Your laptop keyboard isn’t not working, and you want to try your hand at mending it yourself? Chances are you’ve turned to the online repair community iFixit for a detailed, step-by-step account of how best to do that. If not, you’ve probably seen one of their gorgeous teardowns that strip a gadget apart piece by piece to reveal what makes it tick.

Today iFixit has announced it will be releasing its innovative manual-making software to the masses. It’s called Dozuki, and it features two products, Guidebook and Answers, that aim to provide the maker and DIY community with “service manuals that don’t suck.”

Owner’s manuals are normally tucked into the product’s box, where they’re immediately lost or discarded upon the gadget’s removal from said box (unless you happen to be especially organized, as I’m sure some of you are). If you want to tweak something, or if something breaks, you’ve got to dig up that manual, flip to the right page where the cryptic, often picture-less directions usually end up causing about as much headache as help. iFixit began in 2003 to fix that problem by providing easy-to-use, photo-heavy repair instructions that could easily be viewed on a computer, laptop, or tablet.

Guidebook is Dozuki’s documentation platform. It lets users create how-tos or provide service documentation that’s then available to everyone online as a PDF. On a tablet — a very convenient mode for accessing such information — this can be viewed in iFixit’s own iPad app, or another PDF reader like GoodReader. iFixit also has an HP TouchPad app.

“I used our iPad app to fix my car the other day. The form factor melts away, and you’re holding the manual. I’m positive that tablets are the best way to use how-to information,” says iFixit chief Kyle Wiens.

Dozuki’s Answers service is a question and answer platform for experts. It aims to turn “expert conversations into a useful (and searchable) knowledge base.”

iFixit hopes manufacturers and mainstream DIY companies like Home Depot and Radio Shack will join the community and provide their documentation, which customers can then expand upon, creating a fruitful, positive experience for companies and do-it-yourselfers alike.

“Imagine if retailers were to start integrating how-to information in their stores. They’ve got all this useful information about how to learn plumbing, and they sell all the parts, but they haven’t made it easy for people to connect the two,” Wiens says. “We can do that, and we can make it mobile so they can use it in store kiosks, or so customers can access it while they’re working on projects.”

Dozuki is currently in private beta, but will be fully available this fall. You can add yourself to the beta invite list if you’d like to check out the service early.

Image courtesy iFixit