.. meta::
:description:
Find the software documentation system for Divio. Includes comprehensive tutorials, how-to guides, technical
reference and explanation. Learn more here.
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The Documentation System
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.. rst-class:: quote
The Grand Unified Theory of Documentation
.. rst-class:: attribution
\- David Laing
There is a secret that needs to be understood in order to write good software documentation: there isn’t one
thing called *documentation*, there are four.
They are: *tutorials*, *how-to guides*, *technical reference* and *explanation*. They represent four different
purposes or functions, and require four different approaches to their creation. Understanding the implications of
this will help improve most documentation - often immensely.
About the system
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:alt: 'overview of the documentation system'
The documentation system outlined here is a simple, comprehensive and nearly universally-applicable scheme. It
is proven in practice across a wide variety of fields and applications.
There are some very simple principles that govern documentation that are very rarely if ever spelled out. They seem
to be a secret, though they shouldn’t be.
If you can put these principles into practice, **it will make your documentation better and your project, product
or team more successful** - that’s a promise.
:ref:`The system is widely adopted ` for large and small, open and proprietary documentation projects.
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 0
introduction
tutorials
how-to-guides
reference
explanation
structure
adoption
Video presentation
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If you'd prefer to watch a video covering this topic, here is it (courtesy of PyCon Australia 2017).
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