Master this essential documentation concept
A distributed version control system for tracking changes in source code and documentation during software development
Git is a powerful distributed version control system originally created by Linus Torvalds for Linux kernel development. For documentation professionals, Git provides a robust framework to track changes, collaborate with team members, and maintain different versions of documentation assets throughout their lifecycle.
When onboarding developers to your Git workflows, you likely record training sessions that cover branching strategies, commit conventions, and merge procedures. These videos capture valuable knowledge about your team's specific Git implementation, but they quickly become reference challenges.
Developers struggling with a Git rebase or trying to remember your team's commit message format don't have time to scrub through a 45-minute training video. Instead, they interrupt colleagues or, worse, guess at the correct approach. This leads to inconsistent practices and potential repository issues.
By converting your Git training videos into searchable documentation, you transform this knowledge into immediately accessible reference material. A developer can quickly find exact commands for creating feature branches according to your standards or review your team's pull request process without disrupting their workflow. When Git workflows change—as they inevitably do—you can record the update meeting and automatically convert it into revised documentation, ensuring everyone follows the new procedures.
Your team's Git expertise becomes truly useful when it's both comprehensively captured in video form and precisely accessible as documentation that developers can reference exactly when needed.
Multiple writers need to simultaneously update documentation for a major product release while maintaining the current version docs.
Use Git branching to separate in-development documentation from published content.
1. Create a 'release-2.0' branch from main. 2. Have writers clone the repository and check out the release branch. 3. Writers commit changes to their local branches and push to the remote repository. 4. Use pull requests for peer review before merging changes to the release branch. 5. Once the product is released, merge the release branch back to main.
Documentation team can work in parallel without conflicts, maintain quality through peer review, and easily publish updated documentation in sync with the product release.
Need to maintain documentation for multiple versions of a product simultaneously.
Leverage Git tags and branches to maintain separate documentation versions.
1. Create and maintain a branch for each supported product version (v1.0, v2.0, etc.). 2. Apply tags to mark specific documentation states that correspond to product releases. 3. Make hotfixes to older version branches when necessary. 4. Use cherry-picking to apply relevant fixes across multiple version branches. 5. Configure documentation platform to build from the appropriate branch/tag for each version.
Users can access documentation specific to their product version, while documentation team maintains a clear history and can easily update any version when needed.
Subject matter experts and stakeholders need to review and approve documentation changes before publication.
Implement a Git-based review process using pull requests and approvals.
1. Writers create feature branches for new documentation work. 2. Upon completion, they create pull requests to merge into the main branch. 3. Automatically notify reviewers when PRs are ready for review. 4. Reviewers comment directly on specific lines in the documentation. 5. Writers address feedback with additional commits. 6. Once approved, documentation is merged and automatically published.
Transparent review process with clear accountability, history of feedback and changes, and automated workflows that ensure only reviewed content gets published.
Documentation needs to be translated into multiple languages while keeping all versions synchronized.
Use Git branches to manage base content and translations separately but cohesively.
1. Maintain primary documentation in the main branch. 2. Create language-specific branches (e.g., 'localization-fr', 'localization-de'). 3. When base content is updated, merge changes from main to language branches. 4. Translators work in their respective language branches. 5. Use Git hooks to flag files needing translation when source content changes. 6. Implement CI/CD to build multilingual documentation from all branches.
Streamlined translation workflow that clearly tracks what needs translation, prevents content drift between languages, and maintains history of changes across all language versions.
Make small, focused commits with descriptive messages that explain the purpose of the change rather than just what was changed.
Organize your documentation repository with a clear folder structure that makes it easy to find content and scales with your documentation needs.
Create separate branches for new features, major updates, or experimental content to isolate changes until they're ready for review.
Set up CI/CD pipelines to automatically build, validate, and deploy documentation when changes are pushed to specific branches.
Establish a standardized workflow for reviewing documentation changes before they're merged into the main branch.
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