Managing content is an important concern for organizations that are invested in technical writing. Sometimes, you will have to create this content down to the granular level so components can be reused across different mediums and you can minimize rework.
You will be able to produce content at scale with a component content management system (CCMS) like Paligo. Large teams will be able to collaborate on content and keep track of everything they have created in one system.
Technical writers in particular know the value of a comprehensive tool like Paligo, but they will also want to consider alternatives like Document360. Document360 offers a lot of power for a fraction of the price and can also accommodate large teams.
What is CCMS?
Instead of treating content as documents, a CCMS manages the content on an individual component level. In the CCMS, components are reused across all sorts of platforms so you only need to update in one place and the change will be reflected in all the places where you use that component.
A CCMS offers all sorts of advantages for teams that want to produce content at scale, and also want to future-proof their content. It gives you more control over your content than producing it with a traditional CMS that doesn’t manage content on a component level.
Paligo is an example of a CCMS. It can be used to create all manner of technical documentation to serve your users with single sourcing to enable smart content reuse. With Paligo, you write content once and reuse it anywhere. Paligo is for technical writers and other authors to follow topic-based authoring instead of traditional content authoring.
Paligo offers structured authoring with the ability to create your content in XML. This gives you the power to add all sorts of metadata to your content which makes finding and reusing your content much easier. You can use Paligo to publish your content to all sorts of different channels including HTML5, PDF, and SCORM.
It’s possible to revert back to previous versions of your content so you never lose your work and makes collaborating with other authors much simpler. You can create branches of your content so you can play around with different options while developing the final version.
Paligo offers a wide range of functionalities like,
Content Reuse
First and foremost, Paligo is a platform for content reuse. You create once, and reuse it across many different platforms, saving you time and effort. Content is created in components which means they exist in a modular system and you can select the component you require at any time.
Authoring
Paligo allows you to create content with its Component Content Management System (CCMS). It’s designed to allow authors to create technical content that will assist its users, using a full-featured authoring system to finalize the end result. In Paligo, multiple authors can create content and save their changes to the same system.
Versioning
In Paligo, there will come times when you want to revert back to particular versions of your documentation. This is all possible in Paligo, which has robust version control to allow you to keep track of any changes made. It gives you the functionality of a tool like Git without the complexity.
Localization
Translate your content into different languages without the need to create separate files, with translation capabilities built directly into Paligo. This means your documentation can be targeted to separate audiences based on the language of their choice.
Feedback and Review
Teammates can contribute easily in a user-friendly editor that has been designed with collaboration in mind. You can assign your content a stage in the life cycle so you always stay up-to-date on the status of your content.
Import and Export
It’s easy to import and export Paligo content, with the ability to import from tools like MadCap Flare and Microsoft Word.
Integrations and APIs
Use Paligo’s REST API to set up your integrations or use one of Paligo’s native integrations with tools such as Zendesk or Salesforce. Paligo works well with other tools to help you streamline your processes and avoid switching between apps.
User Feedback on Paligo
“Paligo works out of the box, so you start creating content at once. Document restructuring is straightforward, and you won’t break your links when you do. Paligo is backed by exceptional customer support.”
Source: G2
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Paligo alternatives to consider
Document360
With Document360, you can build AI-powered knowledge bases that deliver instant help to your customers and support agents. You can not only create, but also manage and store a private, public, or mixed knowledge base as per your business needs on a central platform.
With an advanced WYSIWYG editor and the Markdown editor, Document360 is ideal for both technical and non-technical users, giving them the flexibility to work with ease.
Its AI writing agent, Eddy, works as your intelligent co-author, combining your internal knowledge base with trusted Internet sources to deliver accurate, timely drafts. With just a prompt, Eddyscans your published docs, training guides, and relevant web resources to synthesize information.
It then applies your style guide and chosen content template, generating a structured, editor-ready draft. You write your own prompt, and the bigger and more specific your prompt, the better the output.
You can allow readers to follow articles, page categories, or entire categories in the public knowledge base and receive email notifications when content is updated. You can also unpublish articles, allowing temporary recall from the knowledge base site while keeping them accessible in the portal.
The AI assistant also allows you to translate your knowledge base into 30+ languages and define the default language. The AI tab takes knowledge base search to the next level by displaying results based on overall relevance across articles, categories, and API documentation.
In Document360, it’s possible to localize your content so it appeals to different audiences. You can also integrate with many top tools, including Olark and Microsoft Teams, expanding the capabilities of your knowledge base.
User’s Opinion on Document360
“Document360 – A Single Pane Of Glass for technical writers”
With Document360, I can do everything (writing, collaborative review, publishing, hosting, and so on) I need to publish my user docs; I don’t have to go for any other tools.
- Easy to use. From day one, you can start using it.
- They let you design and create a documentation landing page with zero or negligible code.
- Their support team is very supportive.
- You can use both HTML and Markdown.
- You can have both a knowledge base and a knowledge assistant.
- The search engine feature is really cool.
- It comes with very useful and powerful analytics.
Source: G2 Crowd
Interested in Document360 Knowledge base? Schedule a demo with one of our experts
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Herretto
Heretto is another Component Content Management System (CCMS) for technical authors who want to create personalized structured content at scale. Heretto is mostly aimed at creating self-service content for customers to help them troubleshoot their own problems.
Heretto boasts that it can assist you in managing millions of pages, making it a good choice for enterprise content teams. You can use Heretto’s API to deploy your content in any environment and achieve content-as-service. Heretto makes it easy to create conditional content in your customer service portal as a way of personalizing the experience for the customer.
User’s opinion on Herretto
“A powerful content authoring and publishing operations platform”
Heretto is an accessible yet robust and scalable platform for DITA-based component content authoring and publishing. Heretto makes content authoring and team collaboration easy. Heretto’s powerful features can enable growing authoring teams and enterprise-level content organizations to effectively create and manage multiple versioned publications, reuse content, and ultimately single-source content to publish to various customer touchpoints and formats. Also, the Heretto support team is responsive and top-notch.
Source: G2 crowd
Author-it
Author-it is another Component Content Management System (CCMS) that is aimed at the Life Sciences, eLearning, and technical authoring fields. It’s a single source of truth that enables you to author, manage, review, reuse, and publish your content in a number of different formats. It works for both documentation and eLearning courses so you have a choice regarding how to deliver content to your users. You can import your content from tools like Word and have it automatically broken down into components. Author-it provides thorough document review capabilities, removing the need to make changes through email.
User’s Opinion on Author-it
Author-it is a mature component content management system. I’ve been using it now for 15 years. It is stable, and I rarely have any problems with it. It looks after all my content without me having to worry. I’m able to efficiently manage content, create content and generate it when I need it.
They have recently released “Magellan” a fully responsive HTML5 output that ticks all the boxes if you want a modern-looking responsive help system. It is easy to put together, and I found it relatively easy to style my company’s brand. It does require some CSS skills but not many.
Source: G2 Crowd
Madcap Flare
Madcap Flare is a very popular Help Authoring Tool that allows organizations to create their own help documentation across a variety of formats. Flare offers collaboration tools, publishing processes, and single sourcing. It has a huge breadth and depth of features that support the creation of enterprise content, as well as importing from legacy systems and exporting to the platform of your choice. Flare does require fairly detailed knowledge of tools such as CSS to enable you to format your content, but if you have the resources then Flare is a solid option.
User’s Opinion on Madcap Flare
“MadCap Flare is a comprehensive tool for creating technical documentation and training.”
MadCap Flare’s ever-growing feature set allows technical communicators to create a range of outputs, from online help to support sites to manuals to training courses. The application includes a library of templates for new users and features like pre- and post-build event commands, third-party plugin support, and macro recording capabilities for more experienced users who need to customize outputs for their organizations and automate frequent tasks. MadCap provides excellent customer support and implementation services. The company has created a broad user community around its software, including an annual conference, a Slack channel, a LinkedIn group, and local user groups.
Source: G2 Crowd
Kontent.ai
Kontent.ai is a headless CMS that enables you to create content aimed at customers, from marketing materials to knowledge bases. It gives you ultimate control over the content you produce, bringing it all together in one easy-to-use platform. As a headless CMS, it is a back-end-only content management system that divorces the content from the end presentation and is exported in the final stage using an API. This means you can publish the same content stored in Kontent.ai to multiple endpoints.
User’s opinion on Kontent.ai
“Kentico Kontent changing the Headless CMS Game”
Kontent.ai works with so many different tech stacks from .NET, React, Angular, PHP, Android, etc. The Developer documentation is robust and getting started with the solution is very easy. My experience with the AE working with our company was phenomenal as he was incredibly responsive in helping get all our questions resolved. Additionally, the ability to utilize the developer mode for free during evaluation allowed us to create a solid POC before moving forward.
Source: G2 Crowd
Xyleme
Xyleme is an enterprise content management system that allows you to author, manage and deliver content at scale. It’s focused on helping you create omnichannel content experiences for customers anywhere in the world. You can save money on translation costs using Xyleme’s in-built translation capabilities, and speed up your time to market using the platform’s streamlined workflows. Xyleme uses data and analytics to help you understand the effectiveness of your content.
User’s opinion on Xyleme
“Xyleme centralized and standardized our content development”
- As a single repository for all of our training content (in development and post-production), Xyleme has made sharing, reusing, updating, and archiving content much simpler.
- Publishing a single content piece to multiple output profiles gives us reuse in a way we’ve never had in the past, and also takes much less time than developing each output type individually.
- Procedure building is greatly improved (for writing labs) especially the ability to easily drop rich text fields between steps, and the ability to re-order steps which we couldn’t do two years ago.
- Updating existing (previously published) materials, especially in the eLearning space, is drastically easier than it used to be. (For eLearning, no update to the LMS learning object(s) is required – a huge plus.)
Source: G2 Crowd
Also Read: Top 6 Mintlify Alternatives
Conclusion
If you are looking for a cloud-based alternative to Paligo, you can consider Document360.
Many teams use it to set up sophisticated content publishing workflows that result in high-quality and accessible content for their users.
Document360 is powered by AI and is easy to learn. It is designed to facilitate powerful content collaboration. It keeps your authors productive and ensures that they can produce quality articles. You can also manage multiple knowledge bases for your users and offer different content experiences depending on your audience.