editant Docs

editant Docs gives your site a proper documentation section: categorised articles with a persistent, foldable sidebar, ready to use the moment you activate it. It is a free tool, published on WordPress.org, and it needs nothing from your active theme.

What it does

Your documentation lives at its own address, separate from your posts and pages. The index lists every category with its articles, and each article page shows the same sidebar alongside the content, with the article you are reading highlighted. Articles are written in the normal block editor, so there is nothing new to learn.

The look is the editant brand out of the box, and you can make it your own from a single settings page. Keep the editant header, replace it with your own logo and name, or hide it entirely; set an accent colour to match your brand; change the label shown on the index, for example to “Help” or “Knowledge base”; and change the URL base so your documentation sits at /docs, /help, /kb, or wherever suits you.

Because the plugin draws and styles its own pages, it works the same on any theme, block or classic, while still using your theme’s own header and footer so the section looks part of your site. The IBM Plex fonts are bundled with the plugin and served from your own site, and the styling is scoped so it neither leans on, nor leaks into, your theme.

What’s included

• A documentation post type with hierarchical categories.
• A self-contained two-column layout, foldable sidebar plus article, drawn by the plugin on any theme.
• Drag-and-drop reordering of categories and the articles within them.
• A header you control: the editant logo and name by default, your own logo and/or name, or no header at all.
• An accent colour that drives links and the active sidebar item.
• A configurable label for the index heading, for example “Documentation”, “Help”, or “Knowledge base”.
• A configurable URL base, set in the admin, with a developer filter override.
• Two blocks, sidebar navigation and category label, if you would rather place them yourself.
• One-click sample content you can load and remove, with no command line needed.
• Bundled IBM Plex fonts served from your own site, so the section looks the same on any theme.
• Translation-ready.

Installing it

1. Go to Plugins, Add New in your WordPress admin and search for “editant Docs”, or download it from the WordPress.org listing linked below.
2. Activate the plugin.
3. Add your categories under editant Docs, Categories.
4. Write your articles under editant Docs, Add new doc article, giving each one a category.
5. Put them in the order you want under editant Docs, Reorder.
6. Rebrand the look under editant Docs, Settings.

Requirements: WordPress 6.5 or later, PHP 8.1 or later.

Where your documentation appears

The index is at /docs and each article is at /docs/ followed by the article slug. Both pages are drawn and styled by the plugin, so they look the same whether your site runs a block theme or a classic one.

Only published articles appear. Drafts and pending articles stay private, and an article with no category is not listed in the sidebar. The Reorder screen lists uncategorised articles separately so you can spot them.

Changing the address

Go to editant Docs, Settings and set the URL base to whatever suits you, for example help or kb. The links update as soon as you save, with no need to touch the Permalinks screen.

Changing the base means existing links to the old address stop working, so it is worth settling early. Developers can override it in code with the editant_docs_archive_base filter, which takes precedence over the setting.

Sample content

If you would like something to look at before writing your own, go to editant Docs, Settings and click “Load sample content”. That adds a few neutral categories and articles which are safe to edit or delete. Nothing is ever installed automatically.

“Remove sample content” deletes only what the plugin added. Your own articles are never touched, even if one happens to share a name with a sample.

If an article is not showing

The sidebar lists published articles grouped by category. If one is missing, work through these checks:

• Is it published? Drafts and pending articles do not appear on the front end.
• Does it have a category? Uncategorised articles are not listed in the sidebar. Assign one in the article editor.
• Is the category otherwise empty? A category with no published articles stays hidden until it has at least one.

If the documentation pages return “page not found” instead, the rewrite rules need refreshing. Go to Settings, Permalinks and click Save Changes; no other change is needed. Pretty permalinks must be enabled, so any option other than “Plain” will work. If the pages still return 404 after that, deactivate and reactivate the plugin.

Privacy

editant Docs stores its settings in your own WordPress database and sends no data to any external service. The bundled fonts are served from your own site, not from a third-party font CDN. It creates no custom tables and no capabilities.

Uninstalling removes only the plugin’s single settings row. Your articles and categories are your content and are left exactly as they are; delete them yourself first if you want them gone.

Multisite

It works on multisite. Each site keeps its own settings and its own documentation, and uninstalling removes the plugin’s settings from every site in the network.

Where to get it

editant Docs is one of our free tools. You can find it alongside the others on the Free Tools page, and download or install it directly from the WordPress.org plugin listing.