Dr. Tom's Independent Software Reviewspresents: |
|
||||
.sm%20gif.gif)
AuthorIT Software Corporation (ASC) was founded in 1996 in Auckland, New Zealand. The flagship product AuthorIT, an integrated single-source documentation solution, was initially released in 1997 and started to sell in the US and Europe in 2000. It incorporates authoring, content management, security and standards control and publishing to print, online Help, and the Web. It also includes modules for project management, and offline authoring. The company's founder and CEO, Paul Trotter is the architect of AuthorIT, and commenced designing and developing AuthorIT on a part-time basis in 1995. He has a background in telecommunications, software development and technical writing predominantly in the documentation consulting arena. Currently AuthorIT has customers in more than 50 countries including larger corporations and institutions from various fields such as Avaya, Bank of America, Coca-Cola Computer Associates, Credit Suisse, Daimler Chrysler AG, Deutsche Bank, HP, Mitsubishi Electric, Motorola, OECD, , Siemens, Standard & Poor’s, University of Houston, US Navy and Air Force, and the Washington Post.
)
Fig. 1: The Main User Interface of
AuthorIT showing a typical Library
Please click on the image for a closer look!
AuthorIT is a complete solution for collaborative single
source authoring. It incorporates content management including security
and standards control of a large number of coworkers and the ability
to publish from the same source to
print,
online Help,
and Web formats. AuthorIT's new Localization Manager Module offers
all advantages of the single sourcing environment for a highly
efficient and cost effective localization management.
AuthorIT consists of 5 Modules: The name giving main
application AuthorIT for the actual authoring, the Administrator for
the setup of user and group permissions as well as basic maintenance
of AuthorIT's
content databases named libraries, the optional Project Manager
and Localization
Manager modules and the Publisher to
generate the various supported output formats.
)
Fig. 2: Authoring in AuthorIT
You may click on the image for a closer look!
There are three main functionalities of the AuthorIT
approach: Authoring, Managing and Publishing.
Authoring is characterized by an enterprise-strength
Microsoft SQL Server relational database as the single-source repository
for content,
which all of your
authors
and
contributors
use. You only need
to author content
once. Changes are applied right at the source,
reducing errors and unnecessary repetitions, minimize reviews,
and eliminate duplication by providing perfect reuse of already available
components. AuthorIT works fully object-oriented, applying the concepts
of sub-classing, inheritance, encapsulation, and object
reuse
to content authoring. This
allows you to control the behavior of thousands of similar chunks of
content in one place. A fast Full Text Search over the entire library
ensures that no information is lost. The use of templates ensures a
consistent
format and layout in all supported output formats and by the use
of variables and placeholders, content can easily be included later
or can be linked dynamically. Existing content can be imported
in a variety of formats such as:
All versions
of
Microsoft Word, HTML, various Help formats and Framemaker MIF (optional
separate import filter!). Finally, exportable and re-importable Offline
Libraries ensure a consistent
collaboration of many authors even if they are not working on the
central database (Figs. 1&2).
)
Fig. 3: Setting Permissions in AuthorIT
You may click on the image for a closer look!
AuthorIT's management functions allow
real collaborative authoring where authors and other contributors work
together as
a team.
All content is stored in a central relational database, which
is called a library. The Workgroup and Enterprise versions provide a multi-user
environment with dynamic
check-in
and
check-out,
security
control (permissions), standards control, version
control,
document
release control, and integrated project and task management (Fig.
3).
AuthorIT allows you to publish to
print, online Help and Web documents, even very large documents
(1000+ pages). Publish
into Seven Formats at the Click of a Button: Printed Documentation
(Word,
RTF, or PDF),
WinHelp,
Web and Browser based Help,
HTML 4.01 + CSS (W3C Validated),
XHTML 1.0 + CSS (W3C Validated),
Microsoft HTML Help,
Sun JavaHelp and Oracle Help for Java. AuthorIT allows viewing, editing,
emailing, importing ,and exporting of any object in the single-source
database as XML. Full XML Schema and XSLT are provided (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4: Publish to 7 Formats from the same AuthorIT Library
New in version 4.1 is the optional Localization
Manager module, which provides an integrated translation and
localization management, allowing localization of the source content
into any single
or double-byte language. It reduces or even eliminates repeated
translations by leveraging re-used content directly from the single-source.
Extraction
of the translatable content out of the target libraries and to the
individual translators is achieved using XML, enabling translators
to use
existing tools, and return it intact and unbroken. In a pilot study
with a large US corporate, a word count reduction of 31.5% for new
translations was found, resulting in direct saving of more than $US75,000
in external costs for
just 1 language. By designing this module, AuthorIT now has
the ability
to export and import all objects as XML,
which can be transferred by
custom XSLT's into any format of your choice (Fig. 5&6).
) |
) |
Fig.
5a: The
AuthorIT Localization Manager
You may click on the image for a closer look! |
Fig.
5b: XML-Export
Output for Translation
Please note the auto generated word count at the beginning of each string. You may click on the image for a closer look! |
Desktop: This edition is recommended for individuals who work alone. Support for local JET database. The Desktop Edition includes all features except variables, command line publishing, security control, version control, document release control, dynamic check-in check-out, and XML. It does not support the Project Manager, Offline Authoring, or Localization Manager modules. Documentation and Media can be purchased in addition to AuthorIT licenses, if required.- US$/€399.00.
Workgroup: This edition is recommended for teams of 2 up to 5 authors and contributors. Also available as a single license so that individual authors can have access to the additional features of Workgroup. Support for local JET database. Multi-user environment with security control, version control, document release control, and dynamic check-in and check-out. Supports Project and Task Manager and Offline Authoring modules. Does not support XML functions or the Localization Manager module. Licenses for AuthorIT Workgroup Edition must be purchased for each intended user. Documentation and media can be purchased in addition to AuthorIT licenses, if required. - US$/€599.00. Volume pricing available.
Enterprise:
This edition is recommended for teams of 5+ authors and contributors.
Support for SQL Server 7/2000/2003, MSDE, and local JET databases.
Multi-user environment with security control, version control, document
release control and
dynamic check-in and check-out, and XML. Supports the Project and
Task Manager, Offline Authoring and Localization Manager Modules. AuthorIT
Enterprise Edition licenses are available as Fixed
or Floating.
They are defined as follows:
Fixed: The license may be installed on one
computer and access any number of library databases. US$/€799.00,
Volume pricing available.
Floating: The license may be installed on any number of computers, but only one
concurrent connection to a library database is allowed per license. US$/€1,999.00,
Volume pricing available.
You may have any combination
of Fixed or Floating licenses to meet your requirements. Documentation and media
can be purchased in addition to
AuthorIT licenses, if required.
AuthorIT
MIF Import Filter. US$/€249.00
AuthorIT V1 Offline Authoring Module
- for more details refer to web site
AuthorIT V1 Project Manager
Module - for more details refer to web site
)
Fig. 6: Library Compare within the
Localization Manager Module of AuthorIT
You may click on the image for a closer look!
AuthorIT
was ready to use after a smooth and painless installation. A great
interactive Beginner's Tutorial, which will take you approx.
45
minutes, gently introduces
you to the unbelievably many functions of this Software. The generous
supply of great Manuals and User Guides in print as well as in HTML-Help
format always provide competent and well organized reference and documentation.
After
setting up your library using the Administrator, AuthorIT
offers an easy yet powerful Authoring Interface which
resembles a Word Processor for easier adaptation (Fig. 2). Within
this concise graphical interface, you can design text and media
building blocks in the twinkling of an eye and arrange
them by simple Drag & Drop. Even
within the largest projects you never lose track as you are accompanied
by an automated index creation and the generation of a table of content
as well as a media catalog. The building blocks of your new "Book" (see
Figs.1& 2) can be subject to any number of style and layout Templates
which can easily be modified thus changing consistently the looks of
your whole Book. The organization of your Book as well as its elements
can themselves be defined as new building blocks for later reuse in
other projects. Finally, elaborate search functionality point you even
in large libraries fast
and safe to any previously established block of content.
When you are done authoring, it is just a click of a button to create
an output in any of the seven currently supported formats or all of
them simultaneously (Fig. 4).
Workgroups and enterprises profit from AuthorIT's fantastic User
and Permission Management (Fig. 3) featuring real-time dynamic
check-in and check-out as well as Content and Task Management.
These are the foundations of
a real collaborative authoring system which works Online as well as
Offline. A minor shortcoming is the lack of an automated inheritance
or passing-over of permissions and release states to new libraries.
However, as most enterprises work with only one large library, this is
only a
topic
for
small workgroups. AuthorIT will all the same include such functionalities
in a later version to facilitate the administration of multiple libraries.
The
new Localization Manager (LM) is
bound to become a money spinner as it substantially reduces translation
investments Figs. 5&6).
Furthermore, it elegantly complements the advantages of AuthorIT's
single-sourcing approach and gives them an extra spin into the realm
of localization.
Apart from the localization of templates, formats and layouts,
AuthorIT is not required to localize the central database. I had the
chance to test the beta release of this new module. The release version
should be available by the time this article will be published.
After
a highly intuitive graphical setup
of
a
Translation Job, you can use
several
include and
exclude steps to ensure
that only
translatable
strings
are
selected. Each job is exported into one valid XML
file which includes an auto generated
initial word count for fast reference (see Fig.
5b). You can easily transfer these files by Email to your translators
right from within the LM. The files are compressed using an
internal ZIP procedure and passed to Microsoft Outlook. The current
lack of support of any MAPI Email-Client and the inclusion of some
strange glyphs into the body of the transmitted Emails is a first
minor drawback of the LM. The translator can use any translation Software
supporting
the
XML
format. Up
to now,
AuthorIT only offers a pre-arranged
Template-File for the TRADOS TagEditor but already announced the upcoming
support of SDLX and DejaVu and other translation memory tools at a
later time. Up to now, the re-import of the translated XML file is
done from
within
the directory of your localized library without a confirmation
dialog, which makes it very easy to re-import
the un translated
file if you forgot to overwrite the file in the directory of your
localized library with the file you received from your translator.
It is currently
also not possible to re import partial translations in more than one
step without creating a new translation job for each part. I am, however,
confident, that AuthorIT will fix and improve those small flaws and
any other users might find either before the official release or soon
after. AuthorIT established a active user group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/authorit-users which
will also deal with problems using the new LM module.
In conclusion, AuthorIT's new Localization Manager makes a good thing even better and increases the value of the Single-Sourcing advantages dramatically. In addition, AuthorIT will for sure become an interesting solution for companies, institutions and workgroups which are involved in localization and did not yet pay attention to Single-Sourcing and one of its best players.
System Requirements:
Windows 98, NT 4.0, 2000, or XP, or Windows Server
2003. Windows 2000 or XP recommended,
Pentium 500 processor or better.
64Mb RAM; 128 Mb or higher recommended. Standard VGA monitor;
SVGA recommended.
Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device. Microsoft Word
97 SR2, Word 2000, or Word XP, or Word 2003.
Company Information:
AuthorIT Software Corporation,
PO Box 300-273,
Albany, Auckland,
NEW ZEALAND; phone: +64 (9) 915 5070,
Fax: +64 (9) 915 5071;
Email: info@author-it.com , URL:
http://www.author-it.com
Alternatives:
AuthorIT does not have any direct competitors offering
the same amount of options. Only in the area of Help Documentation, there
are a few competitors.
- RoboHelp: http://www.ehelp.com/ Help from Word and FrameMaker
- WebWorks: http://www.webworks.com/ Based on Authoring in MS Word and FrameMaker. Output to XML, HTML and various Help Formats
- HyperText Studio: http://www.olsonsoft.com/ Source: WYSIWYG HTML Editor to HTML, Help, Print
- mif2go: http://www.omsys.com/ uses FrameMaker to produce print documentation, Web pages, XML, HTML Help, JavaHelp, WinHelp, and Word review copies on demand from the same source files.
- ComponentOne Doc-To-Help: http://www.componentone.com/ Help Authoring tool Microsoft Word - Output to printed documentation as well as various Help formats.
