Glossary

A

Actions menu: The menu that opens when you click the three vertical dots next to a page or in the space header. The Actions menu may show different options depending on your current view mode.

Add new: The button/menu at the bottom of a space’s table of contents that lets you add new content to your space. Also used to refer to the + buttons next to the Docs sites and Spaces section headers in the sidebar, which you can click to create a new site, space or collection.

Ask or search: The search tool for content in GitBook. You can click at the top of the sidebar to open it, or press ⌘ + K. You can type a keyword for a standard search, or ask a question using GitBook AI, which will summarize a result based on your content.

audience settings: The settings that decide who can access a published docs site. See Publish a docs site for more information about the options in the Audience settings menu.

B

block: Every piece of content you add to a page exists in a block. There are many different types of block, allowing you to add text, images, tables, code, API references, embedded content and much more. You can move a block around by dragging it, change its settings, and in some cases change a block to be a different type, from the block’s Options menu.

C

change request: Change requests are similar to pull requests in GitHub. They let you work on multiple branches of the same space in parallel — while keeping the original version intact. In GitBook you can create a new change request and make edits to a space, then submit your changes for review. Those changes won’t appear in the primary space until someone merges that change request.

collection: A group of spaces. You can think of collections like a folder for your spaces.

context menu: The menu that appears above highlighted text in the editor. You can use it to format your text in a number of ways, including bold, italic, and code, or add links or annotations to your copy.

Comments: A side panel that lets you add a comment to any block on a page. You can reply to comments to create a discussion, tag people using @ and add emojis to your comments. You can also react to comments with an emoji, resolve comments that are no longer relevant, and filter to view just the comments you need.

cover: An image that sits at the top of a page. You can add a cover to any page, and set it to span the full width of your page, or just the width of your content as a hero image. See Page covers to find out more.

custom domain: A customized URL that you can set up for a docs site, e.g. docs.yourcompany.com. You can configure it in the Settings panel for your docs site. See Set a custom domain to find out more.

D

diff view: A toggle that highlight which pages and blocks have been added, edited or deleted within a change request. You can toggle it on using the View changes button in the space header.

discussions: When you reply to a comment you create a discussion — effectively a threaded conversation within the Comments side panel.

docs site: A published site containing the information written in the GitBook editor. Docs sites are accessible to users without a GitBook account.

domain: The base of a docs site’s URL. You can customize this from the Domains section in your site’s Settings page. Setting a custom domain will override this setting.

E

editor: The GitBook UI that you see when you log into the app. GitBook’s block-based editor offers Markdown support and WYSIWYG editing tools, and you can add and move blocks around on the page.

F

files: Images, videos and other items that you can upload to a space. You can view and manage your files by opening the Files tab at the top of the table of contents on the left of your content

G

Git Sync: Git Sync lets you synchronize GitHub or GitLab repositories with GitBook and turn Markdown files into documentation. It’s a two-way sync, so changes you make in GitBook appear in your repo, and changes you make directly in GitHub or GitLab will update in GitBook. You can set up Git Sync by adding the GitHub Sync or GitLab sync integrations to your organization. Find out more

GitBook AI: An AI assistant that is trained on your knowledge base and documentation to answer questions. You can ask GitBook AI anything about your documentation from the Ask or search menu. You can also ask GitBook AI to help you write or edit your content in the editor.

I

inline palette: Type / when in the middle of a block in the editor to open the inline palette. It lets you quickly add different kinds of inline content to your block, from images and emojis to Math & TeX.

insert palette: Type / in an empty block to open the insert palette. It shows all the available blocks you can create, including plugins and reusable content. You can search for a block to narrow the selection, and select with your keyboard or cursor.

insights: GitBook’s built in analytics tools for docs sites that let you see page views, feedback and popular searches on your published spaces.

integrations: GitBook integrations let you connect your GitBook spaces to third party services and platforms. You can install integrations in any space in your organization from the Integrations menu.

L

live edits: The ability to make changes to a live version of a document, without creating a change request. This is the default option for unpublished GitBook spaces.

locked live edits: When you lock live edits, people will need to create a change request in order to make changes to a document in GitBook. This helps avoid mistakes and maintain good working practices for important documents. You can lock live edits for any space — and it is automatically enabled for published spaces.

M

member management: Tools that allow you to view and edit the members in your organization, including their admin rights and the spaces they have access to.

O

Options menu: The menu that opens when you click the six dots next to a block. Here you can change the appearance of a block. Click and drag on the six dots to move the block around the page.

P

page: A place where you can add or write your content using blocks. Pages live inside a space, and you can give every page a title and an optional icon or emoji.

page group: A way to group pages together. You can set a name and an optional icon or emoji for each page group.

page options: A collection of options that you can set for your pages using the Page options side panel. You can select a layout preset, or control individual options such as hiding the page title and description, table of contents or page outline. Find out more in Page options.

R

reusable content: Content that is synced across multiple locations in a space. When you create reusable content you can add it to a space as many times as you need, then edit all those instances at the same time. You can view and manage a space’s reusable content from the Reusable content tab at the top of the table of contents.

S

sidebar: The area on the far left of your GitBook window. It contains the Ask or search bar, all your docs sites, spaces and collections, as well as things like notifications, integrations and settings.

site section: If you want your docs site to act more like a content hub, you can publish multiple spaces to the same docs site as site sections. These site sections will appear in a tab bar at the top of your published docs, allowing users to switch between content. You can set up site sections in the Structure section of Site settings.

slug: The customizable final part of a URL, usually after the domain and a /. In a docs site, this is inferred from the title of the site, and comes after the domain. You can customize this further if needed from the Domains section of Site settings.

space: An area where you can organize related content. It may contain a single page or multiple pages, sub-pages and page groups.

space header: The menu bar below the space overview when you view a space. It contains the space title and icon, as well as buttons to view comments, broken links and change requests, as well as the Edit in change request button.

space overview: The menu bar at the top of the GitBook app when you view a space. It contains the breadcrumbs for the space you’re in, as well as the Git Sync configuration button, the Share button, and the Actions button for the space. If other people are working in the space at the same time as you, you’ll also see their avatars here.

subpage: A page that’s nested within another page, typically containing related content.

T

table of contents: The list of document pages, links, and groups that make up a space. You’ll find it on the left of your page, next to the sidebar. The table of content (TOC) also lets you access the space’s reusable content and files. You can collapse it by hovering near the top right of the TOC.

V

variant: A variant is a different version of your documentation — for example, a translated version of your docs, or docs for a different version number of your product. Site readers can move between different variants using a drop-down menu on the published site.

version: A saved snapshot of your space at a specific time. You can access previous versions of your space in the Version history menu.

Version history: A menu showing major events for a space — such as its creation date, any change requests that you have merged, and any time someone rolled back to a previous version. You can click any version to see how the space looked at that time, and roll back to a previous version if needed.