Documentation Center

Authoring

In Tridion Docs you can author content using either the WYSIWYG web-based client, or the Authoring Bridge solution that seamlessly integrates with your XML authoring tool of choice. Conditional text and variables help you craft modular and reusable content.

Authoring Bridge
Authors can install the Authoring Bridge to allow direct access to the Repository from within their XML authoring environment. The benefit is that authors can work exclusively in their familiar authoring tool without launching an external application or browser to perform their writing or editing tasks. Authors can focus on content creation and editing without worrying about metadata structures, link management or file validation. The Authoring Bridge is available for JustSystems XMetaL and Syncro Soft <oXygen/>. Alternatively, all content in the Repository can be accessed directly through a web browser. Users can download the content from any location and open it in any XML authoring tool.
Online authoring
Tridion Docs offers also a web-based WYSIWYG XML editor with a user-friendly interface. The online editor is DITA-aware, and it seamlessly integrates with the content management and content delivery components. It keeps DITA complexity under the hood, and it is therefore suitable also for quick on-the-fly edits by SMEs (Subject Matter Experts).
All content in the Repository can be accessed directly through Organize Space, then opened and edited in Draft Space.
Creation of single-source, universal topics
Content Manager provides an easy to use yet sophisticated mechanism for defining, managing, applying and resolving conditions and variables within XML content. This allows authors to maximize content reuse while still allowing for content uniqueness.
Work offline
All objects are stored in the Repository. The Authoring Bridge makes downloading and uploading objects between the Repository and the authoring environment easy. To allow users to work offline from the Repository, the Authoring Bridge leverages the authoring tool's utilization of local storage. Users can make objects available on their local file system, edit them on their local workstation and upload them back after connecting to the Repository.
International collaboration
Authenticated users can access the system through the web or web services from anywhere in the world.
Editing and commenting
The web-based WYSIWYG XML editor has the familiar look and feel of a standard word processor. SMEs and product managers can review and edit content on-the-fly; no DITA knowledge is required. Users can leave and reply to comments, for example to suggest changes and improvements.
Search
Content Manager supports two ways to locate content: search and navigation. Authors can search for content using metadata and/or full text search. Users can navigate to content using different views that are available.
Taxonomies
Content Manager supports the use of taxonomies that dramatically extends navigation capabilities.
Reporting capabilities
Elaborate reporting capabilities are available. Standard reports can give an overview of where a component is used and its change history. An author can get a quick overview of the status of a publication indicating which components are missing, which components need to be approved, which components need to be translated. A manager can obtain reports identifying the differences between two versions of a publication, including for example which topics were added and which topics were changed. All reports can be downloaded in Comma Separated Values (CSV) file format.
Link management
Content Manager guarantees document integrity. Content Manager never allows the removal of a topic or map that is being referenced by a topic or used in a map (table of contents). The same applies to other content objects such as images. This prevents broken links in your web sites or missing pages in your published output.
Custom metadata model
Content Manager allows setting up a specific metadata model tailored to suit your company and business requirements. This is achieved with simple configuration.
Security
Content Manager provides secure access to the repository and all its contents. Access rights are established and implemented at the user and/or group level by the system administrator. Access levels include read-only, read-write and delete.