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Re: Tools

Subject: Re: Tools
From: Nina Barzgaran <nina -dot- barzgaran -at- barzgaran -dot- at>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 06:06:39 +0100

Hello,

I am aware that not everyone faces the same issues with the same tools. I think that's only natural for almost any tool. So mcuh depends on setup re hardware and files/content or authoring req.

I just like to share my experience, of course. In the end, proper research and testing on introducing tools to YOUR setup is crucial, of course.

But when you really need all of the features I listed, in combination, the available plugins in combination create lots of bottlenecks and extra maintenance time I never faced to that extent with Flare.

More details:
Particularly: limited control over CSS styling for *authors* (not the viewport design, that's usually fine.)
PDF export with custom templates is limited in options as regards CD, again. Or needs hours of manual editing to look good. (Scroll Word+external PDF creator OR native PDF export, whose setup options are even more limited.)
More importantly:
revision workflow AND version management (whole of documentation as opposed to change history) is almost impossible to properly set up without constantly facing issues.
Batch search&replace of phrases or terms: not doable
Broken links analysis or checking: not natively... (Plugin?)

User feedback and comments AND viewport configuration AND custom styling... nope.

And although I agree that there are a lot of plugins available, some even for free, any new plugin you introduce has to be tested first, and be maintained too. And is a potential issue-creator, again.

When all is said and done, costs for a proper help authoring tool, such as others mentioned here already - (Clickhelp also is feature-rich, Robohelp has seen recent updates, just cannot import Confluence content easily, and there are more good ones, local clients or cloud-based) - vs Confluence+plugins are the same or higher; but a HAT usually supports out-of-the-box where Confluence needs yet another plugin...

Nina


---
Nina Barzgaran, M.A.
Technical Communicator

Am 28.10.2020 20:29, schrieb Daniel Feiglin:

If someone has not already suggested it, take a look at Paligo:
[1]https://paligo.net.

On 28/10/2020 20:51, Nina Barzgaran wrote:

Hello,
I have worked with Confluence for over 7 years now, nearly 4 of them
using it as a Help Authoring Tool.
I cannot recommend it as a 'HAT':
for anything you want to do that is remotely connected to the common
help authoring tasks, such as re-using content, snippets, variables,
review workflow, version management (as opposed to a file/page
change history) or custom CSS styling you need plugins.
After some time, it lands you, simply put, in plugin hell, because
the plugins even from the same vendor sometimes are not completely
compatible.
I'd recommend doing some research on *cloud-based Help Authoring
Tools*.
There are quite good ones out there, that offer a fine collaboration
interface and in addition almost anything you could wish for in help
authoring.
MadCap Flare, which is my tool of choice, if I have a choice, even
recently extended their cloud-features for the MadCap Central
platform.
Depending on the budget and (expected) size of documentation, other
tools might be more appropriate.
I can only say: beware of Confluence for help authoring!
It's great as a wiki and collaboration platform, which it was
designed for. Period.
Nina
Am 28/10/2020 um 16:00 schrieb John G:

Use Confluence as your help authoring tool. We do that for thousands
of
pages of documentation, for multiple applications, in multiple
languages.
On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 2:48 PM Deanna Korth
[2]<deanna -dot- korth -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

Hi,
My company is looking to purchase a tool that will accept inputs
from:
- XML
- Confluence
- Word
and that will output to:
- HTML5
- Word
- PDF
- Confluence
We (they) want Confluence to be the source of truth because the
engineers
are used to writing documentation there. The kicker is keeping the
help
authoring system in sync with Confluence. Can you recommend a
solution or
tool?
Thank you,
Deanna.
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References

1. https://paligo.net/
2. mailto:deanna -dot- korth -at- gmail -dot- com
3. https://techwhirl.com/
4. mailto:vwritert -at- gmail -dot- com
5. mailto:techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
6. mailto:admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com
7. http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/
8. http://techwhirl.com/
9. http://techwr-l.com/archives
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References:
Re: Tools: From: Nina Barzgaran
Re: Tools: From: Daniel Feiglin

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