Which Format Should You Choose?
Folge can export a guide in fifteen ways. This page helps you pick the one that fits your reader.
One Question First
Start with what your reader will do with the guide: read it, edit it, present it, or take it as training. The table matches each of these to a format.
| If they will | Export |
|---|---|
| Read it and file it | |
| Rewrite parts of it | Word |
| Present it to a room | PowerPoint |
| Take it as training you can track | SCORM |
| Read it in a browser, from a link | Folge Cloud |
| Paste it into a wiki or help desk | Rich HTML |
| Glance at it in a chat message | Animated GIF |
| Get a quick answer by email or chat | Quick Guide |
| Put it in a Git or Obsidian wiki | Markdown |
Every format below links to a real sample on export examples, so you can see the output before you export.
Documents
- PDF: Pick this if you are not sure. It looks the same on every computer and opens without extra software. See a sample, or read how to export one.
- Word: A .docx with the same steps and screenshots, editable. Pick it when someone else has to put your guide into their own template, or when other people will keep updating the text. See a sample.
- PowerPoint: One step per slide, with speaker notes. Use it to present a process to a group. See a sample.
- Animated GIF: Your steps as a short loop that plays inline in Slack, Teams and most wikis. Readers cannot pause it, so keep it to about six steps or fewer. See a sample.
- SCORM: A package your LMS treats as a course, so completion is recorded against the person who took it. Pick this when someone has to prove the training was completed. See a sample.
Web and Code
- Folge Cloud: Publishes the guide online and gives you a link. When you update the guide and publish again, the same link shows the new version. See a sample.
- Rich HTML: One self-contained HTML file with the images inside it. It works from a shared drive with no server. Pick it when the guide must not leave your network. See a sample.
- Simple HTML: Only the HTML for the guide itself, without a full page around it. Paste it into a blog post, a knowledge base article or an email. See a sample.
- Markdown: For GitHub, GitLab, Obsidian and Azure DevOps wikis. Images come out as a folder beside the file, or inside the file if you turn on Embed images in markdown. See a sample.
- JSON: The guide as structured data plus an images folder, for when you are building something of your own with it. See a sample.
Send It to Another Tool
If your team reads documentation somewhere specific, send it there directly instead of exporting a file and uploading it: Confluence, Notion, WordPress, Hudu and Espresso Tutorials each create a page from your guide. WordPress receives it as ordinary editor blocks, so you can keep editing the page there. All the integrations.
Export examples also lists the integrations.
Exporting More Than Once
Export the same guide as many times as you like, in as many formats as you like. Sending it to Confluence does not stop you also handing someone a PDF.
What this is good for
- Send a guide to someone who will not install anything.
- Put a guide inside a wiki, an LMS or a help desk that already exists.
- Hand the text to someone who has to edit it after you.
Make guides like this one
Folge takes a screenshot on every click, so you make a guide by doing the task once.
