Comparing easyDITA to Microsoft Word

When I was at the TSX, I spent quite a bit of time looking at DITA and trying to figure out if it made sense to make a real push for implementing it. Given that I was mostly a lone writer for my time there, I finally decided that it wasn't going to work for us, mostly due the support that I'd need in setting up a DITA toolchain. However, since then the tools have gotten smarter and easier to use and cheaper and it's now possible for a small team, or even a lone writer, to implement DITA without much third-party or internal support.

TechWhirl has published an article in which they directly compare Microsoft Word, still one of the most common writing tools, to easyDITA, a cloud-based DITA solution. They set up a small project and compared the effort and the benefits running each tool in parallel. The results were interesting:

• Most organizations fail to fully utilize the functionality available within Word.
• Nonetheless, accomplishing many of the tasks of organizing content into reusable “units” is far easier in easyDITA, which can save the typical organization enormous amounts of time and resources down the line.
• easyDITA does require training or coaching support, specifically around the tasks of creating document maps and organizing content elements. Upfront investment in training and understanding structured authoring pays off over the long-term.
• Separating the organization/structuring of content from the process of creating it is much harder to do than most organizations realize, but a system such as easyDITA allows them to create the processes that match their needs.

The last point is, I think, especially important. When considering DITA, I analysed the information in my largest project, broke the topics down into the three basic information types (concept, task, and reference), and identified information that could be reused. My final judgement was that there wasn't enough content reuse to justify the effort of moving to DITA, but mapping my topics to the DITA information types helped me reorganize my deliverables into a more logical and user-friendly structure. Had I had access to easyDITA at the time, I might have been able to make it work.