10 Most Popular Tools for Technical Writing

I've used a variety of documentation tools in my career as a Technical Writer for about 10 years. The primary job responsibility of a technical writer is to get the content right.

The right tools for technical writing make a technical writer's life easier. Tooling is available for a variety of tasks, including authoring, publishing, screen capture, drawing, and image manipulation.

What is Technical Writing?

Let me start by asking a very basic question - what exactly is technical writing?

Let's understand the context before we talk about technical writing tools. Using easy-to-understand language, technical writing explains how to use a technology to a non-expert user.

Technical writing is simply technical communication - a way of conveying complex information in a straightforward way.

10 Most Popular Tools for Technical Writing

We will cover ten of the most popular tools for technical writing that every writer should use to create the most engaging content. Hope this blog adds value to aspiring technical writers and to those who wish to broaden their knowledge base.

This blog post will be divided based on the phases of documentation you can use the tools for technical writing:

• Publishing tools
• Authoring tools (on-premise and cloud)
• Screen capturing tools
• Photo editing tools
• Spell checking tools

Writing tools

microsoft document360

Technical writing tool Document360 comes with some cool and advanced features you won't find in most tools. This is a platform for creating self-service platforms that your customers can use to better understand technical aspects.

Technical writing with Document360 is not limited to user manuals or memos. You can write content forms such as product descriptions, white papers, business proposals, etc. In order to deliver the output that your customer wants, you need to choose the right technical writing tool. In the same way a great technical writer is important for a business, the right technical tool is equally important.

Document360 offers many editorial features. You can use either the Markdown editor or the HTML editor. It allows you to create categories, subcategories, group similar files together, and create a well-structured hierarchy of all your information. When you overwrite a content by mistake, you can roll back to the previous version with version history.

In addition to those features, you will also have access to analytics so that you can make your content even more engaging and effective. A number of features, such as enterprise SSO, auditing, and cloud-based architecture, are easily configured. Document management tools should have all the simple features without being overly complex. As a technical writer, you need to set review reminders, check your SEO, and collaborate with fellow editors.

A great feature is that your documentation can be integrated with your favorite apps, such as Google Docs, Slack, Zendesk, etc.

Adobe FrameMaker

Adobe FrameMaker may be a good fit for you if you are looking for single-source authoring (writing content and repurposing it).

Documents spanning over 200 pages are best suited for FrameMaker.

A 100% DITA-compliant XML framework can be used to generate structured documentation. It has a built-in Print a PDF option that makes it a DITA-friendly authoring tool.

Furthermore, templates can be defined and content can be drafted according to them. You can create automatic hyperlinks, a Table of Contents, a List of Figures, and a List of Tables with just a few clicks.

The downsides of FrameMaker include its price and steep learning curve.

RoboHelp

is an application that allows technical writers to publish online documentation. This tool was developed by Adobe Systems to help technical writers build and render help projects. RoboHelp is used by businesses to deliver online knowledge base articles and help content.

You can use RoboHelp to generate output in the following formats —

• HTML5 help format
  
• XML
• Printed documents
• Mobile App formats
• WebHelp formats
• eBook

It's easy to publish content with RobotHelp's user-friendly interface. In a HAT, users can create documentation for publishing content without any assistance.

A major drawback of RobotHelp (or any HAT, for that matter) is that it takes some time to adjust to the software. It is also difficult to share content when working with multiple users (for peer reviews) as the content is contained within the tool itself. Technical writers and small businesses cannot afford Adobe RoboHelp's latest version, which costs $1000.

Technical writing authoring tools

like Word

When it comes to writing content, Microsoft Word is the first thing a technical writer thinks of. A technical writer cannot function without Microsoft Word. The product offers a wide range of features in addition to its simple and elegant design.

Microsoft estimates that one in seven users uses Microsoft Word either for professional or personal purposes. According to statistics, 80% of students use Microsoft Word for individual work and 13% for group projects.

Here are some features that make Microsoft Word the best tool for content writers:

automatic spelling and grammar checks

These templates include brochures, flyers, technical white papers, troubleshooting guides, etc.

Tracks changes - helpful for editors and peer reviewers to review and suggest edits to content.

Do you want to replace a word in the entire document? You're going to need it.

There are different ways to save documents, including PDF, XPS, web pages, Rich Text Format (RTF), plain text, etc.

Documentation styles can be defined as well. You can define text and paragraph formats, create a Table of Contents, create tables, and more with this tool.

Notepad / Notepad++

is preinstalled on Windows. Simple text files can be used for files such as a ReadMe or a License Agreement.

Notepad can be used when rich formatting is not needed. Notepad is the better tool to use in a meeting/conference if you need to take quick notes.

"Tip: Use notepad when your focus is more towards writing than on formatting."

As well as supporting more languages, Notepad++ is a powerful text/source code editor. Furthermore, Notepad++ offers spell checking and find and replace functionality (a great feature if you need to replace multiple instances of a word in a long document).

Comparing Notepad++ to Notepad, Notepad++ scores more brownie points.

Google Docs

Users can collaborate on documents using Google Docs using Google Drive. It should be used when users want to curate content on a specific topic and collaborate. Nowadays, most businesses use this technology to increase their staff's efficiency and provide information on the cloud.

You won't have to worry about versioning issues with Google Docs. You will be able to see who is working on the document as users make changes to the content. Google Drive updates every few minutes. This means you always have the latest data in your Google Drive account.

In Google Docs, you have three options — Editing, Suggesting and Viewing. The document will not be tracked if you edit it directly in the editing mode. Tracking will be enabled by suggesting, and you will be able to suggest edits. Viewing mode allows you to read the document or print it.

Google Docs has a few disadvantages (despite being a popular free online word processor) - you must have internet connection to view/edit the documents. In one sense, this is an advantage, but on the other hand, it is a disadvantage.

Access to Google Drive (and Google Docs) is impossible without an internet connection. In the absence of an internet connection, the documents you are working on will not be accessible. As well as lacking a wide range of formatting options, Google Docs lacks the flexibility of traditional word processing software.

Markdown Editor

Markdown has gained a lot of attention in the recent years. Originally developed to replace HTML, Markdown gained a lot of attention in recent years. Using plain text writing, people could easily create web pages without much knowledge of HTML. Markdown also became popular for taking notes, keeping to-do lists, etc. as the tool grew in popularity.

The format is simple and familiar to most users. There are no extra words or syntax used for a specific operation. For example, bold is **bold**, heading 1 is # Heading 1, [link] (URL) for hyperlinking. This is very simple when compared to HTML syntax such as 

To get started with Markdown, you don't need any special WYSIWYG editors. Markdown syntax can be used in any plain text editor (even notepad). There are many markdown editors to choose from. Additionally, you can use Dingus - the browser version of Gruber's Markdown editor.

Screen Capture tools

It's very common to add screenshots of an application or a product if you're a technical writer or a blogger. To take screenshots, there are many tools available. 

The screenshot represents your product or application. When people land on your website/blog post, they will see that first. Having screenshots of the application in your documentation is also crucial to decision-making. Therefore, it is important to get the perfect screenshot in the right screen resolution setting.

The screenshot must also be carefully chosen. The screenshot should not contain things like names or email addresses. Thus, it is imperative that your screen capture tools allow you to make changes to the images.

In the following sections, you will learn about the common screen capture tools for technical writing that you can use to capture screenshots.

Snipping Tool

If you are familiar with the Windows operating system, you may know of the “Snipping Tool”. With this tool, you can grab a screenshot of the entire screen, just the window or just a portion of it.

Using the pen tool, you can highlight the highlighted text to make it more visible after snipping the content. The image can be saved in a variety of formats, such as PNG, JPEG, GIF, or Single File HTML (MHT). You can also directly send the snippet as an attachment to an email address.

TechSmith SnagIt

TechSmith's SnagIt is a simple and powerful screen capture software for marketers and technical writers. Windows and Mac OS users can use SnagIt to capture their screens and save them in .PNG or .JPG formats, or share them with other outputs like File, FTP, Screencast, Camtasia Studio, and more.

A specific scrolling area (horizontal, vertical, entire scroll area) can be captured with SnagIt. You can also record videos using SnagIt. Using this feature, you can record screen actions. SnagIt supports a feature called Panoramic capture, which is similar to scrolling capture. The main difference is that you can select how much of the screen you want to capture.

Also, you can use the paint tool to add arrows, text boxes, callouts, blur out text, or add borders to your images. Multiple screenshots can also be combined into one.

With SnagIt, you can purchase a one-time license ($50) and get your money back within 30 days. There are different pricing options like Personal, Professional, Education, and Government, and it is a tool that cannot be missed by a technical writer. It is free for 15 days!

FireShot

Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Opera all support FireShot as a browser plugin. By using this tool, you can capture a page or select an area of the browser.

You can perform quick edits after taking the screenshot, such as cropping, resizing, and adding annotations. Images and PDFs can be saved as screenshots.

This is how the plugin will appear on Chrome's address bar after it is added. A screenshot can be taken by clicking on the icon.

Upgrade to FireShot Pro for $60 if you need advanced editing tools and capturing techniques.

Image editing tools

allow authors to use royalty-free images in articles and blogs. Some of these images cannot be used as they are. They will need to be edited using screen capture tools. Knowledge of screen editing software will be required.

Access to your web design team will make your life a lot easier. In some cases, reaching out to the designer to request edits may not be possible. Using an image editing program is the solution in this case.

Photoshop works well here.

According to the Writers UA User Assistance Tool Survey, Photoshop is the fourth most popular tool among technical writers. Photoshop is useful for editing graphics and creating images from scratch. A technical writer should always be familiar with Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop lets you design web pages, create banner ads for social media, edit images, merge multiple images into one, and apply special effects to photos.

Photoshop requires a lot of learning. Technical writers can also use GIMP as an alternative, but GIMP has its own learning curve.

There are also spell checking tools available.

Technical writers and bloggers know how important spelling and grammar are to their content. The hardest part of writing an article is proofreading the content and ensuring it is error-free. This will increase the quality of your blog post or technical article.

Grammarly

is the writing assistant of choice for many technical and content writers. One of the most popular technical writing tools is this one. Grammarly is available as a free online text editor and as an extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Grammarly automatically highlights the errors and provides suggestions to improve or correct them. In order for Grammarly to stop flagging specific terms as errors in the future, you can add them to the dictionary.

It also has the capability of checking for plagiarism, which is an interesting feature of Grammarly. Its internal logic recognizes content that has been copied from the internet automatically.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, it is important to choose the right tools for technical writing as a technical writer. Writing technical documentation is the responsibility of technical writers across a wide range of industries.

Make sure you read the features offered by any tool for technical writing before getting started. This will help you make the right choice.

It is important to choose the right tools for technical writing so that you can develop content that will interest your customers.

Would you use any of these tools if you were a technical writer reading this blog post? How would you rate the products?

Feel free to share your comments. If there are better alternatives to the products suggested, please recommend the products so that it will benefit our readers.