SmartDocs questions and answers.
This page contains many common questions and answers about SmartDocs.
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General Questions
What is SmartDocs?
SmartDocs is a plug-in for Microsoft Word that integrates a set of powerful content reuse capabilities into
Microsoft Word to make authoring in your organization more efficient and more reliable.
What types of authors and documents does SmartDocs support?
SmartDocs is built for writing teams that create and maintain repetitive documentation.
Below is a sample of the different writers and document types that SmartDocs can be used for:
- Technical Writers: User manuals, help guides, and technical documentation.
- Sales and Marketing Writers: Sales proposals, datasheets, marketing brochures.
- Medical Writers: Protocols, clinical study reports, investigator brochures.
- Instructional Designers: Training guides, course curriculums, course assessments.
- Other Writers: Policy documents, audit reports, legal documents, and more.
You mention SmartDocs integrates into Microsoft Word. What does that mean?
The SmartDocs user interface lives entirely inside of Microsoft Word. With SmartDocs,
you never need to leave Microsoft Word to create, find, or reuse content in your documentation.
How does SmartDocs facilitate content reuse?
SmartDocs provides numerous features to support content reuse, including reusable snippets,
reusable variables, conditional text, document snapshots, and document assembly. Please visit
our Features and Benefits page for more
information.
Compatibility Questions
My organization has thousands of legacy Microsoft Word documents. Can I use SmartDocs with these documents?
Yes. SmartDocs is fully compatible with any document that can be opened in Microsoft Word.
What if all of my content authors do not have SmartDocs installed?
Can they still collaborate on documents that were authored using SmartDocs?
Yes. SmartDocs and non-SmartDocs users can freely collaborate on the same documents with no fear of
incompatibilities or lost content.
We don't store our documents in Microsoft SharePoint. Can we continue to store our documents in
the same place we store them today (e.g., a file share, a document management system, etc.)?
Yes. SmartDocs works independent of your document storage location, so you can store your documents
anywhere. Whether you store your documents on your local computer, a network file share, or a document management system,
SmartDocs is fully compatible.
System Requirements Questions
What versions of Microsoft Word does SmartDocs support?
SmartDocs 2.0 supports Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. If you use Word 2003, please contact us as older versions
SmartDocs have Microsoft Word 2003 support.
What operating systems does SmartDocs support?
SmartDocs supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
Does SmartDocs require a server infrastructure?
SmartDocs uses Microsoft SharePoint to centralize the storage of your reusable content.
SmartDocs supports SharePoint 2007 and 2010 and works with SharePoint out-of-the-box,
meaning absolutely no customizations or installations need to be applied to the SharePoint
server.
As mentioned above, your documents do not need to be stored in SharePoint. SharePoint is only
used to centralize the storage your ogranziation's reusable chunks of content.
For organizations that do not use SharePoint, ThirtySix Software can host your SmartDocs SharePoint
repository you. Please contact us to learn more.