Documentation & Knowledge Base Glossary
This glossary explains knowledge management and technical writing concepts.
What is an API documentation?
API documentation is a set of documents or a single reference manual that helps consumers use your A...
What is Authoring?
Authoring is the act of creating an electronic document with the help of special software (authoring...
What is Accessibility?
Accessibility or Web accessibility, in this case, is an inclusive approach toward designing and deve...
What is Backup in a Knowledge base?
Backup is a protected copy of important data, be it, files, data, or entire systems, stored separate...
What is a Business Requirement Document (BRD)?
A Business Requirement Document is a formal report describing the requirements and goals for a new p...
What is Breadcrumb?
Breadcrumb or Breadcrumb Trail is a navigation aid that helps users understand their journey and cur...
What is Communities of Practice (CoP)?
A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something t...
What is Customer Education?
Customer education is a program that makes it easy for your customers/ users to adopt your products ...
What is Customer Self-service Portal?
A customer self-service portal is a web-based platform or set of services and tools that enables cus...
What is Change Management?
Change Management is the process of strategically managing any change or development taking place wi...
What is CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)?
CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is a programming language used to create great-looking web pages bey...
What is Context Help Popup?
Context Help Popups are UX patterns such as tooltips, inline help, guided tours, interactive walkthr...
What is Context Sensitive Help (CSH)?
Context-sensitive Help or Contextual Help is the precise information you proactively provide your us...
What is Documentation Plan?
Documentation plan is a document written by technical writers, usually team leads or project leaders...
What is Document Management System?
A document management system, or DMS, is a computer system and software used to store, manage, and t...
What is Decision Tree?
A decision tree is a flowchart that shows different options for solving a problem, their potential o...
What is Documentation Review?
Documentation review is a series of review steps focused on ensuring the quality and accuracy of end...
What is Document Development Life Cycle (DDLC)?
DDLC or Document Development Life Cycle is an ongoing process that starts with planning the document...
What is DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture)?
DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an XML-based architecture for authoring, producing,...
What is Employee Experience?
The employee experience is the cumulative experience of an employee's interactions with the organiza...
What is Enterprise Knowledge Management?
Enterprise knowledge management is the process of managing knowledge resources to facilitate the org...
What is Employee Intranet?
An employee intranet is a private, secure digital network that an organization makes accessible to o...
What is Explicit Knowledge?
Explicit knowledge is a type of organizational knowledge that is easily expressed through language, ...
What is an Employee Handbook?
An employee handbook is an employee manual that provides them with key information about the company...
What is End-User Documentation?
End-user documentation is the explanatory and informational content you provide your end-users to he...
What is Functional Specification?
Functional specification is the blueprint for a software project that outlines everything the system...
What is Formatting Guidelines?
Formatting guidelines are a set of rules and standards around how written content must be created an...
What is FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)?
FAQs is a document that provides answers to a list of frequently asked questions that users might as...
What is HelpCenter?
A Help Center is a digital, comprehensive, self-service on-demand support system available to your c...
What is Help Authoring Tool?
Help authoring tool is a software you can use to create, manage, and share support documentation suc...
What is Help Desk?
A Help Desk is the first line of assistance for customers and internal employees for technical suppo...
What is Interactive User Guide?
An interactive user guide is a set of UI patterns designed to work together and make it easier for y...
What is Implicit Knowledge?
Implicit knowledge is an organizational knowledge that comes from experience, but some or all of it ...
What is Interactive Documentation?
Interactive Documentation uses more than just text to communicate its message, making it more compre...
What is Instruction Manual?
An instruction manual is a guide that helps users install, set up, operate, and troubleshoot a produ...
What is Information Architecture?
Information Architecture is the act of organizing and presenting content to create logical navigatio...
What is Knowledge Transfer Network?
A knowledge transfer network is a network of firms, government entities, and research organizations ...
What is Knowledge Capture?
Knowledge capture is the process of collecting, organizing, and storing knowledge in an organization...
What is Knowledge Management Metrics?
Knowledge management metrics are a group of quantitative and qualitative metrics that measure the ef...
What is Knowledge Taxonomy?
Knowledge Taxonomy is a structured representation of knowledge in a way that reflects the expertise ...
What is Knowledge Base Portal?
A knowledge base portal is a centralized online platform or software system that houses an organizat...
What is Knowledge Processes?
Knowledge processes are a multi-way interaction between the generation and use of knowledge. They ar...
What is Knowledge Mapping?
Knowledge mapping is one of the most critical methods of knowledge management. There are many differ...
What is Knowledge Sharing Culture?
Knowledge sharing culture in the workplace is the ability and attitude of employees and team members...
What is Knowledge Silos?
A knowledge silo is a situation in which one person or team has data that’s not shared with other ...
What is Knowledge Repository?
A knowledge repository is an online central base where organizational knowledge is captured, stored,...
What is Knowledge Transfer?
Knowledge transfer is the process of converting the knowledge inside people’s heads into content, ...
What is Knowledge Sharing?
Knowledge sharing is the exchange of information between people, teams, and communities within an or...
What is Knowledge Management?
Knowledge Management (KM) is the process of identifying, creating, managing, and disseminating organ...
What is Knowledge Base?
A Knowledge base is an online hub of information available 24x7 so your customers can find answers w...
What is Markdown?
Markdown is an easy-to-use markup language to add formatting elements (headings, bulleted lists, emb...
What is Metadata?
Popularly called ‘data about data’, Metadata is the structured summary or underlying description...
What is Online Documentation?
Online Documentation is the process of creating and storing information digitally, making it easily ...
What is Organizational Silos?
Organizational silos are pockets in a business that work as self-contained teams operating in isolat...
What is Organizational Knowledge Sharing?
Organizational knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge is exchanged among people in...
What is Product Documentation?
Product documentation is the documentation that accompanies a product, as an essential source of inf...
What is Proposal?
A Proposal of any kind, whether business or project, is a written offer to the prospective clients s...
What is Product Description?
A product description is a short online sales pitch that informs potential customers about its attri...
What is Procedural Writing?
Procedural writing is an informational and directional text that explains how to achieve a desired g...
What is Robots.txt?
A Robots.Txt File is a simple text file located in a website's root directory that instructs bots on...
What is Release Notes?
A release note refers to the technical documentation produced and distributed alongside the launch o...
What is Reference Manual?
A reference manual is an online documentation written for advanced or expert users who need quick ac...
What is Self-Service Portal?
A self-service portal is an online platform that provides guides and resources 24x7 to help users fi...
What is Style Guide?
A style guide is a document that details the set of standards for writing and designing content with...
What is Structured Authoring?
Structured authoring is an XML-based methodological approach to technical writing that involves crea...
What is Sitemap?
A sitemap is a structured list of all the web pages and content on a website, outlining how each pag...
What is SEO?
SEO or search engine optimization the practice of improving your website's content, structure, and v...
What is SDK Documentation?
SDK or Software Development Kit is a set of APIs (Application Programming Interface) and other tools...
What is Software Documentation?
Software documentation is a written document and a key component of a software program that simplifi...
What is SOP?
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are step-by-step instructions to perform specific tasks, proces...
What is Single-Sourcing?
Single sourcing is the act of using the same electronic data to produce several different types of d...
What is Testing Documentation?
Testing documentation is the group of all the written records, files, or digital notes that capture ...
What is Tacit Knowledge?
Tacit knowledge is a type of organizational knowledge that refers most directly to an individual’s...
What is Technical Documentation?
Technical documentation compiles information related to a software product, system, process, or tech...
What is User Guide?
A user guide is a concise and focused reference guide or tutorial to a product. It is outcome-orient...
What is User Instructions?
Cannot find any information on ‘user instructions’ as a separate document or...
What is User Assistance?
User assistance is a set of components that introduce the user to the product, guide the user throug...
What is Unstructured Writing (or Authoring)?
Unstructured writing or authoring is a flexible style of writing that doesn't adhere to a predefined...
What is User Documentation?
User documentation, or end-user documentation, is created for the end-user of a product or a service...
What is Usermanual?
A user manual is a detailed and comprehensive document that covers all aspects of a product, providi...
What is Wiki?
A wiki is a web-based collaborative platform that enables users to create, edit, remove, and display...
What is Web Help?
Web Help is an online help variant that comes in the form of a set of HTML files, accompanied by ima...
What is WYSIWYG Editor?
WYSIWYG stands for 'What You See Is What You Get' and is a visual editing interface showing how imag...
What is XML Sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a file containing a list of URLs written in the Extensive Markup Language that tel...
What is XML Schema?
An XML Schema is an XML-based language used to describe the structure, content, and semantics of an ...
What is XML (Extensible Markup Language)?
XML, or extensible markup language, is a language that is used to describe data. Marking up a docume...