diff --git a/.editorconfig b/.editorconfig
index 2a7a00f3dc..97c8ef6e5a 100644
--- a/.editorconfig
+++ b/.editorconfig
@@ -17,6 +17,10 @@ charset = utf-8
 [*.{py,java,r,R}]
 indent_size = 4
 
+# 3 space indentation
+[*.{rst}]
+indent_size = 3
+
 # 2 space indentation
 [*.{js,json,yml,html,xml,ncl}]
 indent_size = 2
diff --git a/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py b/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py
deleted file mode 100644
index c9a8492129..0000000000
--- a/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,395 +0,0 @@
-# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
-#
-# ESMValTool documentation build configuration file, created by
-# sphinx-quickstart on Tue Jun  2 11:34:13 2015.
-#
-# This file is execfile()d with the current directory set to its
-# containing dir.
-#
-# Note that not all possible configuration values are present in this
-# autogenerated file.
-#
-# All configuration values have a default; values that are commented out
-# serve to show the default.
-
-import sys
-import os
-
-
-# If extensions (or modules to document with autodoc) are in another directory,
-# add these directories to sys.path here. If the directory is relative to the
-# documentation root, use os.path.abspath to make it absolute, like shown here.
-sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../../../'))
-sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../../../diag_scripts/lib/python'))
-sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../../../diag_scripts/aux/LMU_ESACCI-diagnostics'))
-sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../../../diag_scripts/aux/catchment_analysis'))
-sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../../../interface_scripts'))
-
-#add process_nl_docs in sphinx documentation source folder
-sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('.'))
-import process_ncl_docs
-
-
-# not the best way to set the pathes, but working for autodoc ...
-
-
-
-# add custom extensions directory to python path
-#sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)), 'extensions'))
-
-# -- General configuration ------------------------------------------------
-
-# If your documentation needs a minimal Sphinx version, state it here.
-#needs_sphinx = '1.0'
-
-# Add any Sphinx extension module names here, as strings. They can be
-# extensions coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom
-# ones.
-extensions = [
-    'sphinx.ext.autodoc',
-    'sphinx.ext.doctest',
-    'sphinx.ext.intersphinx',
-    'sphinx.ext.todo',
-    'sphinx.ext.coverage',
-    'sphinx.ext.mathjax',
-    'sphinx.ext.ifconfig',
-    'sphinx.ext.viewcode',
-]
-process_ncl_docs.create_doc_files_from_ncl()
-# Add any paths that contain templates here, relative to this directory.
-templates_path = ['_templates']
-
-# The suffix of source filenames.
-source_suffix = '.rst'
-
-# The encoding of source files.
-#source_encoding = 'utf-8-sig'
-
-# The master toctree document.
-master_doc = 'index'
-
-# General information about the project.
-project = u'ESMValTool'
-copyright = u'2015, Veronika Eyring, Axel Lauer, Mattia Righi, Martin Evaldsson et al.'
-
-# The version info for the project you're documenting, acts as replacement for
-# |version| and |release|, also used in various other places throughout the
-# built documents.
-#
-# The short X.Y version.
-version = '1.1.0'
-# The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
-release = '1.1.0'
-
-# The language for content autogenerated by Sphinx. Refer to documentation
-# for a list of supported languages.
-#language = None
-
-# There are two options for replacing |today|: either, you set today to some
-# non-false value, then it is used:
-#today = ''
-# Else, today_fmt is used as the format for a strftime call.
-#today_fmt = '%B %d, %Y'
-
-# List of patterns, relative to source directory, that match files and
-# directories to ignore when looking for source files.
-exclude_patterns = []
-
-# The reST default role (used for this markup: `text`) to use for all
-# documents.
-#default_role = None
-
-# If true, '()' will be appended to :func: etc. cross-reference text.
-#add_function_parentheses = True
-
-# If true, the current module name will be prepended to all description
-# unit titles (such as .. function::).
-#add_module_names = True
-
-# If true, sectionauthor and moduleauthor directives will be shown in the
-# output. They are ignored by default.
-#show_authors = False
-
-# The name of the Pygments (syntax highlighting) style to use.
-pygments_style = 'sphinx'
-
-# A list of ignored prefixes for module index sorting.
-#modindex_common_prefix = []
-
-# If true, keep warnings as "system message" paragraphs in the built documents.
-#keep_warnings = False
-
-
-# -- Options for HTML output ----------------------------------------------
-
-# The theme to use for HTML and HTML Help pages.  See the documentation for
-# a list of builtin themes.
-html_theme = 'default'
-
-# Theme options are theme-specific and customize the look and feel of a theme
-# further.  For a list of options available for each theme, see the
-# documentation.
-#html_theme_options = {}
-
-# Add any paths that contain custom themes here, relative to this directory.
-#html_theme_path = []
-
-# The name for this set of Sphinx documents.  If None, it defaults to
-# "<project> v<release> documentation".
-#html_title = None
-
-# A shorter title for the navigation bar.  Default is the same as html_title.
-#html_short_title = None
-
-# The name of an image file (relative to this directory) to place at the top
-# of the sidebar.
-#html_logo = None
-
-# The name of an image file (within the static path) to use as favicon of the
-# docs.  This file should be a Windows icon file (.ico) being 16x16 or 32x32
-# pixels large.
-#html_favicon = None
-
-# Add any paths that contain custom static files (such as style sheets) here,
-# relative to this directory. They are copied after the builtin static files,
-# so a file named "default.css" will overwrite the builtin "default.css".
-html_static_path = ['_static']
-
-# Add any extra paths that contain custom files (such as robots.txt or
-# .htaccess) here, relative to this directory. These files are copied
-# directly to the root of the documentation.
-#html_extra_path = []
-
-# If not '', a 'Last updated on:' timestamp is inserted at every page bottom,
-# using the given strftime format.
-#html_last_updated_fmt = '%b %d, %Y'
-
-# If true, SmartyPants will be used to convert quotes and dashes to
-# typographically correct entities.
-#html_use_smartypants = True
-
-# Custom sidebar templates, maps document names to template names.
-#html_sidebars = {}
-
-# Additional templates that should be rendered to pages, maps page names to
-# template names.
-#html_additional_pages = {}
-
-# If false, no module index is generated.
-#html_domain_indices = True
-
-# If false, no index is generated.
-#html_use_index = True
-
-# If true, the index is split into individual pages for each letter.
-#html_split_index = False
-
-# If true, links to the reST sources are added to the pages.
-#html_show_sourcelink = True
-
-# If true, "Created using Sphinx" is shown in the HTML footer. Default is True.
-#html_show_sphinx = True
-
-# If true, "(C) Copyright ..." is shown in the HTML footer. Default is True.
-#html_show_copyright = True
-
-# If true, an OpenSearch description file will be output, and all pages will
-# contain a <link> tag referring to it.  The value of this option must be the
-# base URL from which the finished HTML is served.
-#html_use_opensearch = ''
-
-# This is the file name suffix for HTML files (e.g. ".xhtml").
-#html_file_suffix = None
-
-# Output file base name for HTML help builder.
-htmlhelp_basename = 'ESMValTooldoc'
-
-
-# -- Options for LaTeX output ---------------------------------------------
-
-latex_elements = {
-# The paper size ('letterpaper' or 'a4paper').
-#'papersize': 'letterpaper',
-
-# The font size ('10pt', '11pt' or '12pt').
-#'pointsize': '10pt',
-
-# Additional stuff for the LaTeX preamble.
-'preamble': r'''
-   \makeatletter
-   \renewcommand{\maketitle}{
-     \newcommand{\MONTH}{%
-       \ifcase\the\month
-       \or January% 1
-       \or February% 2
-       \or March% 3
-       \or April% 4
-       \or May% 5
-       \or June% 6
-       \or July% 7
-       \or August% 8
-       \or September% 9
-       \or October% 10
-       \or November% 11
-       \or December% 12
-     \fi}
-     \begin{titlepage}
-     \begin{center}
-     \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{../../source/figures/ESMValTool-logo.pdf}\par
-     \vspace{2cm}
-     {\Huge \bf \sffamily User's and Developer's Guide \par}
-     \vspace{1cm}
-     {\Large \sffamily \MONTH ~ \the\year \par}
-     \vspace{12cm}
-     Deutsches Zentrum f\"ur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut f\"ur Physik der Atmosph\"are, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany \par
-     \vspace{0.5cm}
-     http://www.esmvaltool.org/ \par
-     \end{center}
-     \end{titlepage}
-     \clearpage
-   }
-   \makeatother'''
-}
-
-# latex_additional_files = []
-
-# Grouping the document tree into LaTeX files. List of tuples
-# (source start file, target name, title,
-#  author, documentclass [howto, manual, or own class]).
-latex_documents = [
-  ('index', 'ESMValTool_Users_Guide.tex', u'ESMValTool User\'s and Developer\'s Guide',
-   u'Veronika Eyring, Axel Lauer, Mattia Righi, Martin Evaldsson et al.', 'manual'),
-]
-
-# The name of an image file (relative to this directory) to place at the top of
-# the title page.
-#latex_logo = None
-
-# For "manual" documents, if this is true, then toplevel headings are parts,
-# not chapters.
-#latex_use_parts = True
-latex_toplevel_sectioning = "part"
-
-# If true, show page references after internal links.
-#latex_show_pagerefs = False
-
-# If true, show URL addresses after external links.
-#latex_show_urls = False
-
-# Documents to append as an appendix to all manuals.
-#latex_appendices = []
-
-# If false, no module index is generated.
-#latex_domain_indices = True
-
-
-# -- Options for manual page output ---------------------------------------
-
-# One entry per manual page. List of tuples
-# (source start file, name, description, authors, manual section).
-#man_pages = [
-#    ('index', 'esmvaltool', u'ESMValTool Documentation',
-#     [u'Veronika Eyring, Axel Lauer, Mattia Righi, Martin Evaldsson et al.'], 1)
-#]
-
-# If true, show URL addresses after external links.
-#man_show_urls = False
-
-
-# -- Options for Texinfo output -------------------------------------------
-
-# Grouping the document tree into Texinfo files. List of tuples
-# (source start file, target name, title, author,
-#  dir menu entry, description, category)
-#texinfo_documents = [
-##  ('index', 'ESMValTool', u'ESMValTool Documentation',
-#   u'Veronika Eyring, Axel Lauer, Mattia Righi, Martin Evaldsson et al.', 'ESMValTool', 'One line #description of project.',
-#   'Miscellaneous'),
-#]
-
-# Documents to append as an appendix to all manuals.
-#texinfo_appendices = []
-
-# If false, no module index is generated.
-#texinfo_domain_indices = True
-
-# How to display URL addresses: 'footnote', 'no', or 'inline'.
-#texinfo_show_urls = 'footnote'
-
-# If true, do not generate a @detailmenu in the "Top" node's menu.
-#texinfo_no_detailmenu = False
-
-
-# -- Options for Epub output ----------------------------------------------
-
-# Bibliographic Dublin Core info.
-epub_title = u'ESMValTool'
-epub_author = u'Veronika Eyring, Axel Lauer, Mattia Righi, Martin Evaldsson et al.'
-epub_publisher = u'Veronika Eyring, Axel Lauer, Mattia Righi, Martin Evaldsson et al.'
-epub_copyright = u'2015, Veronika Eyring, Axel Lauer, Mattia Righi, Martin Evaldsson et al.'
-
-# The basename for the epub file. It defaults to the project name.
-#epub_basename = u'ESMValTool'
-
-# The HTML theme for the epub output. Since the default themes are not optimized
-# for small screen space, using the same theme for HTML and epub output is
-# usually not wise. This defaults to 'epub', a theme designed to save visual
-# space.
-#epub_theme = 'epub'
-
-# The language of the text. It defaults to the language option
-# or en if the language is not set.
-#epub_language = ''
-
-# The scheme of the identifier. Typical schemes are ISBN or URL.
-#epub_scheme = ''
-
-# The unique identifier of the text. This can be a ISBN number
-# or the project homepage.
-#epub_identifier = ''
-
-# A unique identification for the text.
-#epub_uid = ''
-
-# A tuple containing the cover image and cover page html template filenames.
-#epub_cover = ()
-
-# A sequence of (type, uri, title) tuples for the guide element of content.opf.
-#epub_guide = ()
-
-# HTML files that should be inserted before the pages created by sphinx.
-# The format is a list of tuples containing the path and title.
-#epub_pre_files = []
-
-# HTML files shat should be inserted after the pages created by sphinx.
-# The format is a list of tuples containing the path and title.
-#epub_post_files = []
-
-# A list of files that should not be packed into the epub file.
-epub_exclude_files = ['search.html']
-
-# The depth of the table of contents in toc.ncx.
-#epub_tocdepth = 3
-
-# Allow duplicate toc entries.
-#epub_tocdup = True
-
-# Choose between 'default' and 'includehidden'.
-#epub_tocscope = 'default'
-
-# Fix unsupported image types using the PIL.
-#epub_fix_images = False
-
-# Scale large images.
-#epub_max_image_width = 0
-
-# How to display URL addresses: 'footnote', 'no', or 'inline'.
-#epub_show_urls = 'inline'
-
-# If false, no index is generated.
-#epub_use_index = True
-
-numfig = True
-
-# Example configuration for intersphinx: refer to the Python standard library.
-intersphinx_mapping = {'http://docs.python.org/': None}
diff --git a/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py b/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000..8b72b338ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../../../esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py b/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py
index c9a8492129..c494c76351 100644
--- a/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py
+++ b/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py
@@ -19,11 +19,9 @@
 # If extensions (or modules to document with autodoc) are in another directory,
 # add these directories to sys.path here. If the directory is relative to the
 # documentation root, use os.path.abspath to make it absolute, like shown here.
-sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../../../'))
-sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../../../diag_scripts/lib/python'))
-sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../../../diag_scripts/aux/LMU_ESACCI-diagnostics'))
-sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../../../diag_scripts/aux/catchment_analysis'))
-sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../../../interface_scripts'))
+esmvaltool_path = os.path.abspath('../../../..')
+sys.path.insert(0, esmvaltool_path)
+import esmvaltool.version
 
 #add process_nl_docs in sphinx documentation source folder
 sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('.'))
@@ -77,9 +75,9 @@
 # built documents.
 #
 # The short X.Y version.
-version = '1.1.0'
+version = esmvaltool.version.__version__
 # The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
-release = '1.1.0'
+release = esmvaltool.version.__version__
 
 # The language for content autogenerated by Sphinx. Refer to documentation
 # for a list of supported languages.
diff --git a/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/developer_guide.rst b/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/developer_guide.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..84081f593e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/developer_guide.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+.. _developer_guide:
+
+#################
+Developer's guide
+#################
+
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 3
+
+   porting
diff --git a/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/index.rst b/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/index.rst
index cb31400b3f..601e8b07d5 100644
--- a/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/index.rst
+++ b/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/index.rst
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
-Welcome to ESMValTool's documentation!
-======================================
-
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 3
 
-   porting
+   user_guide
+   developer_guide
+
+
 
 Indices and tables
 ==================
diff --git a/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/installation_guide.rst b/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/installation_guide.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b93777e69e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/installation_guide.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+.. _installation_guide:
+
+*********************
+Installing ESMValTool
+*********************
+
+Here we will have the instalation guide
+
+Conda installation
+==================
+
+Will be available for the release of 2.0
+
+
+Docker installation
+===================
+
+Docker blablabla
+
+
+Install from source
+===================
+
+Installation
+
diff --git a/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/porting.rst b/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/porting.rst
index f634c242a2..96dfaed42b 100644
--- a/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/porting.rst
+++ b/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/porting.rst
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 .. _porting:
 
+****************************************************
 Porting namelists and diagnostics to ESMValTool v2.0
 ****************************************************
 
-This guide summarizes the main steps to be taken in order to port an ESMValTool namelist and the corresponding diagnostic(s) from v1.0 to v2.0, hereafter also referred as the *"old"* and the *"new version"*, respectively.. The new ESMValTool version is being developed in the public git branch ``REFACTORING_backend``. It is strongly recommended to create a branch from ``REFACTORING_backend`` for each of the namelist to be ported and to name it ``REFACTORING_<namelist>``. 
+This guide summarizes the main steps to be taken in order to port an ESMValTool namelist and the corresponding diagnostic(s) from v1.0 to v2.0, hereafter also referred as the *"old"* and the *"new version"*, respectively.. The new ESMValTool version is being developed in the public git branch ``REFACTORING_backend``. It is strongly recommended to create a branch from ``REFACTORING_backend`` for each of the namelist to be ported and to name it ``REFACTORING_<namelist>``.
 
 ``REFACTORING_backend`` contains both v1.0 and v2.0, the latter in the ``./esmvaltool/`` directory. It is therefore possible, and recommended, to run both versions of the ESMValTool within the same branch: this will facilitate testing and comparison of the two version as long as the porting process proceeds.
 
@@ -94,9 +95,9 @@ The new ESMValTool version includes a completely revised interface, handling the
 +--------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------+
 | ``ncl.interface``                          | ``settings.ncl`` in ``run_dir`` and       | all .ncl scripts |
 |                                            | ``interface_scripts/interface.ncl``       |                  |
-+--------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------+ 
++--------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+------------------+
 
-The following changes shall also be considered: 
+The following changes shall also be considered:
 
 - ``run_dir`` (previous ``interface_data``), ``plot_dir``, ``work_dir`` are now unique to each diagnostic script, so it is no longer necessary to define specific paths in the diagnostic scripts to prevent file collision;
 - the interface functions ``interface_get_*`` and ``get_figure_filename`` are no longer available: their functionalities can be easily reproduced using the ``model_info`` and ``input_file_info`` logicals and their attributes;
diff --git a/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/user_guide.rst b/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/user_guide.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6c84d257fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/esmvaltool/doc/sphinx/source/user_guide.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+.. _user_guide:
+
+############
+User's guide
+############
+
+Introduction to the user guide
+
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 3
+
+   installation_guide