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I'm looking for some advice on how to setup an online help system (on SharePoint) for a desktop application I support. We currently have SharePoint 2007, but I'm told we will be upgrading to 2010 sometime soon. I'll also mention I'm a C++/SQL developer who doesn't know too much about SharePoint.

My ultimate wishlist is a collection of pages for topics, with a basic Table of Contents. Each page would include text and some screenshots, and would be editable/viewable on the webpage (no opening external applications). A "nice-to-have" would be to allow users to save notes on each page, only viewable to themselves, but I'm not holding my breath on that feature.

My original thoughts were to create a wiki site, and with a little experimentation it seems to almost fit (no user comments). However, I can't help but feel there might be something else that might work better, such as the blog, list, etc.

I'm hoping someone here might guide me in the right direction. I just don't want to focus on the wiki site only to find out there was something much more suited to my needs that I didn't know about.

Thanks for your time!

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  • Just a quick note to mention what I settled on: It was so frustrating setting up the wiki that I eventually gave up and created library with MS Word files – I set the library to open each file inside the browser. It works well enough, but I felt pretty let down over the entire ordeal. – jj. Mar 6 '13 at 22:44
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My first thought was also for a Wiki site. When you get up to 2010 you get some added value in that you can use enterprise tags for the pages and users would also be able to leave notes/comments using the social features if you are using the Server version.

The second option and something I did frequently in previous versions of SharePoint was a FAQ list with fields setup to reference screenshots, SME, System Owner, etc. This can be done in any version of SharePoint. The views also make it easy to show listings for different audiences.

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  • I agree, forward thinking, wiki makes the most sense with the social features around it. – Eric Alexander Sep 7 '11 at 19:26
  • Thanks for confirming my thoughts. I was getting tired of dealing with search engines and the word "help" – jj. Sep 8 '11 at 21:57
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I would recommend that this be done in a wiki.

You could also look at leveraging this to help users find your content and have this point to the wiki:

https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/eusp/Pages/press-f1-sharepoint-help-is-on-the-way.aspx

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