The world loves Microsoft Word. As part of the Microsoft 365 suite, it’s used by over a million companies worldwide, and accounts for around 50% of the global market. It’s now so synonymous with text editing, that people often use ‘Word’ to refer to any generic text editor.

Of course, MS Word is popular for many reasons. So for content-focused publishers – in fields such as law and education – it makes perfect sense to allow authors to work within Word. The challenge is how to seamlessly integrate MS Word with a user-friendly editorial platform. Enter PublishOne.

SNAP Innovation Sales and Project Manager Robert Janoska explains what makes PublishOne and Microsoft Word such a powerful combination.

A text editor that sets the standard

The Microsoft Corporation launched Word in 1983. Since then, it’s continuously evolved with technology and user needs, setting the industry standard for text editing across home, educational, and commercial markets. Today, Word has multiple functions that support professional writers.

In the professional market, in particular, writers are passionate about their specialist topics, often writing around their duties. So if a publisher requires them to work in another text editor, it can be a problem. If you’ve ever switched from one Operating System (OS) to another – say iOS to Android on a mobile phone – then you’ll know that there’s always a learning curve. Both offer similar functionality, but you have to learn all the subtle differences to get it working the way you want.

The same applies to text editors. They may share functionality, but the way it’s activated or used is different. For writers, this creates an unnecessary layer of re-training. At the same time, publishing companies need to account for protracted onboarding to help authors get started.

Writers feel at home with Word for a number of reasons. For one, it’s easy to use and has an intuitive user interface (UI). The depth of features is also important – spelling and grammar checkers, study tips, dictation, voice commands, and even transcription. Put simply, MS Word can be as simple or as complex as users need it to be.

But that’s not all. Microsoft Word also works perfectly with PublishOne – an innovative software solution for content creation and publishing.

One solution for content creation and management

PublishOne is a cloud-based platform that makes it possible to create, manage and distribute content efficiently. With PublishOne you can create content in different formats such as PDF, HTML, XML, or E-Pub – and publish it across various channels, such as websites, apps, or e-books.

Writers will be glad to know it works seamlessly with MS Word. At the same time, it gives publishers the ability to reuse and update content without recreating it. In fact, it’s possible to automatically adapt content to different target groups, making changes to the language or layout.

Template functionality enables publishers to standardize content created in Word and held in PublishOne at the click of a button. Not only do you retain all of MS Word’s functionality, the platform also surfaces important document information, such as tracked changes, without actually going into a document.

Built on Microsoft Azure, PublishOne makes it easy to securely collaborate on content with colleagues, external partners, and authors. For publishers delivering the same content in multiple languages, implementation partner SNAP Innovation can integrate a PublishOne add-on that provides AI-based translation services and dictionaries in over 100 languages.

A winning combination for writers and publishers

For anyone who works professionally with text, pairing Microsoft Word with PublishOne enables them to create, manage, and publish quality content without investing a lot of time or money. It’s especially useful for publishers looking to consolidate and migrate large volumes of content from multiple imprints or locations into one system.

What really stands out is the seamless conversion between MS Word (DOCX) and the industry standard XML format. Authors can work in their favorite text editor, and publishers can handle the same content from the technical side in an XML editor.

Discover the benefits of integrating Microsoft Word with PublishOne. Contact us