What Are the Best Free Tools and Templates for Documentation?

If you're working on this documentation just for yourself, give Obsidian a try! You can write everything in Markdown, and it's pretty neat for personal projects. Alternatively, you might want to self-host WikiJS for a more interactive wiki experience. I also suggest creating one complete documentation project from scratch to develop your own template for future use. If you need something more official, Word might still be your best bet.

For free documentation templates, check out The Good Docs Project. It's great because their templates are in Markdown, making them compatible with nearly all documentation tools!

For network diagrams, I've found draw.io really handy. If you're using Microsoft products, OneNote or Confluence are good picks too. They're quite versatile and integrate well with other tools.

I use Bookstack at home for my lab and study notes due to its easy setup, and I plan to introduce it at my workplace too. Additionally, I usually rely on OneNote for work since it's part of our Windows environment. While I find Obsidian has its benefits, it can be a bit overwhelming for note-taking.

You should definitely check out Bookstack! It's a great tool for managing your documentation, especially for projects like yours. The layout is user-friendly, which makes it easier to organize your notes.