Developing documentation for open source projects

Don’t worry if you don’t have the time or skills to do it yourself

Cherryleaf can lead your documentation projects and sprints. We can also provide Technical Authors to write the online Help, onboarding screens, embedded Help, or a knowledge base for your product or service.

Contact Cherryleaf

Don’t let a lack of documentation drag your project down

Poor or missing documentation is one of the key challenges for open source projects. It’s very difficult for an open source project be successful without documentation that describes its architecture, or explains how to use the software.

Many developers don’t like writing documentation. They have to deal with the “curse of knowledge”. This means when we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. However, documentation is essential work.

How we can help when you want to write it yourself

Leading open source documentation projects and sprints

Our work can include:

  • Planning a documentation project or a documentation sprint
  • Structuring the content
  • Writing – writing content and delegating writing tasks to others the writing team
  • Project management
  • Managing reviews and the editing process
  • Publishing the content
  • Identifying and celebrating success

Leading writing workshops

The workshops can cover these topics such as:

  • Identifying a list of topics that need to be created or updated
  • Prioritising tasks
  • Allocating the work
  • Information design
  • Style and tone guidelines
  • Best writing practices
  • How to use the authoring tools
  • Publishing workflow
  • User-centred writing approaches
  • Editing and reviewing
  • How to maintain the content in the future

If you want us to write - Deliverables

Online (web) Help pages and knowledge bases

We mean Help that’s delivered as a set of HTML files. These can be in a knowledge base, a Help section, or linked to your support ticket system. This type of Help is used for Software as a Service, other web-based applications, and mobile apps. It can also be used for desktop applications.

Developing onboarding screens and Walkthroughs

Onboarding screens introduce the application to the user, and demonstrate what the product does. Cherryleaf can help you create your onboarding screens – getting the content and the design right for your product and your audience.

Writing UI text and Embedded Help

UI text and Embedded Help places the Help information in the application screens. The user doesn’t need to leave the current screen to find the answer to their questions.  We write the Help in text or Markdown format, which is then compiled with the application code files.

Creating API documentation

See Cherryleaf’s API documentation writing services

We can also create print versions in PDF, Word, or another printed formats.

Our approach

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Have a preferred authoring tool or working method?

We can use a writing process that suits your workflow and technologies. Cherryleaf works with a wide range of authoring tools.

Online Help episodes from the Cherryleaf Podcast






Contact us

Need help in writing the documentation for your open source project?

Complete the contact form below. Don’t worry if you don’t know the answers to all of the questions.

We will contact you to discuss your situation and requirements.

You can always phone or email us, if you prefer.

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