Automation and Postprocessing Tools
Market overview of recommendable automation and post-processing tools, especially in connection with the creation of technical documentation and user assistance
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AutoHotkey Lets you automate almost any task within almost any Windows application. Can for example be used to auto replace text, to insert special characters with a click of a button, or to call a sequence of commands from menus and dialogs. From the AutoHotkey web site you can also download SciTE4AutoHotkey, a free editor for AutoHotkey scripts that provides syntax highlighting and context-sensitive help. Price: free (open source) AutoIt Alternative to AutoHotkey. Scripts are compatible to some extent. Price: free (freeware) Sikuli Script Implements automation based on screen captures. Price: free (open source) RoboTask Price: approx. $180; there’s also a free version with a limited feature set available Jitbit Auto Text Price: approx. $23 https://www.jitbit.com/autotext/ Jitbit Macro Recorder Price: approx. $39 https://www.jitbit.com/macro-recorder/free-macro-recorder/ Macro Express Price: approx. $45 (“Standard”) and $70 (“Pro”) PhraseExpress Price: approx. $50 (“Standard”) and $140 (“Professional”) winautomation Price: starting at approx. $399 |
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Text Workbench Can search and replace text in files of various formats. Fully supports regular expressions and Unicode. Can be run via a graphical user interface, from the command line, or via the Windows scripting host engine. Price: approx. $70 http://www.silveragesoftware.com TextPipe Available in different versions for simple search and replace operations up to sophisticated data mining. Price: approx. $169 (“Standard”) and $395 (“Pro”) PowerGREP One of the most powerful search and replace tools for text files available. Can be run both via a graphical user interface and from the command line. Price: approx. €139 AKS Text Replacer Quite similar to Text Workbench but with fewer functions. Includes a comfortable batch file making utility. Works with text files and Microsoft Word files. Price: approx. $40 Batch Text File Editor, Batch Docs, Batch Word Replace, Batch File Replace Provide many functions for batch replacing text and formatting in text and Word files. Price: approx. €90, €115, €95, €90 FAR HTML Toolbox for editing and compiling help files. Also includes a powerful search and replace utility. Price: approx. $72 http://www.helpwaregroup.com/products/far TextCrawler Can search and replace across files, extract, insert and delete text. Supports regular expressions and batch mode. Unicode compatible. Price: basic version for non-commercial use free (freeware), “Pro Edition” approx. €33 https://www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/textcrawler.html FART Command line utility for finding and replacing text. Price: free (open source) https://sourceforge.net/projects/fart-it/ Swiss File Knife Among other features also provides a binary find and replace tool for the command line. Price: free (open source) https://sourceforge.net/projects/swissfileknife/ Rainbow Provides multi-file find and replace, various conversion options, plus a number of other useful features. Price: free (open source) MegaReplacer for Microsoft Word Finds and replaces multiple text strings (characters, words, phrases), text formatting, or styles within one or multiple documents. Price: approx. $30 http://www.editorium.com/14843.htm Perl Programming language that has a particular strength in handling texts. Price: free (open source) |
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PatternStream Automates publishing workflows. Information can be acquired directly from any standard relational databases, or from XML, HTML, and other files. The gathered information can then be automatically imported and placed where needed in the final document (FrameMaker, InDesign, HTML, XML, Excel). Price: not published Typefi Single-source publishing platform that integrates print, online, and mobile production into one automated workflow. Price: not published Miramo Automatically formats information extracted from databases and other data sources, such as XML. Uses Adobe FrameMaker. Price: approx. €4750 Pandoc Universal document converter. Among others, converts between markdown, reStructuredText, textile, HTML, DocBook, LaTeX, MediaWiki markup, and OPML. Price: free (open source) |
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This page was last updated 08/2017
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