I write all my notes as markdown files. See Zettelkasten. The tool I use is zk
I personally use Bookstack for this and love it
I like that I could quickly find a docker for this. Might try it!
This is a non self hosted answer. Apologize for that. But personally I use one note for this purpose at work. At home I have a lot less so I just keep a txt document.
Sticking around in case someone posts a good solution I haven’t heard of.
If it is just for yourself one of the many note taking applications that sync with a server should do. Many people also swear by Org mode for that.
If it is for a team, an easy to use Wiki works well. Personally I like Bookstack, but Dokuwiki is also good.
Joplin or any other note application.
For your whole team any wiki, if WYSIWYG is required XWiki
I just have a bunch of text files (org) and sync them on all my computers with Syncthing. Works great so far.
Personnally I love Obsidian. It’s markdown based so your can store and review documentation in git.
You can also link documents with each other with a very simple syntax and see a map of the created links.
Looking for „personal knowledge base“ or „personal wiki“ might lead you to a tool that you like.
There is a bazillion tools, local or in the cloud, better with media or more integrated with editors etc.
I heard good things about obsidian which works with markdown. Notion is a popular web based alternative. Microsoft OneNote is probably the most flexible in terms of media and layout. emacs org mode if you want a rabbit hole…
Look into Personal Knowledge Management solutions. I don’t use any of the popular options there and instead run a wiki (specifically DokuWiki) for myself. I’ve seen people even run private forums to put this sort of info in so they can start a thread per “project”, update the OP for current state and take running notes in comments. It really depends on whichever system makes it easiest for you to write, and easy enough to find what you are looking for.
Thank you! Even having something to search for is helpful. Now I see lots of options to take a look at. Very well might end up just doing a local wiki!
If you end up doing a wiki do consider DokuWiki vs something more complex to manager like MediaWiki. I like Doku because it’s simple and doesn’t even need a database because it stores the pages as files on disk (so worst case you can at least read the markup in a text editor if your wiki itself breaks). With just a few plugins you can add support for markdown, templates, tags, and more.
Mkdocs with material theme.
