Offline knowledge base ?

[BZH Geek]

Hi techies,

I am starting my own business and even if I am actually struggling with advertising to make my name know, I yet have to be ready for anything, right ?
So I am just wondering how I could possibly carry some kind of offline knowledge base with me on my Windows laptop or even better on my iPad.

For now I just print web articles to PDFs which I then store on my iPad using keyword based file naming and then Goodreader software to search and display them. This is working but I just wonder how you guys would just do that ?

Thanks for your ideas.

BZH Geek

P.S.: And as you will probably ask, why offline KB when Google is just ... there ? Well, I do own an iPhone but my iPad is WIFI only (dataplans are so expensive around here) and last but not least, I live in a deep countryside area where Mobile Internet maybe very slow (EDGE...) or even unavailable. So if my client's Internet connection is down (which maybe why he is my client by the way...) or if it is just unavailable to me, Google is just not the solution for me.

 

[DarDar]

Have a look at a wiki. You can get locally stored ones.

PB Wiki springs to mind as a name but i have no idea why so i could be off there.

 

[fixitdaz]

Hay buddy Give this sight a go might be of use let me no how you get on

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1039435.html

 

[Appletax]

For now I just print web articles to PDFs which I then store on my iPad using keyword based file naming and then Goodreader software to search and display them. This is working but I just wonder how you guys would just do that ?

How do you save web pages as PDFs?
I use Google Chrome and it only offers to save
as a complete web page or as a single HTML file

 

[Arhineus]

How do you save web pages as PDFs?
I use Google Chrome and it only offers to save
as a complete web page or as a single HTML file

A PDF Creator print driver - just googles up "PDF Creator" or that sort of thing, and you'll find it.

 

[geekhelp4u]

It is not available for iPhone / iPod - but I use KeyNote NF for my offline KBs on my PC.

http://code.google.com/p/keynote-nf/

 

[geekhelp4u]

A PDF Creator print driver - just googles up "PDF Creator" or that sort of thing, and you'll find it.

For the PC I like the CutePDF printer...

http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp

 

[Martyn]

Yes I used to use Cuteftp or get a Mac prints to pdf out of the box

 

[fixitdaz]

Hi techies,

I am starting my own business and even if I am actually struggling with advertising to make my name know, I yet have to be ready for anything, right ?
So I am just wondering how I could possibly carry some kind of offline knowledge base with me on my Windows laptop or even better on my iPad.

For now I just print web articles to PDFs which I then store on my iPad using keyword based file naming and then Goodreader software to search and display them. This is working but I just wonder how you guys would just do that ?

Thanks for your ideas.

BZH Geek

P.S.: And as you will probably ask, why offline KB when Google is just ... there ? Well, I do own an iPhone but my iPad is WIFI only (dataplans are so expensive around here) and last but not least, I live in a deep countryside area where Mobile Internet maybe very slow (EDGE...) or even unavailable. So if my client's Internet connection is down (which maybe why he is my client by the way...) or if it is just unavailable to me, Google is just not the solution for me.

Another good tool for knowledge base help files is
Adobe Robohelp

 

[BZH Geek]

Have a look at a wiki. You can get locally stored ones.

PB Wiki springs to mind as a name but i have no idea why so i could be off there.

Thanks for the wiki idea. I did not even think about it. Now I must find a way to run it on my iPad. But that must be possible !

 

[BZH Geek]

How do you save web pages as PDFs?

I use a mac so just print as PDF fits the bill but I recently discovered the free joliprint service which does an amazing job a formatting webpages into nice readable non nonsense PDFs. Just check it : http://joliprint.com/
And then I use the bookmarklet to get a downloadable PDF of the page I am just reading. Brilliant !

 

[dipper]

Does anyone know of a source to use as the content of either an online or offline knowledge base?

 

[rusty.nells]

I like the idea of a portable wiki. Don't know if it would work with an iPad though.

For starters, here's a list of wikipedia articles you might include:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_6_cable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_7_cable

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTLDR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista_startup_process
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_startup_process

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Microsoft_Windows_components

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR2_SDRAM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR3_SDRAM

 

[fixitdaz]

I use a mac so just print as PDF fits the bill but I recently discovered the free joliprint service which does an amazing job a formatting webpages into nice readable non nonsense PDFs. Just check it : http://joliprint.com/
And then I use the bookmarklet to get a downloadable PDF of the page I am just reading. Brilliant !

I have just used joliprint what a fantastic job no moor copy and pasting

A+++++++++++++++++++++
​

 

[badkinsdesigns]

For printing to a pdf, use bullzip. It sets up a printer which you can use from any of your applications to print a pdf.

 

[tkrabec]

Why just use wiki software
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Installation
a webserver, Apache, a DB+ PHP + the wiki engine should allow you to have a search able (Also Brandable) wiki for offline searches.

Note there are some Wiki engines that do not use Databases

 

[Xander]

I use Dropbox with my Tech Docs folder sorted into subfolders by category. I save it as a PDF on my PC and it's on my iPad right away.

 

[BZH Geek]

Well this is what I do at this time. The wiki way is a good idea and I tried but it is just more steps away from the ease of just get a pdf and sort it in Dropbox and get it on all my computers, iThings etc...
I might have to get a paid Dropbox account though as use it quite a lot and the few free gigs might just not be large enough for all my needs.

Anyone for a solution to get a discount on Dropbox 50GB account ?

 

[fixitdaz]

You could try SkyDrive: 25 GB of free online storage

 

[parker.casey]

I use the Readability plugin for Chrome. When I find an article that could be useful to me, I view it through Readability (formats it like a manual, sort of) and -GASP- Print it out. On paper. With toner. Seriously.