Classical Text Processing and DTP Software
Market overview of recommendable text processors and DTP software for creating technical documentation and user assistance (user manuals, reference manuals) – classical documentation tools
On this page:
Editors and add-ons specialized on creating technical documentation (classical documentation tools)
Editors specialized on long documents in general
Editors and add-ons with a focus on collaboration
General purpose WYSIWYG text editors
Tools for converting documents into ebooks and other formats
For information on the indicated price levels , see Price Levels.
Adobe FrameMaker Price level: medium FrameScript/ElmScript FrameMaker scripting automation and customization tool. Price level: low FrameMaker plug-ins http://www.cudspan.net/plugins/ https://www.siliconprairiesoftware.com http://www.weststreetconsulting.com QuickSilver Creation and management tool for long documents. Price level: not published http://www.broadvision.com/products/quicksilver/quicksilver-overview/ OfficeForms Add-on for Microsoft Word that gives you the power of single source publishing, including a database and conditional output. Price level: medium https://dokay.de/en/officeforms-en Description supplied by vendor: SmartDocs Adds functions to manage and reuse content from within Microsoft Word documents. Price level: medium FS Pro Add-ons for Microsoft Word and Confluence that assists you in applying the Information Mapping method to your writing. Price level: medium https://www.informationmapping.com/en/software DocuTools for Word Add-on for Microsoft Word that provides a set of predefined writing standards, structures, layouts, and styles. Price level: low SingleFeeder Text module library and translation memory for efficient publishing. Comes with interfaces to Word, FrameMaker, InDesign, PowerPoint, and XLIFF. Price level: medium data2check Checks Word documents and InDesign files for unwanted styles and manual formatting to enforce consistency. Price level: free (web application) Macros for Writers and Editors Collection of Microsoft Word macros. Price level: free (freeware) GeWoVa Add-on for Microsoft Word, which adds the functionality to work with document variables. You can create, insert and update variables, mass-export variables to Excel, and mass-import variables from Excel. Price level: low PowerTOC (NEW ENTRY) Creates a table of contents for a set of PowerPoint slides. Price level: low https://momsoftco.com/products/powertoc/ Indexing tools With most help authoring tools and other technical writing tools, you can add index entries easily. If, however, you create HTML pages manually, or if you want to use some advanced indexing features, the following indexing tools may be helpful. http://www.editorium.com/dexter.htm indoition Starter Template Professional Microsoft Word template and OpenOffice / LibreOffice template for creating technical documentation. Aims to produce clear documents that are appealing to the user and efficient to create and update for the author. Price level: low https://www.indoition.com/en/products/technical-documentation-template-features.htm
Some tools listed in other sections partly provide similar features. Also look at: |
Scrivener Helps you to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents. Also helps you to collect and organize your input and to outline your documents. Price level: low https://www.literatureandlatte.com Papyrus Designed for handling long documents without errors and loss of data. Includes DUDEN Korrektor (for German text). Price level: low RagTime Price level: medium LyX Price level: free (open source) |
SMASHDOCs Price level: not published Google Docs Price level: free (web application) Annotate.co Not an editor, bur enables you to upload a PDF or Word document and share this document with colleagues. Each person can add notes and tags to the text and images and reply to each other's notes. You can mark notes resolved or reopened for issue tracking. Price level: not published (there is also a free version for up to 3 users available) PleaseReview Provides review and co-authoring features for Microsoft Word documents. Price level: not published |
Microsoft Word Price level: medium OpenOffice, LibreOffice Price level: free (open source) ONLYOFFICE Price level: free (open source) Calligra Suite Price level: free (open source) SoftMaker Office Price level: low (There’s also a free light version available, called FreeOffice.) https://www.freeoffice.com/en/ Polaris Office (NEW ENTRY) Price level: low WordPerfect Office Price level: medium WPS Office Price level: low (There is also a free version available.) Hancom Office (NEW ENTRY) Price level: low Atlantis Word Prcessor Price level: low https://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com Edi Template-based text editor. Inserts values into documents via variables. Price level: low (There is also a free version available.) |
Adobe InDesign Price level: medium QuarkXPress Price level: medium Affinity Publisher Price level: low https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/ Microsoft Publisher Price level: low Scribus Price level: free (open source) |
calibre Popular tool for ebook library management and ebook conversion. Also includes an ebook viewer. Price level: free (open source) KindleGen Command line tool that converts HTML, XHTML and EPUB files to the Kindle format. Officially supported by Amazon. This tool is also integrated into the Kindle Previewer, where you don’t have to use the command line. Note that license terms don’t allow you to sell the generated ebooks anywhere except the Amazon store. Price level: free (freeware) https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765211 Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign Plug-in that converts documents created in Adobe InDesign to the Kindle format. Price level: free (freeware) https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765271 ePub Maker, Mobi Maker Word to EPUB and Mobi converters. Price level: low Writer2ePub OpenOffice.org extension that creates an ePub file from any document that can be opened by OpenOffice. Price level: free (freeware) https://extensions.openoffice.org/en/project/Writer2ePub PressBooks Plugin for WordPress to produce ebooks in Mobi, EPUB, and PDF format. Price level: low Aiseesoft PDF to ePub Converter Converts PDF to EPUB, based on OCR technology. Price level: low https://www.aiseesoft.com/pdf-to-epub-converter/ Bookdown (NEW ENTRY) Generates books and ebooks from R Markdown documents. Supports output to PDF, LaTeX, HTML, EPUB, and Word. Price level: free (open source) |
Note: Also many help authoring tools and many DTP programs and office suites can export to ebook formats such as EPUB. We don’t list these programs here again, but only dedicated ebook authoring tools. Sigil Multi-platform EPUB ebook editor. Features multiple views: book view, code view, and preview view. WYSIWYG editing in book view. Source code control in code view. Price level: free (open source) Apple iBooks Author Professional ebook publishing tool. However, you have to be a Mac user to use it, and the resulting iBooks will only be available to readers using iPads or iPhones. Price level: free (freeware) https://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/ Jutoh Editor to create ebooks in EPUB and Mobi format. Rich set of professional features. Runs on Windows, Mac, and Unix. Price level: low BlueGriffon EPUB Edition Standalone cross-platform WYSIWYG editor to create and edit EPUB ebooks. Price level: low |
calibre Popular tool for ebook library management and ebook conversion. Also includes an ebook viewer. Price level: free (open source) FBReader Ebook reader available for various operating systems. Price level: free (open source) Kindle Previewer Emulates how ebooks display on Kindle devices and applications. Available for both Windows and Mac OS. Price level: free (freeware) https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765261 Kindle App Readers for ebooks in Kindle format. Available for various operating systems. Price level: free (freeware) https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=16571048011 EpubCheck Validates EPUB files. Price level: free (open source) |
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This page was last updated 11/2021
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