0.1A web-based, self-hosted documentation platform

Install ManualWorks on your own servers and keep every document and every edit in-house. It even runs on internal networks with no internet access.

Your team writes together within a clear permission system. You can set permissions separately for administration, templates and themes, writing, and translation, and control access to resources such as files, images, templates, and glossaries.

Everyone always works on the latest version of every document, so there are no duplicate copies, lost files, or conflicting versions.

0.2Choose your own AI model

Connect external AI providers such as Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, and Grok, or an Ollama server running in your own network. You decide which AI models to use.

ManualWorks offers a chatbot, AI writing, and spelling and grammar checks. It builds a vector store from your documents so the chatbot answers from your own docs.

0.3Documents that work with AI tools

Connect AI tools such as Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI through MCP to read and edit your documents.

AI tools act only within the user's document permissions, and every edit is recorded in the history so you can roll it back. MCP access does not count toward licensed users.

0.4Smooth communication across the team

Proofreading notes in the editor, progress tracking, and tasks keep collaboration moving.

The ManualWorks web viewer supports comments, change requests, and reader feedback. You can also comment on proofreading notes, to-dos, review requests, and change requests, so everyone stays on the same page.

Watch a document to get an email when it changes. Everyone watching the document sees what changed.

0.5Write by paragraph and chapter

ManualWorks structures documents by chapter and lets you edit them paragraph by paragraph.

It offers many paragraph types, including lists, code, notes, images, and tables.

In the editor you can freely move, delete, copy, and paste paragraphs, and you can copy chapters or move them to another document.

0.6Image paragraphs and the visual editor

Paste an image from the clipboard with Ctrl + V.

The built-in visual editor lets you edit the images in your documents. Add text and callouts, and crop images to the pixel.

You can also draw simple flowcharts and design guides in the visual editor.

0.7Consistent formatting with rich style options

Everyone works with the styles defined in the theme, so your documents stay consistent.

Themes offer rich style options: fonts, line height, word and letter spacing, paragraph spacing, indentation, colors, and background colors.

You also get flexible numbering options for parts, chapters, and headings (including figure and table captions).

0.8Complete edit history

In one history view, review and compare the history of chapters and paragraphs as well as the whole book.

Every edit is recorded, so you can restore any point in time.

0.9Single source, multichannel publishing

Publish one document as many outputs: web viewer, PDF, EPUB, and HTML.

A web page editor lets you build a unified help portal like the ManualWorks help site.

0.10Automation and reuse

ManualWorks builds key parts of your documents for you, such as tables of contents for headings, figures, tables, and code, and indexes.

It also generates the title page and half-title page of your PDF files.

Reuse content by chapter, section, or paragraph across documents. Change the source once, and every document that references it is updated.

0.11Translation editor with machine translation

Connect Google Translate, Papago, or DeepL through their APIs.

In the translation editor, translate and edit ManualWorks documents by sentence, paragraph, or chapter.

0.12Easy software updates

Update to the latest version of ManualWorks in a few steps.

Release notes show what's new and what's fixed in each version.