I’m not sure if you heard the word on the street, but Notion is what you should be using for Task Management, Note Taking, Mind Dumping, and maybe shopping lists. I’ll leave that last one up to you.
I’ve been using it more and more lately for documenting short technical blobs of info, all the way up to full blown guides. Notably, the ability to include Code Blocks and export in Markdown (making it super easy to drop into a Github Readme file, Zendesk or Jira), makes Notion an impeccably easy tool to use for both Internal and Customer-facing Documentation.
Disclaimer: I’m in no way affiliated with Notion, I just like the cut of their jib.
1. Page Headings
This isn’t a guide on how to write technical documents, I’m by no means a technical writer (go-figure). However! Did you know Notion lets you add page icons, as well as cover photos. I love using these for Customer-facing documents. It adds an amazing touch to be able to slide your company logo and a relevant cover photo.
2. Gifs are Key
I love Notion’s Gif and Video support. It truly makes guides a little more eye-catching and easier to absorb. I’ve even littered this guide with Gifs! Importing images, gifs and videos is as simple as dragging and dropping them in.
3. Code Blocks
This is easily my favourite part. Notion handles in-line code, single-line code blocks and multi-line code blocks. You even have the ability to choose the language being pasted in for added styling.
4. FAQ Sections
We all know that one person who just.. doesn’t.. quite.. get it. I’m that person. Often. So for people like me, FAQ sections are a god-send. I will either need help understanding the topic more, or I’ve come across every single known obstacle and need validation that it’s okay and I’m not alone. The last one is the most frequent. By ‘most frequent’, I mean, the only one.
So that’s all well and good, we have a list of questions that we know our readers are going to ask. What we don’t want though, is for all of our precious real-estate taken up with FAQs, taking away from the main content itself. Here’s where Toggle Lists come in handy. Letting you have your questions listed, and your lengthy answers hidden away unless needed.
5. Internal Knowledge-base
One of the more popular use cases for this type of technical documentation is for growing companies to build out an internal knowledge-base. In the past, we’ve all used stagnant internal Wikis, a painfully long .DOCX file, or someone’s poorly written library of Evernotes.
Well, Notion has you covered.. like always (are you beginning to get that now?).. They even have a template for this one!
The best part is, if you have a bunch of technical documents created already in Notion, you can just go ahead and drag them on in from the sidebar!
6. Github README.MD
The last, and one of my favourite parts from Notion is using its Export feature to convert your doc into Markdown and make that Github Repo of yours look at least 3% more professional than it did before. All you do is hit Export from the top right menu on your page, and select Markdown & CSV. Once the file is generated, open it up, Select all and paste it into your Github Repo’s README.MD file.
Naturally, it won’t capture everything, but a lot of the main text styling will be included, making it such an easy way to modify and stylise your Readme files.
That’s it! This only scratches the surface on how useful Notion can be to you and your organisation. Go ahead and get stuck in!
If you’d like to use the WP CLI document created for this article, feel free to take a look here! You can also use the ‘Duplicate’ feature to copy it down to use as a template.