If you are a Joomla website developer or consultant like me, you often need to create documentation for the websites you create. This can be a tedious task, and sometimes a repetitive one.
The fact is that many (most?) web development companies don't bother to give their clients any documentation at all. By providing well thought-out documentation to your clients you will cement the relationship and attract new clients. The only thing is... It takes a lot of time to do documentation for each site.
Now there's a service available which makes the documentation process much easier. It's actually quite fun!
Joomanuals is an online service which generates custom user manuals to help you save time and impress your clients.
Read on for a special offer for JoomlaBlogger readers!
The developer's product description:
Joomanuals is an innovative automatic 'custom user manual creator' that will create user manuals which you can give your clients along with the Joomla!™ website. Compare it with the manual you get when buying a TV or a washing machine. What this means is no more annoying calls from clients asking you silly questions like how to add an image in an article.
Joomanuals is a simple, but brilliant idea which will save you tons of time.
Easy step-by-step process to create a manual
Joomanuals has been designed for busy web developers, designers and site builders who don't have time to write detailed administration manuals for training their clients.
Using Joomanuals, this is the steps you would use to create a custom manual:
- Log in using your user name and password (provided once you subscribe)
- Fill in a simple form with basic information about your client's website
- Download the custom manual generated by Joomanuals in PDF format. You can print and mail it to your clients if required.
Features in detail
- Include your company's logo on header of every page
- Explanation of how to edit Custom HTML modules
- Explanation on making the most of Joomla' Rich Text Editor
- Explanation on how to keep a backup of the site using phpMyAdmin
- Explanation on how to keep a backup of the site using Joomlapack and downloading it using Filezilla
- Explanation of Meta tags, description, and how to use them for SEO
- Add extra notes after every chapter in the manual in case there is something you want to include that is not a part of the standard explanations
- NEW: Rich text editor chapters for the WYSIWYG editor JCE
- NEW: 7 VirtueMart chapters for teaching routine tasks
- NEW: Generate manuals with low-res images unsuitable for printing but suitable for emailing.
Benefits of Joomanuals
- The chapters, text and screenshots in the manual is generated to look as if you have written the entire manual especially for your client's website.
- All pages have your company logo in the header
- The content is presented in a simple way so that even those clients who think Joomla! is too difficult will be able to learn it by following simple instructions.
- Screenshots are provided explaining each process.
- Will make your company stand out compared to your competition
- Option to make the manual in English or German.
The developer tells me that the chapters in the manuals generated by Joomanuals are designed by the author of a very successful book about Joomla, which is now a part of Joomla's official documentation and has been translated into 2 foreign languages.
Room for improvement
huge manuals - just useful ones ;)
In a service like this there's always room for improvement. I would like to see support for more extensions and additional translations.
In addition to this, I would like to be able to put the company logo on the front page of the manual. An option to choose to have the logo on the front page or not would be nice.
These are minor things for me, though. Most users in Norway read English very well, so presenting a manual in English isn't a problem. If I want a manual in Norwegian I'd better get around and translating it myself, don't you think? ;)
Pricing and value
The price for Joomanuals is $25 for 1 year, which I think is a fair price. The developer has already added a lot of features at the request of his users. And as the subscriber base grows, I think we will see more languages and support for more extensions as well.
With a subscription you can generate an unlimited number of manuals for an unlimited number of clients for one year. Considering the fact that it would take a lot of money to get such a manual written especially for your client from a professional it's a very good investment. Using Joomanuals saves time and will definitely impress your clients.
I recommend you go ahead and buy a subscription, and start impressing your clients and co-workers! I use it myself and love it already! If you are not satisfied with the service, the company will return your money immediately.
Special offer for Joomlablogger readers!
Saurabh, the developer of Joomanuals, has been generous enough to make a special discount offer for Joomlablogger readers.
extended subscription (1.5 years) for $25 (normally this gives you a 1 year subscription).
So, by using this code you get 6 months extra! Thanks Saurabh, for this offer!