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There is a lot of total crap out there I don't want to waste a lot of time testing to be disappointed. I'm trying to create some physical documentation for software, hardware, active directory, group policy, etc. I'd like either something super lightweight as far as software, or templates to document manually.

Seth
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    Well, if you don't waste time testing, no one can help you. If you get a suggestion raving about tool/method Foo as being perfect, it can still not work at all for your situation. – Sven Mar 01 '11 at 17:48
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    "physical documentation" - do you actually need it only on paper? Otherwise, what do you mean by this phrase? – mfinni Mar 01 '11 at 17:49
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    Also - list your requirements. Without them, we'll only be suggesting likely disappointments. This is *not* something with a one-size-fits-all solution. – mfinni Mar 01 '11 at 17:50
  • If I didn't think I'd have to test something, I'd assume someone was going to do it for me. Fundamentally, I'm am here being proactive. Looks like joeqwerty was helpful at least. – Seth Mar 01 '11 at 18:23
  • @mfinni Yes, I need physical documentation, however it is queried, by software/printing or by template/printing. Requirements, would just like to document those issues with my servers. – Seth Mar 01 '11 at 18:26
  • How do you query something by printing? what is software/printing and template/printing? I feel like we're not using the same terminology. – mfinni Mar 01 '11 at 19:11
  • dude, you can print from software Which may query data, and you can print from a template. I dont understand what's so difficult about what I asked. A suggestion, as provided by two people below already, who can conceptualize documenting what I stated in my question. – Seth Mar 01 '11 at 19:44
  • *I dont understand what's so difficult about what I asked.* - if its so simple then why did you need to ask at all then? People just don't want to spend a lot of time researching and writing an answer just to hear "oh that won't work for me because of some weird requirement I couldn't be bothered to put in the original question". *I* don't understand what's so difficult about putting as much time and effort into asking a question as its probably going to take someone to give you a decent answer. – Rob Moir Mar 01 '11 at 21:23
  • It's not my intention to sound rude, merely stating the facts here as this is a Q & A not a forum. To answer your questions, I'm seeking advice from peers who already have knowledge in this arena. I wouldn't presume someone spend their time researching for me. I am very capable of opening browser tabs and google searching. Three people who have related experience posted answers to the best of their knowledge. Very factually, if you don't understand something, it may suit better to not attempt to answer the question, as you notice, there were no follow up answers to these comments. – Seth Mar 01 '11 at 21:51
  • @Seth: I can't speak for anyone else here but it looks to me like you're fairly new to IT, based on the number and type of questions you've posted the last couple of days. Sometimes you're going to get exactly what you're looking for and sometimes you're going to be challenged to provide more information and to state your objective as clearly and concisely as possible or in a different manner so as to elicit the best possible answers. Everyone here takes a few hits now and then so hang in there. I admire your determination. Keep your head down and keep chipping away. – joeqwerty Mar 02 '11 at 04:01
  • @joeqwerty: Thank you for the advice. I get overwhelmed with the amount of work this inherited infrastructure needs. It's not so much that I'm new, it's that I don't have the luxury of staff dedicated to certain areas, and of course business needs things addressed yesterday. I am new however to the learning curve of adopting someone else's design elements and principles. I apologize to all for not slowing down to formulate better inquiries. I appreciate the whole community here. – Seth Mar 02 '11 at 14:41
  • @Seth: I hear you. When I came in to my current position 5 years ago I was in much the same circumstance. I spent a considerable amount of time analyzing the infrastructure in it's then current state so that I had an understanding of the pieces and parts and the systems as a whole. I then kept what worked and rebuilt what didn't. I broke quite a bit in the process but we have a much more stable, reliable, and secure infrastructure as a result. Needless to say, the first 6 months were filled with panic and wracked nerves. – joeqwerty Mar 02 '11 at 15:48

3 Answers3

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Wiki wiki wiki.

Find a simple wiki, avoid closing information in lots of different file formats that require different programs to view. Keep it simple.

The simplest wiki I have tried is Tiddly wiki, its just one html file so you just need a browser. Amazing features for just a html file.

If you want more for tiny bit of money then I highly recommend Confluence from Atlassian, 10 users for $10, can't beat that. Runs a tomcat server with a mssql db among other things. I'm a generalist so I use products from lots and lots of different vendors and when it comes do documentation and support, few if any rival atlassian :)

Elvar
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How about Windows Sharepoint Services? It's free and you can build a nice document library for yourself.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/sharepoint/default

joeqwerty
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Agreed, SharePoint would be your easiest or best option in a Windows environment. Build documents in word, excel and visio, then simply upload to sharepoint document area. Create access for users based on groups, user, roles or active directory. Maintain docs from within sharepoint and have sharepoint provide doc revision.

IanN
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