Language and Terminology Tools in the Field of Technical Documentation
Market overview of recommendable language checkers (spelling, grammar, style, terminology) and terminology databases, especially in connection with the creation of technical documentation and user assistance
On this page:
Spelling, grammar, and general language checkers
Terminology extraction tools (TET)
Basic terminology checkers and terminology databases
Upscale terminology checkers and terminology management systems
For information on the indicated price levels , see Price Levels.
Congree Authoring assistance tool that helps to create rule-compliant and style-compliant text. Available for Microsoft Word and other editors. Price level: not published LanguageTool Customizable proofreading software. Implements many checks in particular for English and for German texts. Can be used on a web site, as a stand-alone desktop version, and with various editors via plugins – among them Word, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Oxygen XML, LyX, TeXstudio. Price level: diverse https://github.com/languagetool-org/languagetool Vale Command line based style checker. Price level: free (open source) Duden-Mentor Excellent language checker for German. Both online and also available as a Microsoft Word add-in. Price level: diverse Microsoft Word Better than some standalone spelling and grammar checkers, particularly for the English language. Price level: medium WordPerfect Also comes with a fairly good syntax checker. Price level: medium ProWritingAid Checks for a large number of issues. Price level: medium StyleWriter Especially aims at improving the clarity of a text. Price level: low https://www.editorsoftware.com Grammarly Web-based proofreader that corrects contextual spelling mistakes, checks for grammar errors, and enhances vocabulary usage. Price level: free (freeware) Ginger Grammar checker, sentence rephraser, and more. Price level: medium https://www.gingersoftware.com WhiteSmoke Needs an internet connection to work. May therefore be inappropriate to process confidential texts. Only processes a few pages of text at a time. Some reviews of this software report rather aggressive marketing even after the full license was purchased. Price level: medium RightWriter Searches for grammar errors and weak writing style. Price level: low Writer’s Workbench Provides a vast scope of different analyses. Only works when you’ve installed English versions of Microsoft Word and Windows. Price level: low https://www.writersworkbench.com ClearEdits Performs some basic checks such as sentence length, repeated words, and wordiness. Price level: low Antidote Provides a corrector, dictionaries, and language guides. Available for English and French. Price level: low After the Deadline English grammar, style, and contextual spelling checker. Available for a variety of programs such as WordPress, Confluence, Firefox, Chrome, and OpenOffice. Price level: free (open source) https://www.afterthedeadline.com Hemingway App Highlights lengthy, complex sentences in English texts as well as some common grammar errors. There is also a low-cost desktop application available. Price level: free (web application) TextLab Advanced analysis tool to improve the readability of German texts. Price level: not published Textanalyse-Tool Basic analysis tool to improve the readability of German texts. Price level: free (web application) |
SynchroTerm Extracts terms and creates terminology records from source and target document pairs and from translation memories. Price level: medium TermSuite Toolbox for terminology extraction and multilingual term alignment. Price level: free (open source) |
PerfectIt Ensures consistency with house styles and between multiple authors. Requires Microsoft Word. Price level: low https://intelligentediting.com Term checker for Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100) Helps to make sure that text conforms to ASD Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100). Uses LanguageTool. Price level: medium https://www.simplified-english.co.uk termXact Checks Word, FrameMaker, InDesign, Flare, and other documents for terminology defined in an Excel file. Price level: not published https://www.term-solutions.com/en/ MindReader Scans a translation memory and suggests writers identical or similar text fragments. Price level: not published AnyLexic Simple terminology management system. Can import existing glossaries. Price level: low [i]-match Terminology and consistency tools and checkers. For Word, FrameMaker and XML editors. Price level: not published Lingo Utility for creating terminology lists. Price level: low https://www.lexicool.com/soft.asp evoTerm Web-based terminology management system. Price level: medium TermWiki Pro Enterprise terminology management system. Price level: high |
TermStar, WebTerm Price level: not published acrolinx Guides writers to create content that’s accurate, consistent, search-ready, and translation-friendly. Price level: not published HyperSTE Quality assurance software for standardized documentation. Ensures compliance with corporate terminology and style guide rules. Price level: not published https://www.simplifiedenglish.net UniTerm Software solutions for creating, managing, and disseminating corporate languages. Price level: not published authordesk Integrates authors support, controlled language, and terminology in one program. Price level: not published https://gds.eu/en/content-management-solutions/authordesk LogiTerm Combines a full-text search engine with various translation and terminology tools. Price level: medium MAXit Checker Monitors technical texts for compliance with Controlled English or ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English. There are versions available for FrameMaker, Microsoft Word, Arbortext, XMetal, and UltraXML. Price level: not published https://www.smartny.com/maxit.htm Finalyser TERM CHECK Checks the consistent use of terminology in Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Word, and Powerpoint. In other editors you can check terms via the included Finalyser Clipboard Listener. For the database, you can choose between an XML database and a UniTerm database. Also supports the inclusion of foreign languages. Price level: not published https://www.squidds.de/produkte/finalyser/finalyser/ TermWeb Web-based terminology management system. Price level: not published https://www.interverbumtech.com flashterm Online database that helps you to collect, develop, and apply your organization's terminology. Price level: not published termXplorer Web-based terminology management system. Price level: not published |
MindReader Helps to reuse existing phrases and wording to improve consistency and to lower translation cost. Price level: not published authordesk Price level: not published |
Technical Writers’ Companion Companion and style guide through all stages of a user assistance project, from the analysis of requirements through structuring the content and designing templates, writing, illustrating, proofreading, and translating. Price level: low https://www.indoition.com/en/products/technical-writing-companion.htm TextSTAT Reads text files, Microsoft Word files, OpenOffice files, and HTML files, and then generates word frequency lists and concordances from these files. Can spider a whole web site or browser-based help system. Price level: free (open source) http://neon.niederlandistik.fu-berlin.de/en/textstat/ AntConc Corpus analysis toolkit for concordancing and text analysis. Price level: free (freeware) http://www.laurenceanthony.net/software/antconc/ Capitalize My Title Automatically capitalizes an English heading according to AP style, APA style, Chicago style or MLA style. Price level: free (web application) CopyChar Tables to copy special characters from. Categories include Letters, Punctuation, Math, Numbers, Currency, Symbols, Arrows, and Emoji. Price level: free (web application) |
This page was last updated 09/2022
Did this guide help you? Please support also its future development and maintenance and purchase the PDF + EPUB version (approx. 150 pages).
Thank you.
Legal Notes:
This page may contain paid advertisements, which are marked as such. Apart from this, the linked web sites and their publishers are not associated with or endorsed by indoition Technical Communication Services Marc Achtelig, and do not reflect the opinion of indoition Technical Communication Services Marc Achtelig. Copyright of linked materials by their respective copyright holders. Note the license terms given on the linked pages! Any pricing and licensing information given on this page is only for prior information and without guarantee.