IT Man200
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Knowledge base building software – Better than SharePoint?
We are a small IT support company and we want to build an easy to use easy to search knowledge base that everyone adds to as they go along.
Hoping to find a tried and tested solution that many have used before.
Google reveals some applications out there, but many of them don’t seem quite right. A high ranking Google result is
http://www.web-site-scripts.com/knowledge-management/overview.html
However, this misses one key feature I want. The ability to be able to copy and paste images directly into guides. If we have to upload images, this is going to be very time consuming as we make our articles and guides image heavy showing screen shots and steps.
The good thing about Word documents, it makes it very easy to paste images into. The downside, how do you manage all those documents.
SharePoint is supposed to be able to achieve this sort of thing but is bulky and confusing in my opinion. I’ve never been able to really master it. Might give it another go but many don’t seem to like it.
Or maybe I’ve never used a version of SharePoint setup well enough
I’m open to any suggestions and thought I’d run it by here. Thanks in advance.
Hoping to find a tried and tested solution that many have used before.
Google reveals some applications out there, but many of them don’t seem quite right. A high ranking Google result is
http://www.web-site-scripts.com/knowledge-management/overview.html
However, this misses one key feature I want. The ability to be able to copy and paste images directly into guides. If we have to upload images, this is going to be very time consuming as we make our articles and guides image heavy showing screen shots and steps.
The good thing about Word documents, it makes it very easy to paste images into. The downside, how do you manage all those documents.
SharePoint is supposed to be able to achieve this sort of thing but is bulky and confusing in my opinion. I’ve never been able to really master it. Might give it another go but many don’t seem to like it.
Or maybe I’ve never used a version of SharePoint setup well enough
I’m open to any suggestions and thought I’d run it by here. Thanks in advance.
Mark Bullock
I like Confluence by Atlassian.
Man i'll be honest. I have used
Sharepoint
Altiris
Microsoft SCSM
Heat
Service now
All of them fall terribly short in what i always wanted them to do. there are many apps etc out there but the best by far that i have found for a service desk arena is .. .. ... *drumroll*
One note
On a shared service desk you can have tabs for each client and then you can make a heading for each application or procedure you want. You can instantly copy and paste anything from anywhere straight into it which makes it maazing. It also updates in real time for all users and its quickly searchable.
Theres no document formatting to look pretty and technical. Just enter the information you need and you are off.
Absolutely the best and fastest KB i have ever used and easiest to update for all users. Our KB has tripled in months because users can just drop data in on the go.
All we have as a rule is on a page title place a * in the name so that them manager knows its new and not yet confirmed as perfectly accurate. then the manager confirms the details with any team necessary and removes the star.
Its also good for handovers and updates/ outages to let all your team know.
Sharepoint
Altiris
Microsoft SCSM
Heat
Service now
All of them fall terribly short in what i always wanted them to do. there are many apps etc out there but the best by far that i have found for a service desk arena is .. .. ... *drumroll*
One note
On a shared service desk you can have tabs for each client and then you can make a heading for each application or procedure you want. You can instantly copy and paste anything from anywhere straight into it which makes it maazing. It also updates in real time for all users and its quickly searchable.
Theres no document formatting to look pretty and technical. Just enter the information you need and you are off.
Absolutely the best and fastest KB i have ever used and easiest to update for all users. Our KB has tripled in months because users can just drop data in on the go.
All we have as a rule is on a page title place a * in the name so that them manager knows its new and not yet confirmed as perfectly accurate. then the manager confirms the details with any team necessary and removes the star.
Its also good for handovers and updates/ outages to let all your team know.
ASKER
Thanks for your comments. Actually however I started from OneNote. I loved it at first and raved about it. I still use it as a personal mini archive.
However, when I used it as a company way or organising things, I found it became very difficult to manager. One could not enforce any organisation or standards on the format and you had to rely on everyone doing it the same way and it just seemed to become messy.
Maybe I need to retry it, but it was such a horrible experience trying to go through and organise it all again afterwards I moved away from it.
Maybe I need to retry with the newer versions, but ideally it would be like OneNote, but with a really good version control and control framework for the documents.
So open to any other suggestions, but maybe what I want does not exist (or is supposed to be SharePoint)
However, when I used it as a company way or organising things, I found it became very difficult to manager. One could not enforce any organisation or standards on the format and you had to rely on everyone doing it the same way and it just seemed to become messy.
Maybe I need to retry it, but it was such a horrible experience trying to go through and organise it all again afterwards I moved away from it.
Maybe I need to retry with the newer versions, but ideally it would be like OneNote, but with a really good version control and control framework for the documents.
So open to any other suggestions, but maybe what I want does not exist (or is supposed to be SharePoint)
I mean the standards thing is like anything. How they answer phones.. etc
But a kb doesnt really need to look pretty.. it needs to be functional.. having version control, document outlines, intended audiences etc is not needed by the service desk
Pretty knowledgebases make for bad knowledgebases.
But a kb doesnt really need to look pretty.. it needs to be functional.. having version control, document outlines, intended audiences etc is not needed by the service desk
Pretty knowledgebases make for bad knowledgebases.
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ASKER
OK I've started looking at Confluence. Looks interesting. watched some videos. Want to know if I can paste images directly into it (as in Word)
I used Snag it to gather pictures for screen shots which is really good. If I can then load these pictures directly into guides this works very well for me. If I have to upload them each time, this is a cumbersome pain that puts me off getting the guides done.
Anyway, I will experiment more but thanks for input so far and always welcome some more.
I used Snag it to gather pictures for screen shots which is really good. If I can then load these pictures directly into guides this works very well for me. If I have to upload them each time, this is a cumbersome pain that puts me off getting the guides done.
Anyway, I will experiment more but thanks for input so far and always welcome some more.
ASKER
Confluence suggestion was good. Not decided for sure yet, but it does seem a lot easier then SharePoint. Also you can actually drag images into the webpage. it's not quite like editing in say OneNote, but it's pretty good.