“As a user I know all my changes are kept safe” is the third of 27 requirements that we’ve studied as part of our benchmark on XML editors.

Reliable authoring tools

Knowing for sure that hard work will not be lost is an important factor in how an author trusts his/her tools. Losing work due to a computer crash, lost connection or simple forgetfulness demotivates users to pick up the pen again.

Automatic save after every edit

The average rating on this requirement was 3.5, with Google Docs scoring the maximum of 5 points. Desktop tools for DITA and other authoring solutions stick to the conventional “save” method, which saves files onto a harddisk. Browser applications increasingly use automatic saves to synchronize a file between the user and a server. The Google Docs automatic save function is the shining example of how a large document can be synchronized to a safe location after every edit.

Automatic and manual save

FontoXML immediately saves changes to a cloud server, which takes the hassle of managing files out of the author’s hands. Authors who like the extra confirmation can save work manually, or download it to disk.