What is an editorial system?

An editing system for technical documentation is software that supports editors in systematically and structurally storing the content of documentation, i.e. text, tables and illustrations, and making it available for use with as little redundancy as possible.

In addition to the actual content management, an editorial system also has a process control function: in addition to the process for capturing and modularising new content, there are other important processes:

• the updating of existing content
• variant control in the publication
• and also the management of translations, at least by providing appropriate interfaces.

What is an editorial system not?

An editorial system is not a content management system (CMS) as the term is generally understood today, i.e. software for generating online content on the basis of databases (such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and others).
Nevertheless, there are many solutions that combine the functions of the classic editorial system with those of publication in electronic media.

Similarly, an editorial system is not a document management system (DMS) for the electronic capture, processing, management and archiving of documents such as e-mails, invoices, contracts, etc.

An editing system only marginally fulfils the functions of a translation management system (TMS) if it either manages translated content or if it offers interfaces to the actual translation workflow.

Source: Hennig/Tjarks-Sobhani (Hrsg.) Content Management und Technische Kommunikation, Schriften zur technischen Kommunikation 18, tekom