
Microsoft Docs – Unified technical documentation - my123
https://docs.microsoft.com/
======
stable-point
The new content looks a lot better, but I think it is a shame that this is not
using the "MSDN" branding. One of the nicest things about Microsoft
documentation is that I can add the term "MSDN" to any random web search and
usually get the page I'm after.

~~~
dend
Docs PM here.

Thanks for the feedback, we are working across-the-board to make our content
easy to discover both through external and internal search indexes.

~~~
stable-point
Fantastic. Maybe hide the word "MSDN" somewhere in the page, just for search
engines. Old habits die hard. :)

Slightly off-topic, but would it be possible to reinstate the code samples on
the IIS Native Module section[0]? It seemed to go walkies about a year ago and
no amount of "Is this page helpful?" feedback seems to get it back. It's quite
important because there is little documentation elsewhere on the internet.

[0] [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/ms693629(v=vs.90).a...](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/ms693629\(v=vs.90\).aspx)

~~~
dend
I'll direct that feedback to the team :)

Can't say anything specific to these samples, but we can figure something out
to make sure that legacy content is available.

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j_s
Introduction, circa June 2016:

[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/teamblog/introducing-
docs-m...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/teamblog/introducing-docs-
microsoft-com)

 _All documentation on docs.microsoft.com is open sourced and designed to
allow community contributions._

Maybe that was the soft launch? (0 blog comments)

~~~
dend
Docs PM here.

We have recently moved the blog to our own publishing system, so some of the
comments got lost.

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Jach
Not a fan of the UI, too nested. Compare two ways to get to the "Welcome back
to C++" article.

MSDN: [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/default.aspx](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx) Click Library
-> find the "Visual C++ in Visual Studio 2013" link (ctrl+f for 'c++' or just
by looking, maybe get distracted by "oh I didn't know they had doc for
that...") -> click it -> click third link in general info
[https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/hh279654.aspx](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/hh279654.aspx)

Docs: Click Visual Studio tile (or top level tab?) -> Click "Languages" tab ->
Click "Visual C++" -> Click "Languages and Libraries" -> Click "Standard C++
Languages and Libraries" -> Click "Welcome back to C++"
[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/cpp/welcome-back-to-
cpp...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/cpp/welcome-back-to-cpp-modern-
cpp) (Or if what you're looking for isn't there, notice the expandable table
of contents on the left. Compare MSDN which automatically expands the first
layer for the context and has easy links to other things.)

The URLs on Docs are nicer. But as someone involved with such stuff at my day
job I think the SEO benefits are overblown. ;)

~~~
dend
Docs PM here.

Thanks for the feedback. Just want to say that in terms of content
architecture, we are working on ensuring that all our content is discoverable
- the concerns above are valid and I will direct this feedback to our IA
people.

------
jnsaff2
Great that they finally start thinking about documentation which has been a
shambolic experience with Azure. However it seems that they are still missing
ARM template resources documentation, they provide REST API documentation
which kind of sort of helps with the ARM templates but still has a lot of
things that are subtly different. So it still means hunting REST API docs to
get the idea and then going to the ARM examples repo to find out how it
differs.

~~~
mynameisvlad
There's a whole bunch of ARM documentation here:
[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-
manage...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-
manager/resource-group-overview)

And the schemas for practically anything you want to add with ARM are here:
[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-
manage...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-
manager/resource-manager-supported-services) (some even have quickstart
versions for you)

And finally I noticed there's a template visualizer now (it was linked off of
one of the ARM template pages): [http://armviz.io/](http://armviz.io/)

~~~
jnsaff2
Thanks, the second link looked a little promising but then it just does a
GitHub search.

A proper documentation would list all possible resources and their
descriptions with valid values. There is still nothing for ARM Resources. How
CloudFormation can have an excellent documentation and ARM has bits and pieces
is a bit weird.

Their QuickStart templates repo is comprehensive but it has no real
documentation of the parameters.

~~~
mynameisvlad
You can use the schema to figure out the valid values and descriptions for
some of the values, so that might help. I agree that a technical reference
would probably help since reading the schema isn't fun.

Doesn't shock me that it's mostly GitHub search since most of our docs are
hosted on GH:

[https://github.com/aspnet/Docs](https://github.com/aspnet/Docs)

[https://github.com/dotnet/docs](https://github.com/dotnet/docs)

You can always add a request to the docs UserVoice:
[https://msdocs.uservoice.com/forums/364242-general-site-
feed...](https://msdocs.uservoice.com/forums/364242-general-site-feedback)

Azure also has its own docs UserVoice:
[https://feedback.azure.com/forums/217534-documentation](https://feedback.azure.com/forums/217534-documentation)

~~~
dend
Docs PM here.

Thanks for the feedback, we point to the schema that is pulled directly from
the product, but I agree that we can do a better job at documenting it. Will
forward it to our Azure content people.

PS: UserVoice is the best way to channel site feedback to us - I check it
daily and open bugs based on suggestions there :)

~~~
mynameisvlad
+1 on UserVoice. My team (Application Insights) actively reads UserVoice and
the MSDN forum, and I know other teams are just as proactive about reaching
out to users.

------
my123
Note that Microsoft Docs at docs.com is fully different and has nothing to do
with docs.microsoft.com...

------
Dirlewanger
Great UI...not only do they have the 11 immediately-noticeable centered divs
with icons, but the unnecessary and redundant links above them. That's the
Microsoft we know and love.

~~~
glibgil
They aren't redundant after you click one. They are just pre-pinned popular
topics. No great UX sin

------
marcosdumay
What is it unifying if TechNet and MSDN are still around?

~~~
dend
Docs PM here.

We are moving content off of TechNet and MSDN and to Docs. Eventually,
docs.microsoft.com will become the single central location for all technical
documentation shipped by Microsoft.

~~~
awa
And thousands of broken links would be born... Are you planning to redirect
deep links of msdn pages to the page's new home?

~~~
dend
Absolutely. All content that is being migrated will have proper redirects set
up, so whenever you are using an old MSDN/TechNet link, you will land on the
docs page.

~~~
lloydatkinson
I'll believe it when I see it.

~~~
adkinn
Check it out:

[https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/windows/apps/window...](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/windows/apps/windows.ui.xaml.controls.checkbox.aspx)

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TheSatoshiChiba
For .NET a lot of information (eg. Remarks) are now gone which contained vital
information. Any plans on adding those back? Examples as well?

~~~
dend
Docs PM here.

It's on my personal TODO list :)

------
adzm
This is a wonderful development. And a great example of how DocFX can work in
the real world. Even just having memorable URLs is a boon. Thanks!

I am curious how DocFX handles generation of documentation from C++ projects
and other things not built-in. Internal plugins?

~~~
dend
Yes, we have a number of internal extensions that we use for content
generation, since we have a relatively large language & tech spread (e.g.
REST, Python, C++, C#, etc.).

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brianberns
Will this be integrated with Visual Studio? Right now, F1 from within the code
editor still goes to msdn.microsoft.com.

~~~
dend
Docs PM here.

Yes, that is in the works. As we move more of the dev documentation to docs,
F1 will point to the new site.

------
my123
Will there be a way to download documentation from Docs for offline use?

~~~
dend
Docs PM here.

There is a way to do that today! One of the features that we shipped is PDF
downloads, that enables you to get the entire documentation set for an area in
a small PDF file. As an example, take a look under the table of contents on
[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/dotnet/articles/core/tutori...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/dotnet/articles/core/tutorials/)

~~~
my123
oh thanks! :)

------
Sindisil
Will Visual Studio Code docs end up here eventually, as well?

~~~
dend
Docs PM here.

Our goal is to put all technical documentation in one place, so we're working
with all technical teams across the board to migrate to docs.

~~~
Sindisil
Sweet. I like the direction you're going with this.

------
reddotX
oh wow [https://docs.ubuntu.com/](https://docs.ubuntu.com/)

