This is the tenth part of a twelve-day series on my new year’s resolutions to become a better Mac admin. During these twelve days my book “Packaging for Apple Administrators” is on sale! (Previous Post: “File Bugs”)
We have all had this this moment when you are trying to figure how to do something you know you have done before, but just cannot remember what the thing was that made it work.
Documenting everything you do, no matter how trivial it may seem at the time is your protection against these moments.
But also, problems will occur, whether you are present or not. If you want to go on an extended vacation trip away from the internet, spend your week-end with your family, or just go home to sleep, you need the basic documentation so co-workers can resolve the most urgent issues without you. The better and more complete your documentation is, the farther and longer you can be away.
If you are working in a team or organisation, you probably have some tool in place, usually a wiki or CMS. You can spend days, weeks and months discussing and choosing the proper tool. Though I am not saying the tool doesn’t matter at all, any tool that is actually being used is better than a tool that is not used.
There are several great tools for personal documentation:
- Notes.app
Microsoft OneNote - Evernote
- Bear
- macOS Server Wiki
- any text editor plus
git(added bonus of Spotlight integration and version history)
Finally, I will hand the virtual microphone to Rich Trouton, who has (repeatedly) said all of this so much better than I can.