Create your first guide
Builds on Overview.
A new guide starts as drafts that only you and your team can see. Nothing is public until you publish.
Create the guide
#Open New guide
#In Markdrop Guides, choose New guide. With a workspace picked under Workspace, the new guide starts in that workspace. Start a new guide, at the end of your guides, also opens the form with Blank, Template, GitBook or OpenAPI (the API reference template) already chosen.
Choose where it lives
#Under Where it lives, pick a Workspace, or Personal (only you). Workspaces you aren't a Guides admin of are listed with "(Guides admins only)" and can't be picked.
Choose how to start
#Under How do you want to start?, pick Blank guide or From a template. Import from GitBook has its own page. Connect a GitHub repo is coming soon.
Name it and pick its address
#Type the Guide name. It's shown in the guide's header and in link previews. The Address fills in from the name and is checked as you type.
Create it
#Choose Create guide. Markdrop Guides opens Design so you can pick a theme. Choose Skip to the editor to do that later.
Templates
#| Template | What you get |
|---|---|
| Product guide | A home page, Getting started (Introduction, Quickstart), Guides (The basics) and Help (FAQ, Release notes), in the Clean theme. |
| API reference | A home page, Overview (Authentication, Errors) and an API reference generated from a sample OpenAPI file for a made-up Northwind API, in the Technical theme. |
| Help center | A home page and articles grouped into Account and billing and Troubleshooting, in the Help center theme. |
The pages are examples to replace. Edit, rename or delete any of them.
The template's endpoint pages come from its sample OpenAPI file. Replace it with your own in Settings › API reference: see API reference from an OpenAPI file.
A Blank guide has one page, the home page, in a group called Getting started.
The address
#Every guide gets a free address: <address>.guides.markdrop.in. It must be:
- 3 to 40 characters
- lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens, starting and ending with a letter or number
- not taken by another guide, and not a reserved word like
www,api,docsorhelp
When the address you want is taken, Markdrop Guides says so and offers another one.
You can change the address later in Guide settings. Do it before you share the link: the old address stops working.
Who can create a guide
#- In a workspace: Guides admins of that workspace. Workspace owners and admins always are. See Members and roles.
- Personal: anyone. A personal guide is yours alone: no one else can open or edit it.
While Markdrop Guides is in beta, a workspace can have a limited number of guides. When it has its most, the form says so: delete a guide in its settings to make room, or choose another workspace.