Non-wiki CMS for an online user guide

Question

For a large web application I'm building, I need to create an extensive user guide. The first thought was a wiki, but what I've seen lacks the ease of customization I've seen in CMSs, and has a lot of extra features I don't need.

The number of users editing the document is small and closed, but it needs to be editable by non-technical users. The number of pages will likely be between 50-100. It also needs to be searchable. It would also be a plus if it had nice readable urls to link to from our web app.

Right now, my best guess is WordPress, but that seems a lot more geared towards blogging with just a handful of pages, than having several pages, and probably no blogs. There isn't a language requirement, although we have the most experience with Java and PHP. We aren't looking to have to do any major coding other than customizing for visuals, so hopefully the language will not be too important. Again, I'm not looking for the best general purpose CMS, just something that would be easiest for a user guide.

Answer 1

Maybe you'll find that the Drupal documentation has the features you want. As far as I remember, the handbooks are made with the Book drupal module.

Just a suggestion.

Answer 2

You could maybe try to adapt the StackExchange platform ?

It is simple enough for the size of your user guide, and could also double as a FAQ/support website.

Answer 3

One web dev I know has taken Wordpress and shoe-horned (using existing plugins) it into a CMS for clients that wanted to use Wordpress. I can update this response later once I talk to him.