HTML on documentation.suse.com – Shape it up!

Have you recently visited documentation.suse.com? And checked out an HTML document? Then you might have noticed that something has changed.

The look and feel are different, you say? Absolutely right! Just recently, we introduced the new column-based layout. HTML columns are used to arrange content in a very organized way. And at the same time, they allow for much more flexibility about where content goes.

Three-column layout

Our manuals and guides now feature a three-column layout. You will find the main navigation for the complete manual in the left column. Clicking the arrow at the top left corner of this column leads you to a navigation from where you can directly access all different manuals and guides for the respective product. This provides a clear guidance and orientation throughout the entire document.

The right column hosts the in-chapter navigation. And shorter documents, such as quick starts or articles, come with a flat-structured right-hand table of contents only, for a simple and fast navigation.

At the top of the HTML content pages, you will find a breadcrumb navigation. This makes it easy to switch between manuals of a product without having to navigate back to the main pages.

Feedback options

One important advantage of the column-based layout is that it offers a clear structure, thanks to which you can quickly access additional tools, plug-ins or links to visit. No matter which type of document you look at in the HTML output, you will always find options for providing your feedback in the right column:

• Using the link “Report an issue”, you can open Bugzilla or GitHub Issues to report a documentation bug or request changes.
• Using the link “Edit source document”, you can directly access the respective documentation source in GitHub to edit the content yourself and submit a pull request to the documentation team.
• What’s more, with a simple click on a button you can now easily share the piece of documentation you are currently reading on social media, and you can print the respective pages.
• A rating mechanism for the documentation pages is also in the works.

At this point, the column-based layout is implemented for all product documentation. SUSE Best Practices and Technical Reference Documentation will follow suit in a few weeks. Please keep in mind that we might adapt the current implementation over time, according to future requirements.

Talk to us

And now it is your turn! Let us know how you like the new design. Are you missing important information at first glance? Or do you have any further feedback or ideas how to leverage the column-based layout and further enhance the documentation Web pages? Just drop us a mail at doc-team@suse.com.