Why Structured Technical Authoring Software And Content Governance Are A Dream Team

What’s technical authoring?

Technical authoring involves creating clear and concise content for complex topics. It includes various document types aimed at different audiences. Examples include software documentation, user manuals, and technical reports. 

Technical writers use their skills to turn complex technical ideas into easy to understand content. They research, organize, and format information carefully. Their main goal is to meet the audience’s needs while keeping everything consistent and compliant.

What’s content governance and why is it so important for technical writing?

Content governance refers to the policies, guidelines, and workflows that make technical documentation accurate, consistent, and compliant with industry standards. Effective content governance helps maintain version control, enforce terminology consistency, and align content with regulatory requirements.

For example, a global healthcare company producing medical device manuals must make sure that all documentation complies with FDA regulations and ISO standards. Without proper content governance, inconsistencies or outdated information leads to regulatory fines or misinterpretation of crucial instructions. 

Implementing a content governance strategy with tools like Acrolinx allows organizations to digitize their style guides, automate compliance checks, and maintain documentation quality across all outputs.

What’s structured content?

Structured content is all about organizing information so it’s easy to reuse, adapt, and search. Unlike traditional content, which often gets stuck in silos, structured documentation takes a modular approach. This method lets technical writers create documents that work across different formats, like web pages, PDFs, and online resources. This approach improves and maintains consistency across various tools for technical writing and simplifies version control and knowledge management.

Also, structured content standards like DITA help writers to keep their technical information well-structured, clear, and uniform. These standards provide mark-up for specific information types like procedures, warnings, or even hazard statements. They standardize content structure and improve findability within your technical writing environment.

What’s technical documentation software?

Technical documentation software provides technical writers with the advanced tools needed to streamline the technical writing process. These technical writing tools help create, manage, and publish structured content while making it compliant with industry standards. From Microsoft Word and Google Docs to advanced technical writing software like XML-based content management systems: These tools support collaborative workflows, automated checking, and integration capabilities with various project management tools.

Benefits of using technical documentation software in the enterprise

Improved clarity and readability for better understanding

One of the primary advantages of technical documentation software is its ability to improve content clarity and readability. By enforcing consistent terminology, structure, and style, these tools help technical writers create documentation that’s easier to understand. This helps users quickly grasp complex concepts and apply the information effectively, reducing misunderstandings, decreasing risk, and improving customer satisfaction.

Focus on consistency and compliance benefits

One of the fundamental benefits of using tools for technical writing is improved consistency in technical writing. With automated grammar and spelling checks, terminology management, and structured authoring, enterprises can maintain high-quality content while complying with industry regulations. Many industries, such as finance and healthcare, rely on structured documentation to meet compliance requirements and deliver clear, accurate, and accessible content.

Streamlining collaboration with tools for technical writing

Technical documentation software facilitates collaboration among multiple users. Many modern documentation tools designed for enterprises support live editing, version history tracking, and collaborative workflows. This allows technical writers from different teams to contribute efficiently without overwriting previous versions. Integration with project management tools improves team collaboration and documentation processes.

Improving efficiency with automation

Automation features in technical documentation software significantly reduce the time required for content creation, editing, and review. Automated workflows, content reuse, and AI-powered content suggestions help technical writers produce high-quality documentation faster. By eliminating repetitive tasks, teams can focus on improving the overall documentation process and user experience.

Challenges in adopting tools for technical writing

Even though there are many advantages, adopting technical writing software is challenging. Training teams to effectively use new technical writing tools requires significant time and resources. You may rely on familiar software like Microsoft Word and Google Docs, making the transition to specialized technical writing software a steep learning curve. 

A critical factor that you can’t overlook? Making sure that the new documentation tool designed for structured authoring integrates with existing project management tools and version control systems.

Also, managing multiple documents across various formats while maintaining structured documentation is complex. You must make sure your chosen technical writing toolkit supports multiple output formats, enabling you to create documentation efficiently across web pages, PDFs, and online documentation portals. Without proper integration capabilities, your teams will struggle with maintaining version history and tracking previous versions of technical documents.

Content governance is another major challenge. Enterprise documentation processes must include grammar and spelling checks, and terminology management. Also, enterprises must ensure compliance with regulatory standards. Poorly managed technical communication leads to inconsistencies — reducing clarity in user manuals and API documentation.

In addition, organizations handling complex documentation need collaboration features that allow multiple users to contribute without overriding each other’s work. Without seamless collaboration, technical writers working in different locations will face difficulties aligning content creation with business objectives.

Tips for selecting the right technical writing tools

Selecting the right technical writing software is crucial for maintaining efficiency, compliance, and collaboration in technical writing. With many tools available, you must evaluate your specific needs, such as structured authoring, content governance, and version control. The following tips help you choose a solution that aligns with your documentation processes and business objectives.

Which capabilities you need to consider in tools for technical writing

1. Make sure it supports structured authoring

Structured authoring is essential for enterprises dealing with complex documentation. Look for a documentation tool designed to support structured documentation and multiple output formats. This fosters efficient content reuse and adaptability across different publishing platforms. Tools like MadCap Flare and Oxygen XML Editor excel in structured authoring and content management.

2. Make content governance a top priority

Content governance is crucial for maintaining compliance, consistency, and quality content. The right technical writing software should include advanced features like version control systems, integration capabilities with comprehensive API documentation tools, and automated checking for compliance and clarity. Software like Acrolinx offers content governance features that improve consistency across multiple documents and formats.

3. Watch out for automated content quality checking

Automated checking helps technical writers improve efficiency by identifying errors in real-time. Advanced technical writing tools provide grammar and spelling checks, terminology enforcement, and automated content scoring, ensuring high-quality, user-friendly documentation. Tools like Acrolinx integrate with various authoring platforms to provide immediate Content Analysis and improvements.

4. Focus on integration with existing tools

When selecting technical documentation software, it’s vital to choose a tool that integrates well with your existing software stack. This allows technical writers to streamline their documentation processes across tools.

5. Choose a tool with strong version control features

Version control is essential for managing documentation updates and making sure that previous versions are accessible when needed. Tools like Git-based documentation systems, such as GitBook and Adobe Experience Manager, provide advanced version control systems that allow technical writers to track changes, maintain document history, and collaborate effectively on large-scale documentation projects.

Top technical authoring tools available and what they offer

Tool for technical writing	Supports structured content	Offers content governance	Offers automated content quality checking	Integrates with other tools	Offers version control
MadCap Flare	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Oxygen XML Editor	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Acrolinx	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
GitBook	Yes (import of HTML or Markdown content)	No	No	Yes	Yes
Adobe Experience Manager	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes

Our recommended approach: Integrate content governance software into document creation

Looking at our comparison table, the most important take-away is that no technical writing tool offers all of the capabilities. This is why it’s crucial to find the tool that’s covering your top priorities and use it with other tools. As we’ve lined out at the beginning of this blog, content governance is crucial for technical writing.

Writing structured content in an environment that offers versioning and content workflows is a great start for clear documentation. Integrate software like Acrolinx into such an environment, and you cover all essential features you need for publishing clear and helpful written documentation.

Acrolinx: Technical writing software for complex enterprise documentation

Acrolinx is designed for enterprises that need a comprehensive solution for content governance and optimization. With features like AI-powered content checking, version control, and integration with popular authoring environments like Microsoft Word and Google Docs, Acrolinx helps technical writers improve the quality and consistency of their content. Whether creating user manuals, API documentation, or software documentation, Acrolinx helps enterprises produce high-quality, compliant, and user-friendly content.

By using structured content and technical writing software, enterprises improve their technical writing process across the content supply chain. The result? Documentation that meets the highest industry standards.Ready to learn more? Save your seat in our biweekly product webinar and get to know Acrolinx!