There are many different technical writing tools available on the market, and choosing the right one can be a daunting task. However, by knowing what tools have to offer and what you need from your authoring tool, you can make the decision-making process much easier.

Confluence

Confluence is a powerful collaboration tool from Atlassian software that helps teams work together more effectively. It provides a central place for team members to share ideas, documents, and files, and track progress on projects. Confluence makes it easy to collect feedback and track changes over time.

You can create Confluence spaces for individual teams to segregate documentation, making it easier to find what you are looking for. You can keep permissions open so that your entire staff can see the documentation in all of the spaces, or you can restrict permissions to Confluence spaces or individual pages.

Each space has a page tree, making it easy to see the structure information in the space. You can search for content within a particular space or across all of the spaces in your organization.

MadCap Flare

MadCap Flare is a powerful authoring tool that helps users create, manage, and publish content more efficiently. The software includes a range of features that streamline the publishing process, including support for multiple formats, automatic table of contents and index generation, and built-in project templates. In addition, Flare’s advanced layout features let users easily add multimedia elements such as videos and images to their documents. As a result, MadCap Flare helps users save time and produce high-quality content that is more engaging and visually appealing.

The ability to publish content in multiple formats with a single set of source files makes MadCap Flare a favorite among writers. However, the tool comes with a steep learning curve and a relatively high price tag. Unlike tools like Confluence, access to edit documentation is limited, as the writers on a team are generally the only ones to have licenses. In addition, because it is a proprietary software, teams cannot easily switch to another authoring tool if they are dissatisfied.

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a word processing program that is part of the Microsoft Office suite. Word allows users to create and edit documents, as well as format text and images. Word offers a variety of templates that can be used to create professional-looking documents. Documents can be saved in a variety of formats, making it easy to share with others. In addition, Word provides numerous features for collaboration, such as the ability to track changes and add comments.

Word is such a commonly used tool within an organization, writers are often required to use it for product documentation. Although it is fairly robust, Word has its limitations. For example, file size limits may be problematic, if you documentation contains a large number of graphics or videos. Word also lacks some desktop publishing features, including features that allow you to landscape a page while keeping the headers and footers on the short sides of the page (which are the top and bottom of a printed page).

Even with these limitations, Word is a beneficial tool for anyone who needs to create or edit documents.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a versatile and convenient tool to create and edit documents online. It has become a popular choice for both personal and professional use. Google Docs has a wide range of features that allow you to format and style your documents, similar to those offered by Microsoft Word. Because it is a cloud-hosted application, Google Docs can be accessed from any internet-connected device. This is an advantage over Microsoft Word that can only be accessed from a computer with Microsoft Word installed. If you aren’t connected to the internet, you can still create, view, and edit Google Docs using the offline access feature.

Compatibility between Google Docs and Word allows you can use Google Docs to work on Microsoft Word documents. According to Google Docs help, you can:

• Open, edit, and save Microsoft Office files in Google Drive
• Convert Microsoft Office files to Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides
• Comment on Microsoft Office files in Google Drive preview
• Edit Office files in Drive with the Office Compatibility Mode Chrome extension

Generally speaking, Word is better for more complex documents that require advanced features and formatting, but Google Docs is better for simple documents that don’t need these advanced features but that need to be accessed from multiple devices.

Github Pages

Github Pages is a great option for anyone looking for an easy and efficient way to deploy static websites. Thanks to its fast deployment times, automatic updates, and free hosting, Github Pages can save you a lot of time and hassle when compared to other website hosting options.

GitHub Pages publishes any static files that you push to your Github repository. You can create your own static files or use a static site generator to build your site for you. By default, Github Pages uses Jekyll as the site generator. There are a number of Jekyll templates available that allow you easily customize the look of your site.

Github Pages are commonly used by teams that have embraced the Documentation as Code (Docs as Code) philosophy which promotes the practice of writing documentation with the same tools that are used for the code.

It is important to know that although the repository housing the files might be private, the generated HTML is not. Anyone who has access to the generated URLs will be able to read your content, although they will not be able to edit or delete it.

To create content in Github Pages, writers do need to understand how to check files into and out of Github and resolve merge conflicts as they occur. Writers who are not comfortable using the command line may want to download Github Desktop, an application with a user-friendly interface that enables you to interact with GitHub without using the command line.

DITA XML Authoring (oXygen)

Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is a standard XML-based architecture for documentation. DITA XML was popularized in the early 2000s as a way to create and manage large amounts of technical documentation. The modular nature of its architecture provides a mechanism for content reuse. DITA XML authoring tools provide writers and editors a structured way to organize information, making it easier to find and reuse content. They also ensure that content is consistent and compliant with corporate or industry standards.

In addition, DITA XML authoring tools can be used to generate other formats such as PDF or HTML, making it easy to repurpose content for different audiences or purposes. Because DITA XML is an open standard, there are many software options available, so organizations can choose the tool that best meets their needs.

The oXygen XML editor is a powerful tool for editing XML files. It is commonly used in the technical writing industry for its robust features and support for Markdown authoring and publishing.

DITA XML is still used by companies that adopted it in the earlier 2000s. Many writers prefer applications such as MadCap Flare to any of the DITA XML applications, as they find them easier to use and less cumbersome.

Conclusion

When choosing a technical writing tool, it is important to consider your needs compared to the features the tool offers. Confluence and MadCap Flare both offer excellent support for authoring and publishing, but Confluence is better suited for team collaboration, while MadCap Flare is more suitable for individual authors. Google Docs is a good choice for simple documents in a collaborative work environment, but it is not as robust as Microsoft Word, which is itself lacking in advanced features, compared to tools such as MadCap Flare.

Github Pages is a good option for static websites and for teams already using Github and that are wanting to move to a docs-as-code model. And finally, DITA XML authoring tools offer a number of benefits for writers and editors, but are less collaborative than tools like Google Docs and require more specialized knowledge on how to use the tool.

You may need to use different tools for different documents. Rarely does one tool fit all needs. But, hopefully this article gives you information to help you select tools that best work for you.