If you want to make every segment of your business more efficient, productive, and advanced, you must begin using Help Authoring Tools now. These are complex software with features that are priceless to your company, the technical writers working for you, and finally your customers. To enjoy the maximum benefits of using these tools, go for a trusted product like Dr.Explain.
What Is a Help Authoring Tool?
An HAT or Help Authoring Tool helps produce, manage, publish, and edit technical documentation. You can use it to create help files, user manuals, troubleshooting guides, and more. HATs automate documentation using features like single-source authoring. It lets users publish the same content in multiple formats. Thanks to the user-friendly editor of these tools, you will not need to be a coding expert to use them for content creation.
Crucial Features of HATs
When choosing a HAT, you must ensure that it comes with the following features:
User-friendly Editor: Content creation includes writing and editing irrespective of the format, type, and use case of the content. Thus, for an HAT to be useful, it must feature an uncomplicated and easy-to-understand document editor. The editor must have enough shortcuts and options to allow developers, technical writers, and other experts to produce documentation of any type promptly and edit it seamlessly.
Import & Export: The help authoring tool must be able to import and export multiple file formats. The import feature is essential to let technical writers transfer files from one tool to another without converting them manually. Another great thing about automated conversion is that it helps preserve the original structure and formatting of the documents. As a result, when you have access to an HAT, you will never need to engage in document reformatting.
The tool’s export feature, on the other hand, appears to be beneficial when technical writers work with collaborators (contracted SMEs, freelance writers, etc.) or need to share content with clients. It allows writers to export documents to easily accessible formats like PDF and thereby ensures that clients and collaborators don’t face compatibility issues.
Access Control: When you use a Help Authoring Tool for technical documentation, you need to share a significant amount of proprietary and sensitive info with it. A trusted HAT will never allow any unauthorized access, and there will be zero chances of any unwanted deletion or modification.
Collaboration Options: You must note that software documentation requires the efforts of a group of contributors. As a result, collaboration options are must-haves for Help Authoring Tools. It enables asynchronous, real-time collaboration and communication between different stakeholders. The tool you use must have a chat feature, where team members can communicate with each other as they create documents.
Final Words
Dr.Explain has everything that you may look for in a HAT. It has each of the above features and more. You can buy a subscription to the tool for different durations (whatever your project demands). Additionally, there’s a free version of the software that is enough for smaller projects. You can use this free version as long as you want.
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