Author-It Reviews & Product Details

Author-it makes it super easy to leverage our large collection of existing content when creating new content. We can use mature, thoroughly vetted content in new publications to reduce time spent on reviews. The modular nature of the content makes it easy to reuse. Support has been awesome over the last 20 years -- it makes it easy to be a loyal customer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It can be complex to use, which is fine for technically minded employees, but for some it is intimidating. Trying to teach others to use it has mixed results based on the technical acuity of the person being taught. Some of the writers are not comfortable using AIT's more advanced features and resort to practices that defeat the usefulness of the software's reuse features (example: duplicating whole books using bookbuilder because they are afraid they will mess up someone else's work). Another thing is the proprietary nature of the XML output. We often need to provide our software teams with output to integrate into the software, and they often find the XML output overwhelming/messy. It would be nice to have simplified XML output that includes only the tags for values that are populated, instead of a regurgitation of every single attribute that could be specified in the XML. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Author-it provides an enterprise technical documentation in a cost-effective package. Its database-driven architecture supports backups, version control, and topic-based authoring, making it easy to reuse content across multiple deliverables. It also delivers many of the benefits of DITA without requiring writers to work with XML code, though users can do so if they so choose, which is a plus for teams that prefer a familiar WYSIWYG writing experience. Its cloud-based feature ensures that updates are easy to manage, and new features are added regularly, helping the platform evolve and improve consistently. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The application can be challenging when tables become more sophisticated or complex. Network issues can also be problematic (though it’s not always Author-it’s fault). If you choose to customize the application—which is an option—that can sometimes create unforeseen challenges as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I appreciate Author-it Cloud because it is a one-stop-shop with all the required tools integrated. I also appreciate how simple Author-It is to use, making training very quick. I've been using it for twenty-one years, and I love its capability. The authoring tool is great, and I like the new web interface because it's quicker for logging in and you can publish from there. I love that we can write once and publish to 30 brands, translating once to publish across those brands. The JSON output for integrating with Microsoft 365 Copilot is something I'm loving as it helps with better reuse of instruction manuals. I also love Author-it Xtend, which is kind of like a translation memory for the English, which is strong at reusing content at the fragment level, reducing translation costs. And reusing at the topic level is as simple as drag-and-drop. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I feel like the review tool have been too sluggish to update and it's proved almost impossible to work it into our processes. Our engineers have all reverted to PDF reviews with all the collation problems and multiple drafts that causes. This is a great shame because the initial approach is a good one, but it needed redeveloping in a modern toolset. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Reuse of content, expandable content ("expanding blocks"), Quick Search. The support and information policy has massively improved over the last 3 to 5 years. I greatly appreciate the release information and the quick response time and truly helpful tips from the support team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Managing metadata through variants is extremely unwieldy and laborious. Keeping track of the variants and quickly seeing how they interact is really difficult. Tables are regularly a problem: their behavior in Author-it itself (e.g., the undo function sometimes doesn't work, or I can't change the column width for the entire column if there's an embedded topic in a row) and when outputting to Word is challenging. The search function within Author-it could be significantly improved: I regularly miss an exclusion function, so I can search for topics that appear everywhere except in book xy, or for topics with a certain status, except in the Arabic language. When working within topics, it would be practical if there were keyboard shortcuts, e.g., for embedding topics or inserting tables or "File Object" topics. In Author-it Xtend, it would be practical if not only the match rate was displayed but also the release status of the suggested topic or whether only a sentence or the entire topic is suggested. So far, it's pure guesswork what quality is inserted until the moment of insertion. It would be nice if the integration of other sources were easier. Example: We localize our software products with Passolo. It would be incredibly practical if we had the option to store these UI texts, e.g., via their ID in the topics, so that they always have the current translation in every language when published. (I do this, for example, with screenshots in InDesign using the mail merge function, by exporting from Passolo with all languages as a TXT file and then only storing the ID in InDesign, and in every language, the current text automatically appears.) It's also a shame that embedded topics can't simply be created "format-free" (so they then take on the surrounding format only at their place of use). For example, we have a different font size for body text and tables for Word output; with the current logic, some topics have to be created once for body text and once for tables for embedding. It would be practical if there were a "pre-XML export" that could be used to estimate translation costs (mark topics and save as XML doesn't have the same effect -> embedded topics). Example: In Localize, it is specified that only base topics with the release status "Released" are exported, and the exported topics then automatically have the status "In Translation". If I just want to estimate how many words need to be translated, I have to release the German topics, export them - and then cancel the export. Because only by canceling are newly created language variant topics deleted again. So I have to rely on the fact that canceling a translation order in Localize works perfectly. Alternatively, I could specify in Localize that topics with a different status are also exported. This would solve the problem that I first have to release all topics, but at the same time creates the new problem that I must not forget to reset the setting in Localize. And it still doesn't solve the problem that I have to cancel the order so that the export works later. A different approach would be better. It would be conceivable, for example, to create different export profiles in Localize. One for the correct export when the topics actually go for translation and one for the case that you just want to see how much text needs to be translated. For the second case, nothing should happen in Author-it, i.e., non-existent language variant topics would still not exist, the language variant topics marked as "require re-translation" would still have this flag. In general, it would sometimes be practical to be able to translate individual topics, not always entire books. It would also be practical if you could create multiple language variants at once in Author-it itself and not just one after the other. For graphics, it would be nice if you could automatically link the numbering in the image with a legend; we currently "solve" this by having numbering in the graphic and then a table below it, where the first column is always the number of the graphic. This is more error-prone and also has the disadvantage that we have numerous pure number segments when translating. Even a function that a column contains automatic numbering would help a lot (and also in other use cases, e.g., tabularly prepared action steps) (in Confluence, the function is called "numbered rows"). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Smart user interface, solid translation management with everything kept in one database, and XML-based documents. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The new login procedure is too long and cumbersome, with hectic screens. Small features that are supposed to make your life easier, such as the thumbnail in the toolbar, are not fully working and were never fixed by Author-it assistance. Management of tables can be improved. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Automated workflows noticeably ease the workday. The user-specific output using ProCSS is very helpful in this regard. The translation tool based on XML also makes collaboration with external offices particularly easy. In case of questions or problems, the first-class and fast support is also convincing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Some work processes are cumbersome. Connection interruptions or non-functioning server features (e.g., insert images) sometimes make usage cumbersome and more time-consuming than it should be. However, what bothers me the most is that I am constantly "logged out" of the app when I have been in an external image editing program for a bit longer and then want to switch back to the program. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I'm not sure what I really like about it. I'm really just comparing my past experience with MadCap Flare and it is the support via AuthorIt when you have an issue that helps as that has been quick and helpful at times. AuthorIt is also easier to use and understand. I'm OK with the usability and organization of topics but there are a lot of buggy things that drive us nuts, so I am hoping I can share some of that here. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

-Table work is finicky. There's nothing worse than clicking on a row and the damn thing jumps to another area far away on the page when you are ready to enter something (happens every time, this is not an occasional glitch). Sometimes table rows can magically morph into some other rendition of what a row is, too and you have to then remove it and re-add and hope there's not some invisible formatting left behind forcing you to start over.

-Accidently moving a topic--there needs to be a confirmation dialog for moving a topic around as it is alarmingly easy to accidently do without knowing and finding out a year later that your "Before you begin" topic is a 1/4 way into the doc.

-The cursor is never where you click. We have all learned and adjusted to click slightly to the left of right of where we actually want to be. Seems like something that could be fixed easily and probably should have been fixed a long, long, time ago (but if you fix it now you'll probably throw us all off; Insert sarcasm :) ).

-I don't like when Amazon times you out. Seems to happen often or too quick and when it prompts you for the landing page address for your application to re-open, it never works so you are forced to visit the A-It page again and re-login (and it is far from being a single sign on as I have to copy and paste the PW two times as well as enter my email two times.

-I do like that you can switch to a simulated desktop mode in the Amazon remote server.

-If you remain in the Amazon remote window and try to open two or three screens, it always selects you main desktop as display #1 and makes it so you can no longer see your tool bar to select applications like Teams and whatnot.

-Lag, esp. on Friday afternoons used to be a problem as it was like we suddenly decided to turn off or update servers. I'm not sure if that will be a problem now, although I know from past experience Amazon Cloud is far from 99% availability :) . They will leave you hanging occasionally.

-If I replace a display screenshot in a doc, the original may have been taken years ago, so sometimes it is hard for me to size it the same to match the others in that area. We have templates set up to resize in 5-10& increments, but I'd like the option to manually set the size in 1% increments if possible (or maybe it is there but I haven't discovered it yet).

-Sometimes bullets get stuck in editorial style (red) and it is hard to add a new bullet without it going red if two style happened to touch. I'd like a way to "Clear" formatting--for real--similar to what you can do in MS Word. This will undoubtedly help in other areas, too.

-Find and replace doesn't find everything. In fact, it is very unreliable and I often find things I had hoped I corrected in large docs. One cannot trust it.

-I hate when you copy a couple words or a sentence on one line and try to move it up before another line and when you paste it--it all turns green in a different style, then I have to reselect the style again (PITA). It also happens a lot if I back space to join words that jumped onto a new line because of copy/paste or otherwise, and you backspace to join them and everything goes bright green (happens in tables a lot, too).

-Thanks, I hope you will work on these things. It's not all bad, really but these are the main things that drive me. Like I said, I will take this over MadCap any day and I've been outspoken about that due to the quality of service / help available--so keep that up and please use real people--if I have to talk to a bot to get help I am going to snap.

-Author-It aside, I really don't like how this G2 survey company tries to capture you voice data as part of two of three options to complete the survey; it is an obvious and intrusive data grab. Also prompting you to use google or LinkedIn is intrusive and I've recently seen a lot of sites and services suddenly adopt google as a way to login--more intrusive data tracking; I don't agree with it and it is alarming. 1984! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like how I can reuse books, topics, and parts of topics to create online knowledge bases for different audiences. It's also incredibly helpful that hyperlinks are objects so it's easy to identify the impact of removing a target topic. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Because it's very powerful, it does require a degree of understanding and skill that some people find a barrier. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sharing embedded content saves me hours, especially when the UI changes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I wish the variables were easier to search, and that the app remembered my search term within a given session. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Author-it provides the basic structured documentation tools. It is quite easy to use if the system works as intended. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The software/cloud service is fairly unstable and often responds slowly. After updates, there have been many annoying bugs; the support team is trying to resolve them, but it takes a long time to get solutions, and the waiting is very time-consuming. In my opinion, the author should focus more on reliability. The release info basically highlights a few AI-related things, while the core functionality feels left behind. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.