Looking for software: create, manage, export manuals

Question

I'm creating manuals for several, related industrial products - some have common chapters that I need to link, not duplicate (to make updating feasable)

What I need (functionality):

• a GUI
• local application or self-hosted ("longterm solution" needed...)
• upload multiple files = chapters (preferably docx, MD or *tex would be possible, or online editor) into multiple folders
• organize those files (update with new versions, reorder etc.)
• link files between folders (deduplication)
• merge & export folders (preferably to docx - so I can add customer info; at very least to PDF with robust layout)

Current solution:

• Word docx files for chapters
• into multiple folders on NAS
• Shortcuts for duplicate files
• merge in Word [Insert->Data], update table of content (allows customization per end customer)
• export as docx or pdf

Issues with current solution:

• Shortcuts not robust (if folders change, it might break some time in the future)
  • tried Symlinks, but without the HardLink shell extension installed, it's hard to distinguish them from files
  • also, read that symlinks if backed up & restored may loose functionality (=/ longterm stable solution?)
• Would like to know if there is a better, ready-built solution for this

What I've tried:

• Wikis
  • mediawiki
  • wikijs
  • dokuwiki => none are meant to be exported the way I'm trying to
• MD editors
  • CodiMD
  • Dillinger
  • StackEdit => none are meant to be exported the way I'm trying to, cannot link etc
• Document Management Systems
  • Papermerge (not for editable files)
  • ecoDMS
  • "a few more opensource/free" solutions => none are meant to be exported the way I'm trying to
  • LogicalDoc CE*
    • no merging, does everything else though
• Bookstack
  • looked great initially (can link content, can export to PDF, intuitive layout)
    • fails when it comes to customizing the output layout (table of content always on coverpage, no cover image, no footer/header)

Unix would be perfectly fine. An editable output format would be the preferred solution as you could then add customized footers/headers per customer after merging the manual. But a) either customizing on the fly (e.g. md/latex editor or others) or being flexible enough to contain multiple coversheets to choose from (as in Word footers/headers when merging documents are always taken from the coversheet) would work as well. Let me put it this way, the last time someone rewrote those manuals was about 15-20 years ago, there's not too many changes. I just want a good foundation.

It will be 2-3 people using the "tool", but I don't really need specific permissions per user, so one user is fine.

*current candidate

Answer 1

You should also take a look at Sphinx

• it is phython-based, and runs on multiple platforms (Windows, Unix, MacOS, Docker)

To quote:

• Output formats: HTML (including Windows HTML Help), LaTeX (for printable PDF versions), ePub, Texinfo, manual pages, plain text

• Extensive cross-references: semantic markup and automatic links for functions, classes, citations, glossary terms and similar pieces of information

• Hierarchical structure: easy definition of a document tree, with automatic links to siblings, parents and children

• Automatic indices: general index as well as a language-specific module indices

• Contributed extensions: more than 50 extensions contributed by users in a second repository;

Answer 2

After having another look at LogicalDoc, I think I may have found what I'm looking for - even though it's not as monolithic a solution as would have been "perfect".

LogicalDoc CE runs as a docker container and uses "about" 2GB of RAM (right now I'm investigating a slow memory leak, might need to restart it every 24h). You're able to upload the docx files (no previews for docx in the CE version) and add them to folders/documents. From those you can link them to other folders or copy a whole folder (including links) to make a new variant.

I'm in the process of creating a .bat script1 that I will package together with docxmerge.exe2 into every document folder so that when you download a document you actually still download the separate pages and merge them in Windows, which in turn gives you a single document you can still adapt for the customer.

This removes any reliance on Windows shortcuts etc (I've checked a few versions to make them more reliable, none worked) and since a) LogicalDoc has been around since 2006 and b) it runs in a separate Docker container and can theoretically handle any file type, I believe it may be a solution that could work for the foreseeable future.

Thanks for all your help!