Collaboration with non-Windows SMEs?

[sdcinvan]

Hello all,

It's been a long time since I talked about this topic and I was reminded about this pain-point with the latest Windows-only release of Contributor.

Since way back in version 8, I have requested that MadCap consider making an OS agnostic version of Contributor. It is very frustrating that I have cannot offer any means of allowing my many subject matter experts to edit/review Flare draft content, directly from the Flare source files. The reason is because almost all of my reviewers are using either Linux or Mac computers and it would be quite unreasonable to force them to install a virtual Windows and Contributor. As a tedious but effective solution, I build my draft content in Google Docs and invite my SMEs to review and edit the content inside GDocs. It is significant additional effort to sync content between GDocs and Flare but at least I have satisfied my team by allowing real-time collaboration.

I think it would be a huge asset if MadCap developed a web review service based on Contributor.

What are your thoughts? If you agree, please take a few moments to submit a request to MadCap, here: https://www.madcapsoftware.com/feedback ... quest.aspx


Thank you,
Shawn

[sdcinvan]

In the meantime, I was thinking about the possibility of installing MadCap Contributor on a remote access Windows server that any SME can easily access from any type of workstation. Has anyone tried this?

Of course, it must be as easy to access as the current GDocs so that I don't inhibit reviews.