Flare

Clearly not a tool for occasional users but with the professional full-time technical writer in mind. Very powerful and professional. The optional add-on product Feedback Server allows you to obtain live user feedback on your documentation. You can view and track reader activity. Readers can leave comments within the documentation and rate individual topics. Another supplemental product is MadCap Contributor, which allows casual content contributors, such as subject matter experts (SMEs), to seamlessly provide and review content using defined guidelines.

Advantages: efficient integrated editor; excellent single source publishing features; creates PDF without the need of an external text processor; flexible layout options for the PDF output; also can generate full-featured Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker files; DITA import (including relation tables); multiple tables of contents; professional translation workflow; sophisticated search features can be implemented within browser-based help files; concept markers make it easy to add structured related-topic links

Disadvantages: high price; rather complex to set up and use

Price: approx. $999; Feedback Server: approx. $2499; Contributor: approx. $249

http://www.madcapsoftware.com

Help & Manual

Very efficient and easy to use tool with an excellent price-performance ratio. Particularly recommendable if several product versions need to be documented from one common source, and printed user manuals (PDF) must also be supplied with minimum effort. The software also comes with a full-featured screen capture tool and an image editor.

Advantages: easy to configure and use; highly flexible; excellent support for single source publishing (user-defined builds, snippets, conditional text with IF THEN ELSE statements, variables); efficient and powerful integrated manual generator (PDF) without the need of using external text processing such as Microsoft Word and without the need of an external PDF generator, such as Adobe Acrobat; HTML templates; style sheets; Unicode; efficient support for XML-based translation processes; automatic syntax highlighter for source code citations; team authoring support; integration with version control systems

Disadvantages: some advanced linking and navigation mechanisms must be set up and maintained manually if you want to implement them (for example link groups of related topic links and mini TOCs); the layout for printed user manuals (PDF) can be customized easily with the supplied print manual designer, however some advanced formatting options features such as the possibility to add margin annotations are missing

Price: approx. €320 (Basic Edition) and €480 (Professional Edition)

http://www.helpandmanual.com

RoboHelp

For a long time, RoboHelp was the unchallenged market leader of help authoring tools. Today, some of its competitors may be more innovative, but RoboHelp still remains one of the major tools. RoboHelp Server lets you easily deploy and manage up-to-date online content and control and monitor the use of web-based help systems in real time.

Advantages: large scope of functions; efficient and powerful integrated HTML-editor; full control over the HTML code; version control; multi-author support; close integration with Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker allows you to create online help from existing user manuals; currently the only tool that creates online help in Adobe AIR and in Flash format; ability to provide a search function that includes external content

Disadvantages: high price; not as efficient and easy to use as some of its competitors; poor translation workflow

Prices: approx. $999 as a standalone product; also available as part of the Technical Communication Suite; RoboHelp Server approx. $1999

http://www.adobe.com/products/robohelp/

HelpStudio

One of the few tools that provides built-in support for translations. Projects can either be translated in HelpStudio right away, or be exported to XML, translated by an external translator with the help of a translation memory tool, and then imported back into HelpStudio. Another interesting feature is the possibility to create your own widgets, which simplifies creating and editing complex content such as drop down sections, thumbnail images, note boxes, includes etc.

Advantages: excellent translation support; good single source publishing capabilities; PDF output may have a different structure than the HTML output; basic screen capture tool included; full CSS support; efficient, customizable user interface; excellent HTML based editor with full code control; widgets; task lists; optional Community Extensions allow you to add interactive community features to a help system, such as private notes, public comments or a ratings bar

Disadvantages: PDF output can only be customized to some degree

Price: approx. €360; Community Extensions approx. €1200

http://www.innovasys.com

Fast-Help (also sold under the name EasyHelp)

In terms of program structure and functionality, somewhat similar to both Help & Manual and HelpStudio. Similar to Help Studio, FastHelp has a built-in translation editor, which is especially helpful if translations are done in-house by the author. For single source publishing Fast-Help is clearly less powerful than Help & Manual, especially when it comes to generating printed manuals.

Advantages: easy and intuitive to use; international and corporate versions have the option of translating projects directly in Fast-Help (parallel view of two languages)

Disadvantages: no XML export for external translation, only few options to customize the output

Price: approx. $299 (Standard version), $399 (International version), $499 (Corporate version)

http://www.fast-help.com

HelpSmith

Still a rather young product, but increasingly catching up.

Advantages: low price; full support of styles; rather flexible layout options; good export for browser-based help; complete UNICODE support; basic team authoring support

Disadvantages: no conditional text; no export for external translation; no direct PDF output (only generates basic RTF); no HTML code control

Price: approx. $120

http://www.helpsmith.com

Author-it

As a mix of conventional Help Authoring Tool and database supported content management system, Author-it has a certain special standing. Needs getting used to, but the consistent object oriented approach is highly efficient. Unfurls its strengths only beyond a certain minimum project size and if you want to engage in intensive single source publishing. The optional product Author-it Aspect is a web based application that dynamically delivers content to users based on individual user profiles.

Advantages: very efficient and professional single source publishing; several authors can work simultaneously on a project; efficient support for XML-based translation processes; flexible reusability of topics even across projects; excellent export to Microsoft Word; unique authoring memory feature

Disadvantages: rather complex to set up and use; optimal use requires some experience in single source publishing; high price

Price: upon request

http://www.author-it.com

Doc-To-Help

Has the unique feature that you can choose from several editors for editing your content: Doc-To-Help’s build-in editor, Microsoft Word, or any HTML editor. You can even use different editors within the same project. This is particularly interesting when data from different sources are delivered.

Advantages: great flexibility; thorough and uniform support for conditional text, variables, and text snippets; good possibilities for single source publishing; partly automated documentation of source code and program libraries; includes a tool that allows developers to easily embed a dynamic help pane in the application’s interface; team authoring support

Disadvantages: high price; creating printed user manuals (or PDF) requires Microsoft Word, even if the built-in editor or an HTML editor are used for editing the topics

Price: approx. $750 (Doc-To-Help for Word) and $1000 (Doc-To-Help Enterprise)

http://www.componentone.com

Help Producer

Merely adds a small toolbar to Microsoft Word. However, don’t be fooled: Help Producer is surprisingly efficient and powerful, and can be integrated seamlessly into Word-based workflows.

Advantages: comparatively low price; extensive customization possibilities (templates, style sheets, themes), COM scripting object model allows you to control the output and to automate complex tasks; supports Unicode; good conversion even for graphics that have been created with the built-in graphics-function in Word

Disadvantages: only the most important customizations can be done using the user-interface

Price: approx. $395

http://www.mgtek.com

OfficeHelp

Available in German language only. Implements a tab-based information design that makes it possible to provide a flat and simple table of contents even for extensive documents. Many useful functions add to or optimize the functionality of Microsoft Word (such as marginalia, conditional text, problem-free handling of numbered lists, comfortable cross reference function).

Advantages: very practical; many useful functions to evade typical Microsoft Word problems; excellent documentation

Disadvantages: only available in German; generated web help format isn’t compatible with all browsers

Price: approx. €299 (Standard Edition) and €599 (Professional Edition)

http://www.officehelp.de

WebWorks ePublisher

Unmatched in performance, but also in its price. Available in versions for Microsoft Word, FrameMaker, and DITA-XML. If you’ve several licenses, it’s even possible to generate common online help from different source formats.

Advantages: great scope of functions; easy to use; professional output; high flexibility coupled with low customization effort; can even handle “messily” formatted documents; conditional text and variables for Microsoft Word

Disadvantages: high price

Price: upon request

http://www.quadralay.com

Mif2Go

Converts FrameMaker files into compiled online help (CHM), browser-based help, DITA, and Microsoft Word. Powerful but far from being as intuitive as WebWorks ePublisher. Interesting especially when you need custom conversions that aren’t provided by “out of the box” converters, or when you need to closely integrate a conversion into a specific production processes.

Advantages: moderate price; great flexibility and integration capabilities

Disadvantages: complex installation and customization required; uses proprietary “Document Coding Language” (DCL) for configuration

Price: approx. $295; free for students, for academics, for consultants, and for unemployed technical writers

http://www.omsys.com

Word-2-CHM Converter and Word-2-Web/HTML Converter

Convert Microsoft Word documents into CHM or browser-based help.

Advantages: low price; easy to use; support HTML templates

Disadvantages: don’t support conditional content; no advanced features such as context IDs, text replacement in cross-references, etc.

Price: approx. $199 (Standard) and $299 (Professional)

http://www.macrobject.com

WordToWeb

Easy-to-use converter from Microsoft Word into CHM and HTML. Interesting especially if you want to import Microsoft Word documents into a web site.

Advantages: low price; simple, wizard-driven configuration; flexible output options

Disadvantages: only elementary support for browser-based help (no advanced table of contents, no full text search)

Price: approx. $299

http://www.solutionsoft.com

Doc-O-Matic

Professional documentation tool, particularly for source code documentation and developer documentation. Output can be customized to a high degree.

Advantages: high degree of automation; good support for single source publishing; able to directly export PDF manuals in a professional layout

Disadvantages: rather complex to use; translations must be done within the tool

Price: approx. $300 up to $1000

http://www.doc-o-matic.com

Document! X

Automates the process of creating and maintaining documentation particularly for complex components or XSD schemas.

Advantages: high degree of automation and flexibility; optional Community Extensions allow you to add interactive community features to a help system such as private notes, public comments or a ratings bar; good PDF export; translations into foreign languages can be done either with the help of a built-in translation editor, or via XML export/import

Disadvantages: rather complex to use

Price: approx. €360; Community Extensions approx. €1200

http://www.innovasys.com

West Wind HTML Help Builder

Developed “by developers, for developers”, this tool shows its strengths especially when it comes to documentation of source code and program libraries. At the same time, this tool also meets of technical writers who create user documentation.

Advantages: moderate price; excellent support for source code-documentation of all major programming languages; consistent segregation of contents and formatting; support for different information types and templates; full control over the generated HTML code; HTML templates; clean Microsoft Word export including paragraph and character styles; multiple user support

Disadvantages: doesn’t support conditional text and variables; needs Microsoft Word if you want to use thesaurus and spelling checker

Price: approx. $299

http://www.west-wind.com

TeeGofer Help Author for .NET Components

Tool for simple auto-documentation of .NET assemblies. Supports Unicode double-byte character sets.

Price: approx. $159

http://www.steema.com

VSdocman, VBdocman

Code commenter and class documentation generator for Visual Basic .NET and C# projects, including ASP .NET (VSdocman) and for Visual Basic projects (VBdocman). Option to export to the tool Help & Manual (see above) and XML for advanced editing.

Price: approx. $229 / $79

http://www.helixoft.com

GenHelp

Help authoring tool for component writers. Imports Delphi Object Pascal, C++, C# ,and C files.

Price: approx. €60 (Standard) and €140 (Professional)

http://www.frasersoft.net

TwinText

Automatically generates browser-based help and compiled HTML Help (CHM) directly from code comments. Supports a wide range of programming languages.

Price: approx. $169

http://www.ptlogica.com

AS2Doc

Automatic documentation generator for ActionScript-based classes. Various output formats and customization options.

Price: approx. €79

http://www.as2doc.com

VisDoc

Can generate HTML-based documentation from ActionScript and Java class files. Exclusively runs on Mac OS.

Price: approx. $40

http://visiblearea.com/visdoc/

HTML Help COM Assistant

Automatically analyzes components and creates basic online documentation for enumerators, objects, properties, and methods.

Price: free

http://www.devcomponents.com

Microsoft Sandcastle

Produces MSDN-style documentation by scanning source assemblies. Optionally integrates XML documentation comments.

Price: free

http://www.microsoft.com

Javadoc

Generates API documentation in HTML format from doc comments in source code.

Price: free

http://java.sun.com/j2se/javadoc/

ROBODoc

Creates source code documentation by extracting comments from shell scripts and source code written in C, C++, Fortran, Perl, Assembler, DCL, DB/C, Tcl/Tk, Forth, Lisp, COBOL, Occam, Basic, HTML, Clarion, and any other language that supports comments.

Price: free (Open Source)

http://www.xs4all.nl/~rfsber/Robo/robodoc.html

HeaderDoc

Generates HTML reference documentation from comments in headers and source code written in C, C++, Objective-C, Java, JavaScript, Pascal, PHP, Perl, MIG, as well as from comments in shell scripts.

Price: free (Open Source)

http://developer.apple.com/opensource/tools/headerdoc.html

Doxygen

Documentation system for C++, C, Java, Objective-C, Python, IDL, Fortran, VHDL, PHP, C#.

Price: free (Open Source)

http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/

DoxyS

Code documentation tool for C++/C. Based on Doxygen.

Price: free (Open Source)

http://www.doxys.dk

VBDoxygen

Visual Basic add-in that converts VB code into java like syntax for processing via doxygen.

Price: free (Open Source)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/vbdoxygen/

Natural Docs

Scans source code for comments that are written according to a special syntax and builds documentation in HTML format from these comments.

Price: free (Open Source)

http://www.naturaldocs.org

For more source code documentation generators and a side by side comparison, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_documentation_generators

QuickHelp

Help authoring tool that can author and run application help on Mac OS X, Linux and Windows. The software consists of a builder for authoring the help system and royalty-free viewer executables to ship with the application. The help files displayed by the viewer are XML-based. Within a displayed help file, user-initiated actions can popup messages, launch applications, run COM methods, apple events, and AppleScripts. The system can also generate PDF files including table of contents and index.

Price: approx. $295

http://www.excelsoftware.com

HelpLogic

Another alternative for those who have to supply Apple Help (and browser based help, HTML Help, PDF manual – including title page, TOC, page numbers) from one source. Runs on Mac OS. Doesn’t support conditional text and has no built-in WYSIWYG editor. If you don’t want to edit HTML manually, you must use your own WYSIWYG HTML editor.

Price: approx. €75

http://www.ebutterfly.com/helplogic/

Simple Help Editor

Produces help content for viewing in Apple Help Viewer, in Windows HTML Help viewer, or in a web browser.

Runs on Windows and Mac OS.

Price: approx. $85

http://www.pandaware.com

HelpBlocks

Cross platform help authoring tool. Generates Microsoft HTML Help and wxWidgets HTML Help files.

Price: approx. €50

http://www.helpblocks.com

Helen

Platform independent authoring tool to create JavaHelp.

Price: approx. €169

http://www.software7.biz

A number of tools automatically create some basic documentation by capturing screens from the software, by recording keystrokes or mouse movements, or by analyzing an application’s internal resource files. While this approach mostly doesn’t achieve the same quality as manually created documentation, it’s an efficient alternative for projects with a limited budget, for quick interim solutions, and for documents that supplement a training course.

ScreenSteps Desktop

Allows you to take screen captures of a software and to easily create step-by-step instructions based on these images. When the documented software changes, screen captures can be updated with minimum effort. Creates documentation that’s primarily task-based. Available for both Windows and Mac OS. Provides little options and is therefore very easy to use. Output can be flexibly customized based on the applied templates. Excellent price-performance ratio.

Price: approx. $80

http://www.bluemangolearning.com

HelpBurner

Creates short documents based on a series of screen captures. The approach is quite similar to ScreenSteps Desktop.

Price: approx. $249

http://www.helpburner.com

StepShot

Same approach as ScreenSteps and HelpBurner but with fewer customization options. Screenshots are taken automatically, so your workflow isn’t interrupted. Templates for output can’t be modified.

Price: approx. $35; there is also a free Express version available

http://stepshot.net

Help Generator

Includes a help capture tool that generates topic pages of any part of a Windows user interface. For some program development platforms, most notably Visual Studio, there is an add-in available that scans the application user interface, generates a topic page for each form and links the pages for context sensitive help. Most general help authoring features are also available, so this software is actually a mixture of a conventional help authoring tool and a rapid help development tool.

Price: approx. €341

http://www.helpgenerator.com

Dr. Explain (Cognitive Force):

Automatically captures screens from an application and adds callouts and interactive navigation. Creates documentation that’s essentially a GUI reference.

Price: approx. $125 up to $165

http://www.drexplain.com

Recorder Express and RESITE Performance Suite

Recorder Express records your actions and exports content to Microsoft Word or XML.
RESITE Performance Suite provides a centralized, seamless documentation, training and online help solution. Primarily creates task-based help.

Price: upon request

http://www.insiteobjects.com

Manualizer

Solution to create user manuals and training documents and to document business processes step by step, based on screen captures with short comments. Specially designed for SAP applications.

Price: upon request

http://www.manualizer.ch

Epilogue Author and Epilogue Publisher

Records what’s done within an application and so automatically can document an entire business process, or a specific task. With each step of the process or task, it captures all of the associated screen images and icons and immediately creates illustrated step-by-step instructions in a variety of formats and languages.

Price: upon request

http://www.epiloguesystems.com

TechWriter

Automatically documents which files and data are contained within a web site, and creates database references, xml schema references, as well as web service API documentation.

Price: approx. €120 for one documentation type, approx. €235 for all documentation types

http://www.adivo.com

HelpConsole

Dynamic, web-based help authoring tool with full support of conditional content, context sensitive help, PDF output and concurrent authors.

Price: approx. $299 up to more than $1,499

http://www.extremeease.com

HelpIQ

Online help authoring tool with a focus on creating web based help centers. Contextual help can be authored in the same source as standalone documents.

Price: starting at approx. $49 per month for up to 10 users and 500 pages

http://www.helpiq.com

HelpServer

Web-based solution for help and documentation. Can be deployed as a content management system and as a help system. Supports a large number of formats, such as PDF, HTML and video. Supports structured authoring and team authoring.

Price: starting at approx. €700 per concurrent author; also available as Software as a Service

http://www.helpserver.eu

exxDoc

Online multi-user, multi-language, and multi-database documentation system.

Price: starting at approx. $1000

http://www.pintexx.com

dokuwiki

Price: free (Open Source)

http://www.dokuwiki.org

MediaWiki

Price: free (Open Source)

http://www.mediawiki.org

Tiki Wiki

Price free (Open Source)

http://tiki.org

TWiki

Price: free (Open Source)

http://twiki.org

Confluence

Price: starting at $10

http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/

MindTouch TCS

Social knowledge base for creating product help communities with a wiki-like interface. Option to provide context-sensitive information.

Price: starting at approx. $480 a month

http://www.mindtouch.com

COMT

Web-based text annotation system

Price: free (Open Source)

http://www.co-ment.org

XCommentPro

Commenting and ratings system software. Can be applied to any static or dynamic HTML page that’s hosted on a web server (requires PHP).

Price: approx. $97

http://www.xcommentpro.com

Commentics

Advanced PHP comment script with many features and a user friendly administration backend.

Price: free (Open Source)

http://www.commentics.org

Commentator

Simple PHP comments system.

Price: free (Open Source)

http://ratherodd.com/commentator/

The following tools are clearly less powerful than the market leaders. On the other hand, prices are significantly lower and most of these tools are easy to use and don’t require any training. So, for a small help project, using one of these low-cost tools might be an economical alternative.

HelpMaker

WYSIWYG Editor with live spelling checker and thesaurus. Supports Unicode. Some functions of minor importance are still under construction (for some years now). No support of style sheets, no HTML source code control, no conditional text, only very basic options for single source publishing.

Price: free

http://www.vizacc.com

QuHelp

Scans a folder for HTML files, and from these files builds a browser-based help system, including a JavaScript-based navigation tree and full text search.

Price: free (Open Source)

http://www.badsectoracula.com/projects/quhelp/

JHelpDev

Assists you in creating a JavaHelp set from existing HTML files with an intuitive graphical user interface that relieves you from the task of manually editing the necessary XML files.

Price: free (Open Source)

http://jhelpdev.sourceforge.net

HelpSetMaker

Uses its own markup language for editing the help texts. Creates HelpSets for the JavaHelp online help system, web page sets for display in a browser, and LaTeX source to be passed through “pdflatex” for obtaining a PDF document.

Price: free (Open Source)

http://www.cantamen.de/helpsetmaker.php?lang=en

Helpinator

Feature-rich help authoring tool with CHM, HTML, RTF, and PDF export. XML import and XML export. Topic templates can be edited to customize the output. Supports styles, variables, snippets and conditional text (no nested conditions). Compilation can be run via the command line.

Price: approx. $149; free version for help files with up to 10 topics

http://www.helpinator.com

HelpNDoc

Straightforward help authoring tool, which creates CHM, HTML for standard web browsers as well as IPhones, plus basic Word and PDF files. Supports styles and variables. Templates can be edited. Also exports code snippets to call online help (C/C++, Fortran, Delphi/Pascal, Power Basic, Visual Basic; other languages can be added via the built-in template engine).

Price: free for nonprofit and noncommercial use; professional license approx. $99 (Standard) and $199 (Professional)

http://www.helpndoc.com

HelpTron HTML Help

Full-featured HTML Help authoring tool with basic PDF and Microsoft Word export. Full HTML code control, no conditional text, no text variables.

Price: approx. €179

http://www.theta-software.com

Helptrix

Fully XML-based. Supports conditional output on element level. Built-in translation tool. Very limited number of elements and formatting-options.

Price: approx. €39

http://www.helptrix.com

HelpCruiser

Supports styles. Can generate basic PDF output. No conditional text, no variables, no snippets. Unicode compatible.

Price: approx. €99

http://www.helpcruiser.com

helpMATC Pro HTML

Straightforward program with full HTML code control and CSS support. No single source publishing.

Price: approx. $69

http://www.helpmatic.net

WinCHM

Basic help editor with full HTML code control, template support for HTML page design and PDF export. Can be executed from the command line. No advanced features such as conditional text.

Price: approx. $100

http://www.softany.com

Even if there may be more mature tools on the market today, the following programs show promising potential:

ActoStudio

Integrated development environment for creating user manuals, software demos and presentations.

Price: approx. $499

http://www.softarex.com

nqDoc

XML-based, structured WYSIWYM (What You See Is What You Mean) documentation tool. Can export to DocBook, DITA, DokuWiki and LaTex.

Price: approx. €60

http://www.nqdoc.com